Neil Dusheiko Architects - Brackenbury House

Neil Dusheiko Architects

• 2015

A house in a conservation area has been remodelled to create a light filled basement with pop-up cinema, sky lit bathrooms plus a curved brick wall tying the old to new.


*Winner AJ Retrofit Awards 2016 - House over £500K

*Shortlisted New London Architecture - Don't Move Improve! 2016

This project is a radical remodelling of a house in a Conservation area for a young family. The design adds a new basement and a rear extension, which provides expanded living and kitchen space, sky lit sun-filled bathrooms, a home cinema, playroom and guest bedroom. We sought to create an innovative design – rethinking the basement typology in a contemporary way.

The ambitions for the project were high in terms of achieving open plan, visually connected spaces to allow for a greater sense of communication between the different rooms. The key strategy was also the connection to nature through views and natural light.

The conceptual approach was to create a calm atmospheric interior using carved out spaces that allow the pared down use of materials to have a monolithic feel.

The new basement area is lit by large skylights cut into the floors above. All levels are opened out to allow the existing rooms of the Victorian house to give way to an open plan interior on the ground floor and tall loft like spaces upstairs. The kitchen and living rooms open out to a south-west facing patio, creating a strong connection of house and garden.

The new extension to the rear links into the old brickwork through a curved wall suspended above the ground above a completely glazed set of folding doors. The bathrooms are top lit by generous skylights linking bathing spaces to the sky above. The existing ceilings were removed upstairs creating tall vertical spaces with curved ceilings.