Neil Dusheiko Architects have redesigned Brackenbury House in London for a young family with children.
Project description: We have completed a radical remodelling of a Victorian House in Hammersmith. The design adds a new basement under the existing house and a rear extension, which provides expanded living and kitchen space, a home cinema, playroom and guest bedroom for a growing family.
The basement area is lit by large light wells and skylights cut into the floors above. All levels were opened out to allow the existing rooms of the Victorian house to give way to an open plan interior on the ground floor and tall loft like spaces in the bedrooms on the upper floors.
The kitchen and living rooms open out to a south-facing patio, planted with a scented herb and flower garden. A new polished concrete floor ties the kitchen and garden together with long timber boards linking the living and dining rooms.
The conceptual approach was to create a calm atmospheric interior using carved out spaces that allow the pared down use of materials to have a monolithic feel.
The new extension to the rear links into the old brickwork through a curved wall suspended above the ground on a completely glazed set of folding doors. The bathrooms are top lit by generous skylights linking the bathing spaces to the sky above. The existing ceilings were removed in the upper floors and roof voids expressed – creating large expanses of vertical space which was previously unused.