Camden Townhouse

A bold reimagining of a terraced house in Camden for a growing family looking to introduce light, space and exciting materials into their home.

The kitchen is the centre of any family home, and its existing home – in a damp, confused basement –made for a miserable existence. The new scheme creates light-filled, open space at the lowest level of the house and opens it onto an exotic terraced garden designed by FFLO. Space and light are modernist touchstones, and the client’s fondness for concrete added to a thoroughly modernist brief.

To create a warm, comfortable space utlising a hard-nosed palette of materials was achieved by incorporating warm coloured concrete against reclaimed brickwork and dramatic planting to soften the main family room, with extra space for children to unwind. Bespoke furniture makes use of leftover space to add a micro study to this multifunctional space.

Second and third floor bedrooms provide living bedrooms for the children, to sleep, work and hang out in. Raised beds with workspace below are hardly new, but a fresh take on this sensible use of tall Georgian space is inspired by the cunning section of Wells Coates Yeomans Row apartment. The bedrooms are planned with longevity in mind, in expectation of boomerang offspring returning to the family home after University. The project didn’t add any additional space to the building by extension, but rather by fresh thinking and open plan design to create a much greater sense of family space.