Open House
Robert Hirschfield Architects
An extensive redevelopment of an
Edwardian semi-detached house in
north London, dramatically re-ordering
rooms and extending the house to the
rear to meet the evolving needs of a
couple and their teenage children.
This large period house required
significant untangling from its
congested internal layout in order
to rationalize and re-configure its
interior spaces. It also had a lack of
connectedness to it’s generous outdoor
spaces and an under-exploited loft area.
The original living and service areas
of the house were dark, cramped and
restrictive to family shared spaces. Our
solution was to reconfigure the layout
of each floor and expand the house
to create a spacious living area to the
rear of the ground floor with a large
glazed structure that frames the newly
landscaped garden and terrace.
The re-configured floors have given the
family generous sized rooms with an
interesting play of level changes and
volumes that can now be fully shared
and enjoyed. These are connected by a
new helical staircase with a ribbon-like
handrail that curves as it ascends in
parallel with the central double-height
void.
The new loft bedroom is the proud
possessor of its own private recessed
terrace that has cleverly and discretely