Rees Architects designed the extension and internal alterations to this Victorian terrace house in Walthamstow, London. We were also responsible for planning, building regulations, interior design and kitchen design for the build.
We re-configured the ground floor layout so that when you enter the house you have a direct view of the garden from the entrance hall, welcoming and drawing you further in to the home. This line of vision is also at play from the living room where you can see all the way into the garden framed by the picture window seat. The interconnection between the front and rear without being completely open plan makes for a happy medium; there are small intimate spaces, but you’re never cut off from any other activity going on across the ground floor. This innate sense of flow was foundational for the rest of the design.
The key to a clean minimal design is keeping all structural elements hidden, so we gave special attention to hiding window frames as well as rainwater pipes and guttering within the structure. The steelwork and door frame over the rear patio doors are cleverly hidden behind the brickwork above. We had retained some of the existing bricks from the removed side wall to rebuild this wall above, a bit of visual trickery that makes it unnoticeable. This finish looks deceptively simple and clean in the photos, but it’s a particularly tricky design detail that required a lot of forethought to be carried out successfully.
