Bladerunner House

Bladerunner House is a side-return extension and ground-floor remodel in Greater London by Bradley Van Der Straeten. The brief was to open up the existing layout into a single, flexible open-plan space while threading the clients' love of shuttered concrete (drawn from the National Theatre and the Barbican) through the heart of the house.

A new in-situ concrete blade wall runs between the original corridor and the middle room, opening the plan and giving the ground floor a visible spine. In the kitchen, vertical concrete blades sit beneath a large rooflight, breaking direct sunlight and casting a moving pattern of light and shadow into the dining area. Slim-profile Maxlight sliding doors at the rear soften the boundary between kitchen and garden.

Room zones are read through level changes and a tight material palette rather than partitions. A terrazzo island and worktops are paired with a matching terrazzo floor and charred black-timber boards in the dining area. A red structural column, painted in a bold Bauhaus primary, acts as a focal point against the otherwise black-and-white scheme. A massive terrazzo step marks the threshold between the original house and the lowered new extension, giving the kitchen and dining room additional head height.

Designed by George Bradley and Jessica Williamson at Bradley Van Der Straeten, with Ewald Van Der Straeten as project director. Photography by French + Tye.