To accommodate a large busy family, this semi-detached house was expanded into its twin, creating a much larger home while allowing for the future re-division of the building into two homes again. From the street, this expansion is discrete, maintaining the original streetscape and scale. On entering, views through the house open up - the scale shifts, the orientation changes to focus on a central courtyard and materials become more robust as the building merges with its garden.

Concrete cassettes are inserted into the rear of the original house - framing and screening views and channelling daylight deep into the plan. The central courtyard is in turn framed by new and old rear wings; buildings in the round, enveloped by the garden. The garden, designed with landscape architect Emily Simpson, is peaceful, playful and practical; the calm oasis through which the spaces of the home are both connected and screened.