Green House

Green House is a renovated and extended terraced house in Croydon, designed by Brighton-based FAB Architects. The scheme grew out of a client-focused process partly inspired by a love of trains expressed by the client's son, and was developed through digital models and VR. It draws on simplified locomotive and traditional English train station tropes to create a playful family home that uses a tall, twin-pitched roof to maximise volume and light.

Keen to create a bright, warm space, FAB Architects worked through a rich timber palette. Tongue-and-groove larch cladding wraps the extension externally and is echoed inside through plywood batons and CNC cut plywood bench seating. From the street, the house gives little away. Beyond the front door, glimpses of the open living space appear past a plywood re-clad staircase, and a hidden sliding door reveals a sequence of arches that draw the eye through a porthole window to the garden and garden studio beyond.

A large L-shaped kitchen sits to the left of the living area, anchored by a generous island for food preparation and informal dining and lit by polished concrete pendants. Thin profile white quartz worktops with sporadic dark grey veins sit atop deep blue timber cabinet doors, each fitted with a single flat round oak handle hand-turned by a small Brighton joinery and individually hand-painted. Elongated flat matt ceramic tiles in a herringbone splashback contrast the deep blue cabinets and stainless appliances, and mirror the pattern of the engineered timber flooring that unifies the rear of the house.

A washroom and utility tucked beneath the staircase is concealed within a curved grey cupboard with plywood batons. The cloakroom adds warmth through a bespoke bamboo vanity unit with handcrafted oak door furniture. Arched internal openings work with the building structure to divide the living space into four zones — dining, sitting, kitchen and utility — open but not open-plan, so a sense of social connection and light is kept across the floor.

The extension itself rises to nearly 3.8 m at the apex of its twin-pitched roof. CNC cut plywood seating with pink velvet upholstery lines one side, with a semi-circular void in the wall connecting through to the kitchen and a skylight overhead. Opposite, an arched bay extrudes into the garden to create a cosy timber nook with a circular porthole window. Walls are clad in plywood strips while the ceiling and end walls stay white, with plaster wall lights washing the tall roof space after dark. The extension's roof is planted with wildflower sedum, punctuated by industrial dome skylights that bring seasonal glimpses of flowers and steady daylight into the room.

Sliding doors at the rear open the extension to an intimate, secluded courtyard garden enclosed by the warm tone of the slatted larch cladding. The garden studio repeats the playful language of the extension, with a matching arched bay and planted roof. A circular roof light and a circular house-facing bay window sit either side of a generous office space, and a concealed door within the facade leads to a shed for gardening equipment and children's toys. By day the spaces are bright and timber-rich; by night the garden is lit indirectly through the glazing and a pair of black and copper tubular wall lights, leaving a series of connected but distinct rooms that read differently across the day.

Architecture by FAB Architects, project architects Will Fisher and Mike Bell. Photography by Gareth Gardner.