Somerfield Road

The property is a Victorian, end of terrace house, on the corner of Somerfield and Wilberforce Roads in North London.

The four-storey building was converted into two maisonettes in the 1990’s and is now home to two families who wanted to improve their living spaces.

At 32A, a young family with two nearly teenage children, needed more room in their small ground and first floor maisonette. The children were sharing one of the two bedrooms and needed rooms of their own.

While at 32B, the owners of the upper maisonette, a couple, wanted some outdoor space and gained it in the form of a second floor roof terrace.

The works included enlarging the existing ground floor extension, infilling a corner by the boundary wall, to create a more open plan kitchen-dining family room, opening onto the garden, with new sliding doors.

The first floor extension took the shape of a lightweight zinc clad box with contemporary bay windows. This was designed to contrast with the existing house while remaining subordinate to it, allowing the original form to be clearly read.

Sustainable 'green' features include a sedum roof at first floor level and planters for the second floor terrace.