Award-winning firm Alison Brooks Architects (ABA) gives a contemporary twist to a classic Victorian villa. Located in north London, the Lens House was designed as an extension to a nineteenth century house for a client involved in photography and design. The extension features two projecting tapered volumes that wrap around the house, offering a spectacular view of the garden.
Image © Paul Riddle
The new extension was designed with a dual purpose. The first volume that wraps around the brick walls at the side and rear of the house features a home office, while the second volume extends at the back to increase the size of the existing living room.
Image © Paul Riddle
The extension was designed as a series of large apertures framed and connected by large trapezoidal planes. These openings capture light throughout the day, draw the garden into the house, and frame precise views of a spectacular walnut tree.
Image © Paul Riddle
The uniqueness of the volumes is further enhanced by the lack of traditional windows. ABA treated each plane of the volume as either fully solid or fully glazed, thus creating “an architecture without mass and weight”. In order to achieve this, ABA lowered the existing basement and excavated a new sunken courtyard that forms the street-facing office entrance. The new lower ground makes the connection between the new office extension and the main house. Looking over the garden, the new living room extension “rests lightly on the ground with undercut walls to avoid the walnut tree’s roots”.
Image © Paul Riddle
This approach creates an architecture without mass and weight. It is more like the folded surfaces of origami. Where the side and rear projections converge, seven surfaces come together at one point.
Image © Paul Riddle
The interior of the house, as one would expect, is flooded with natural light. The geometry of the roof further enhances this through carefully placed skylights that funnel light into the space throughout the day.
Image © Paul Riddle
Image © Paul Riddle
By extending the existing living room, ABA opened a new double height volume that seamlessly connects the original upper ground floor entrance hall and the kitchen/dining space. The large projecting bay window was designed to focus on the walnut tree like a picture frame. Beneath it a new wall of glass sliding doors connect the dining room to a small outdoor patio.
Image © Paul Riddle
Image © Paul Riddle
Image © Paul Riddle
Image © Paul Riddle
The folded geometries of the extensions continue into the house to become surfaces punctuated by steel fireplaces, a cantilevered kitchen and other ‘inhabited walls’; a variety of framed settings for modern family life.
Image © Paul Riddle
Drawing courtesy of Alison Brooks Architects
Drawing courtesy of Alison Brooks Architects
Drawing courtesy of Alison Brooks Architects
Drawing courtesy of Alison Brooks Architects
Drawing courtesy of Alison Brooks Architects
Drawing courtesy of Alison Brooks Architects
Facts:
Architect: Alison Brooks Architects Ltd London
Team: Alison Brooks, Alex Warnock-Smith, Rob Liedgens, JamesTaylor
Location: Islington, London
Type Of Project: Residential
Main contractor: EBCO, Steve Epstein
Structural Engineer: Orla Kelly Ltd
Conservation Consultant: Hutton & Rostron
Client: Private Family
M&E Consultant: RHB Partnership LLP
Quantity surveyor: Adair Associates
Start/Completion Dates: 2006/2012
Size: House 400 m² Extension 70 m²
Project Value: £700,000
Quantity surveyor: Adair Associates
Photo Credits: Paul Riddle: Photographer
*All images and information courtesy of Alison Brooks Architects Ltd London.
