Hackney Downs

A series of small yet significant spatial changes were used to unlock the cramped and monotonous spaces of the house, giving long views, rotated aspects, and more connected living spaces for the clients’ family. We rearranged the stair to a more compact winding layout, allowing the rooms at both levels to be reconfigured, and expanding the kids bedrooms by claiming space from the first floor landing. At ground floor a dedicated office was carved out behind the stair, with a new window looking out to the front door. The wall between kitchen and dining room was removed to give space for a large sociable dining table - the only structural alteration. The new living room extension is tucked against the garden wall, partially offset from the house to maintain the maximum garden area, connected though an existing structural opening. The design of the extension is a personal and particular addition for the clients, but also a response to the clunkiness of the surrounding context - a patchwork of brick, render, and metal cladding of early 2000s residential blocks. The extension expresses the necessary layers of this contemporary construction, avoiding bespoke craftsmanship with elements put together in their most simple way. Character and joy are created by accentuating the legibility of the build up using bold paint colours: The timber structure of the extension is painted a warm comic-book yellow, the thick band of insulation is green, cut ends of rafters are red. The side and rear of the extension is covered in grey fibre cement cladding, installed in large overlapping panels as if giant hung slates or weatherboarding - offering a neighbourly greeting to garden shed and the crude panelling of the surroundings with equal courtesy.