Highbury

Date: 2025

Status: Ongoing

A subdivided Highbury villa and a project with two clear aims: to add a third bedroom to a landlocked lower-ground flat with limited façade access, and to increase ceiling heights to evoke the volume of a Victorian villa—no small task beneath several storeys of neighbours. Working closely with the client, we tested various layouts, concentrating on an existing single-storey side extension. Our proposal reshapes the roofscape with two pop-up lanterns: one creating a sky-lit third bedroom, the other glazed and lifting the ceiling of a relocated kitchen to notably generous proportions.

Moving the kitchen reshapes its relationship with the living spaces, previously cut off from one another. The kitchen now opens onto an east-facing courtyard, drawing in morning light and turning the daytime spaces into a double-aspect enfilade, while the living room remains in its original spot overlooking the generous rear garden. Its lower ceiling height now reads as intentionally cosy rather than constrained—a counterpoint to the tall, bright kitchen–diner.

Throughout, we sought to achieve the most with the least: minimal structural changes, a precise reorganisation of uses, strategic new connections, and natural light introduced wherever possible.