A quirky Edwardian house designed by a Dutch architect was designated a protected structure. The clients are a family with young children and needed to increase the accommodation by excavating the basement of the house and building a new kitchen extension. A common problem for terraced houses is how to use the L-shaped external space that is created by the returns to the rear.
This addition therefore uses an L as a motif which repeats several times in both plan and section. By turning the glazing over the top corner of the wall and onto the roof, it is possible to see the full height of the steeple of Beechwood Avenue Church from the centre of the room. At the corner cantilever the sliding doors, which are bottom-rolling to avoid overhead tracks, open back to engage the L-shaped terrace. The parquet floor to the interior continues the pattern of the brick, which is used for all of the external surfaces.