Dukes House

Dukes House is an Edwardian terrace in Muswell Hill, set in the shadow of Alexandra Palace, refurbished by Paul Archer Design for a family whose children had grown up. The brief was to bring the house into line with the next phase of family life rather than chase a complete reinvention.

The architectural move at the rear is deliberately quiet. The ground floor opens up into a single kitchen, dining and living space that runs through to the garden. Crisp execution is what gives the project its calm: the new extension's ceiling meets the existing ceilings cleanly, with no shadow-throwing downstands, and the joinery lines through the room so the eye travels uninterrupted. That restraint lets the carefully chosen interior pieces do the work.

A continuous band of glazing runs the full width of the rear extension and turns the corner, with a second run at high level along the side infill that frames new views of Alexandra Palace. The corner detail, developed with the supplier, lifts the structure visually so the extension appears to float above the threshold between inside and out.

Across the rest of the house the existing fabric was restored and the building services renewed. Insulation, windows and mechanical services were all upgraded as far as the existing fabric would allow.

The garden was re-landscaped as three terraces. The lowest extends the kitchen and dining space for alfresco use; the middle is a planted band of greenery; the upper carries a vertical-timber-clad studio that runs the full width of the plot, giving the client a dedicated room for painting and music while echoing the timber fencing along the boundary.

Project completed 2017. Budget GBP 450,000.

Architect: Paul Archer Design. Structural engineer: TZG Partnership. Photography: Will Pryce.