Nicholson House

London

The client wanted to extend his 19th-century house in Canonbury in North London, to create a new living space that would relate directly to the large garden. Previously the internal layout of the house effectively turned its back on the garden with the main living room one level up from the garden and at the front of the house. In addition to the new living space the client wanted a utility room and a new entrance hall at garden level linking the new accommodation to the existing house.

The new living space is a simple steel and glass structure. The flat roof is finished in concrete paving slabs to provide an external terrace for the first floor accommodation.

One of the detailed objectives of the new building was to create an internal space that felt part of the garden. This has partly been achieved by using very large sheets of double glazing, and partly by omitting the frames for the full height iroko external doors and ventilation panels. The normal stops and seals are incorporated into the end of the double glazing units to reduce the glazing sight lines to a minimum.