Facet House is a mid terrace, Victorian era, house in Queens Park, London. Our clients are a young family that enjoy cooking and entertaining at home. And often working from there too.
Prior to our client’s purchase of the house it had been vacant for 2+ years and was in an advanced state of disrepair. The project involves a whole house comprehensive ‘back to brick’ refurbishment throughout, alongside a side infill extension, loft conversion and extension of the loft over the first floor outrigger’s flat roof.
The side infill extension helps to create a better relationship between the cooking/ dining spaces and the small south facing garden, whilst bringing natural daylight deep into the plan and the kitchen via a large rooflight spanning the length of the extension.
The loft conversion with rooftop extension accommodates a new master bedroom with en suite bathroom at the top of the house.
The material palette is restrained largely to Oak (cladding to extension, new staircase, kitchen and joinery throughout) and Concrete (kitchen area). Colours are muted and neutral, instilling a sense of calm.
The side infill extension projects a minimal 30cm beyond the rear building line. This simple move helps to unify the rear elevation at ground floor, articulated as hit and miss Oak battens across the full width of the house in a faceted form with a deep overhang above the glazed doors. This geometry works to shade the South facing glazing during the summer months when the sun is high in the sky, mitigating overheating.
By building up the top of the boundary wall to the extension in vertical glazing, as opposed to solid wall (thereby creating a glazing to glazing junction with the rooflight) we managed to gain extra height beyond that which the local authority design guide stipulates. This, combined with lowering the floor level, helped create a generous floor to ceiling height inside the new kitchen and an expansive sense of space in an otherwise constrained plan.
Team:
Architects: MATA Architects
Architect project team: Dan Marks, Alice Thompson, Simona Uzunova
Structural engineer: Float Structures
Approved inspector: London building control
Main contractor: JK Construction
Joinery: MTM Joinery
Photographer: French + Tye
Materials Used:
External walls: Solid Oak
Paints: Paint & Paper Library
Fenland Oak Classic Brushed & White in 190mm linear planks (by Reeve Wood)
Flooring: Poured concrete by Concrete Flooring Company (kitchen and garden)
Lighting:
UT Spots (FLOS)
Shadow dots no trim (FLOS)
Stripe linear pendants (Light-Point)
Void Round 80 recessed (Astro)
Orca Round 90 LED (Astro)
Mini Globall wall (FLOS)
OK Light (FLOS)
Nelson saucer pendant (Herman Miller)
Kitchen: Custom joinery by MTM Joinery, internal carcasses in eggerboard, external door/ drawer faces in oak veneer finished in Osmo white oil and wax
Counter tops, island and splashbacks in concrete (by Nedev Design)
Bathrooms:
Fixtures & fittings from Lusso Stone in brushed stainless steel
Concrete sinks (Nedev design) Micro cement (Nedev design)
Custom joinery by MTM Joinery, internal carcasses in eggerboard, external door/ drawer faces in MDF factory spray painted
Family bathroom tiles; Blue Alalpardo porcelain tiles by Bert & May XXX
Glazing: Sliding glazed doors, rooflights by Euro Windows, UK
