Belsize Architects' Dramatic Refurb of Hampstead Resideance.

UK based Belsize Architects do their thing in London.

The property, located on a leafy uphill road next to Hampstead village, was comprised originally of a main house and an adjacent coach house which had been joined together in a conversion carried out before Belsize Architects were approached by the Client.

There were a number of serious technical problems with the converted property: both the design and the earlier work carried out were of a very poor quality, and low ceilings represented a considerable drawback especially at ground floor.

The Client decided to start again. The brief was to change the property to a quality home, modern and enjoyable, to extend both ground and first floors and to integrate the re-landscaped rear garden with the new interiors.

The Planners did not originally agree to the rethink of the entire rear elevation and did not want to allow any increase in size as the property had already been increased by the previous conversion.After a lengthy period of negotiation with Camden Planning Department, most of the proposed extensions and modifications were eventually granted permission.

The main architectural interventions to the exterior of the property comprise of a new extension and remodelling of the rear elevation, and a new entrance porch to the front.

Internally, the ground and first floor layouts were changed extensively.The ground floor with low ceilings had the floor lowered by three steps to gain adequate headroom for the large connected spaces created in the new layout.A large addition to the living space was built in structural glass to let the garden become an integral part of the interiors.Living room, dining room and kitchen are connected to allow the space to flow through and the light coming from the garden through the glazed extension to diffuse softly.A new double-height entrance hall entered from a glazed porch has been formed, where a walnut timber stairway flies over the entry on a partially glazed walkway leading to the upper floors.

Dark slate and light travertine mark the difference in level between the original floor and the new lower level.