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Architects: nimtim architects
- Area: 52 m²
- Year: 2018
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Photographs:French + Tye
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Manufacturers: Alhambra Tiles, Fineline Aluminium, Forticrete, Glass Block Technology, Mortise Concrete
Text description provided by the architects. nimtim were approached by a young family who had recently bought an end-of-terrace Victorian house in Stoke Newington. The house was in a state of disrepair and priority was placed on upgrading and creating an open plan ground floor family space. The existing lean-to conservatory was demolished to allow for a new side extension. Nimtim introduced a double height internal courtyard to the center of the house with a glass block wall to one side and an opening roof light above.
This space acts as a focal point for the entire house, organizing and choreographing the spaces around it: bringing light and ventilation to the parts of the house that might otherwise be dark and airless. The courtyard is expressed differently; borrowing materials from the garden to distinguish it from the living spaces, reinforcing its identity as a conceptually external space. Cost effective and robust materials, more often associated with industrial rather than domestic architecture, are used to create a quality of warmth and lightness.
The structural walls of the extension are all built in grey cement block with exposed aggregates - matte on the outside and polished internally. The sand-blasted glass blocks create a diffused light internally and emphasize the translucency of the space. These glow at night from the internally lit space, illuminating and breaking up the exposed side flank wall. European Oak flooring, terracotta tiles, and the soft pink concrete kitchen worktops also add warmth and an ethereal quality to the interior space.
Use of contrasting materials, such as the earthy texture of the oak and terracotta used for the floor and light bright materials, such as glass and polished concrete blocks used for the envelope, work together to form a harmonious and contemporary palette. At the rear, a large face-fixed sliding door allows most of the rear elevation to open out onto the new garden. The project has created a new family home that is bold and honest in its use of materials whilst retaining a sense of warmth and domesticity which the clients and their young children have embraced.
