No Ordinary House

: London

Like many 1920s houses, this double-fronted home in Muswell Hill had been extended haphazardly over the years, preventing any natural flow and blocking light from the centre of the house. In close collaboration with our client and Interior Designer, Nichola McKerrow Todd of ‘No Ordinary House’, we developed a brief and a strategy for creating a beautiful, joyful, and sociable lifelong home that’s future-proofed for her family.

Our first move was to unlock the ground floor by establishing two clear sight lines. One leads straight through the house from the front door to the bottom of the garden, and the second looks up – with the help of a new galleried staircase – through the upper storeys to the sky. These sight lines allow the inside spaces to flow naturally together, while forming a meaningful connection between inside and outside. Alongside the new basement and rear extension, the refurbishment of the original house sought to clarify, expand and modernise the spaces improving the fit and flow for contemporary living demands and upgrading the existing building fabric to improve thermal performance. A combination of measures including new double glazed aluminium windows and the rebuilding of the main roof raised the SAP rating of the house from E(41) to B(84). To future-proof the house, the new basement, although it’s currently fitted out as a gym, screening room and bar, has been designed to become a self-contained apartment allowing multiple generations to live comfortably under the same roof.