Highgate House

This house extension improves a late Victorian property in Highgate

The design stems from a desire to create an inverted architecture and landscape: one that might appear to have been excavated from an existing solid rather than constructed from the ground up.

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The rear extension creates a large family room, with open plan kitchen and dining areas. Colour matched mortar throughout unifies red brick surfaces, suggesting continuous volumes by blurring the distinction between individual bricks. A limewash treatment to interior surfaces gives further consistency.

Brick extends into a new basement extension and also forms the garden landscaping, linking interior and exterior. A void creates a generous double height volume to the basement, flooding the space with natural light. A lightwell is also created under the front bay window. The large basement creates three new bedrooms, a second family bathroom, utility and playroom.

A timber and terrazzo ‘tray’ is inserted at ground floor and forms the kitchen and joinery. Colour matched rose balustrades complete the limited material palette externally. The formal reception room to the front of the property is left as a distinct space and here original Victorian details are refurbished.

Project Architect:
Ben Ridley, Amrit Marway

Structural Engineer:
Structure Mode

Location:
Talbot Road, Highgate N6