Library House

A 120 m² rear extension and refurbishment of a Victorian terraced house in Kensal Rise, north-west London, completed in 2019. Mitchell + Corti Architects took on a project led by two clients, both historians, who set two clear ambitions: rework the connection between the house and its sunken rear garden, and make space for a substantial book collection that needed a proper home.

The headline gesture is a double-height open-plan living space at the rear, anchored by a floor-to-ceiling bookcase set into a sunken zone and crowned by a large circular skylight. The skylight draws daylight into the volume and emphasises the room's height. Outside, the new extension is clad in compressed, reconstituted natural basalt panels, an environmentally friendly product chosen to meet both the sustainability brief and a tight construction budget.

Material choices throughout follow a minimal intervention approach: dark paints, contrasting blocks of colour, and sustainable or reused materials and fittings. Black and white tiles, used in standard sizes, are arranged into bespoke patterns that add a playful note to otherwise everyday rooms. Touches of orange and blue pulled from the original stained glass panel in the refurbished front door punctuate the otherwise reduced palette. Every corner was planned in detail, with cost-effective details substituted where bespoke work would have stretched the budget.

Credits: architects Ester Corti and Andrew Mitchell of Mitchell + Corti Architects, structural engineer Mitchinson Macken, photography by Luke Weller.