A House For A Gardener

A side and rear extension to a Victorian mid-terrace house in the Stroud Green Conservation Area of Haringey, London, designed around a much-loved garden cultivated over more than 27 years. The clients, a couple working in property development with one a keen gardener, asked for a sequence of living spaces that would keep the planting in constant view across a tight urban site.

The expanded ground floor wraps around the rear garden and an internal courtyard, so greenery is always within sight. Oak-clad beams span the full breadth of the new kitchen and dining area, drawing the eye out towards the garden through sliding glass doors. Expressing these structural members gave the practice extra head height and became fundamental to the architectural language of the extension. The same oak cladding extends seamlessly into a bay window projecting over a fish pond, and rises into the wells of the frameless skylights that make up more than half of the new roof.

The warmth of the timber is mirrored in the neutral terrazzo on the kitchen island and countertops, and in muted green cabinetry. At the heart of the home, a winter garden sits beneath an entirely glazed roof, pulling natural light and planting between the new kitchen and dining space and the study and lounge at the front of the house. Ochre floor tiles carry the oak tone through the space; gloss white wall tiles bounce light around it. Automated skylights regulate the courtyard temperature, and a built-in irrigation system tends to the plants when the owners are away.

Glass swing doors with black Crittall-style frames let the winter garden be combined with or separated from the adjacent rooms, supporting a broken-plan layout that varies the use of space. Sightlines from the entrance hall open onto both gardens, and a new WC and basement utility room sit off the same hall. Externally the addition reads as a pair of intersecting boxes, painted grey alongside an earlier extension topped by a planted terrace, so the work appears as a series of incremental layers rather than a single bolt-on. Touches of grey paintwork to the front of the house tie the project together.

Project size: 187 m2. Project budget: GBP 300,000. Completion: 2020. Building levels: 3.

Architect: Amos Goldreich Architecture. Director: Amos Goldreich. Associate: Joseph Brown. Project architect: Matthew Stewart. Stylist: Jemima Hetherington. PR: Celeste Bolte. Photography: Ollie Hammick.