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      Butterfly House renovation contrasts traditional features with modern materials

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      British studio Will Gamble Architects has modernised a heritage-listed terraced house in south London, adding a series of bespoke joinery elements that help to repurpose the existing living spaces.

      Known under the nickname Butterfly House, the project involved the refurbishment and reconfiguration of a Grade II-listed home in Lambeth for a couple of lawyers and their two young children.
      Will Gamble Architects has renovated the interior of Butterfly House in LondonThe building, which dates back to the 1840s, was originally conceived as a four-storey family home. But it had previously been knocked through to a neighbouring property and separated vertically into flats before being returned to a single dwelling.
      Will Gamble Architects was asked to create a contemporary home that makes the most of the available space while retaining the features and character of the existing architecture.
      Micro-cement covers the chimney breast in the dining room”Despite its heritage listing, the building had been messed around with and many of the original features were ripped out,” project architect Miles Kelsey told Dezeen.

      “We were required to preserve the proportions of any rooms that hadn’t changed too much and focused on identifying the minimal permissible alterations that could have the biggest spatial impact.”
      A built-in bench provides seating in the dining areaThe scheme returns Butterfly House to its original interior layout, with the kitchen and dining area on the ground floor, living spaces on the first floor and the bedrooms above.
      In order to adapt the existing floor plan to meet the clients’ needs, the architects repositioned some of the internal openings and introduced joinery elements with built-in doorways and storage.
      The original fireplace in the kitchen was retained”Because we were restricted in what we could do with a listed building, the bespoke joinery allowed us to maximise the potential of each space,” Kelsey added.
      “The joinery also enabled us to create a really clear and coherent design aesthetic throughout the project that responds to the clients’ request for natural and honest materials.”
      A white-painted stairway leads to the upper floorsA restrained, pared-back material palette is applied throughout the interior, with the oak joinery complemented by surfaces of micro-cement and stone.
      The neighbouring property was used as a reference for reinstating original features including the architraves and skirting, which stand out thanks to the sober treatment of the modern additions.

      Will Gamble Architects adds glass-walled extension to Pergola House in Leicestershire

      “Our idea was that the traditional decorative details should sit alongside more contemporary elements like the joinery to create a strong contrast between old and new,” said Kelsey.
      “We didn’t want to overly embellish the contemporary elements in order to maintain a sense of coherence across the whole project.”
      Light permeates the living room via its refurbished French doorsThe kitchen and dining room on the ground floor are linked by a large oak-framed opening that allows a view through the house towards the windows on the other side.
      A chimney breast in the dining room was reinstated and covered with a pale-grey micro-cement finish that is echoed in the dining table.
      Built-in storage on the other side of the room conceals a new doorBuilt-in cabinetry on either side of the chimney provides practical storage while a bench positioned along the opposite wall offers seating for the dining table.
      The living room on the first floor contains large refurbished French doors on one side and a newly instated door on the other side, set within a full-height storage element.
      The home’s custom joinery is made from warm oak woodThe pared-back material palette extends to the bedrooms on the two upper floors, where the oak joinery is used to create storage, headboards and partition walls such as the one separating the main bedroom from its en suite bathroom.
      Butterfly House takes its name from the typical roof form that tops the terraced property. It also references the bowed floors and ceilings uncovered during the renovation, which were remediated as part of the project.
      Wood also features in the bathrooms of Butterfly HouseWill Gamble founded his eponymous architecture and interiors studio in 2018. Based in Barnes, London, the firms works on commercial and residential projects, often involving the adaptation of historic structures for modern use.
      The practice was longlisted for emerging architecture studio of the year at the 2022 Dezeen Awards.
      Its previously completed projects include a glass-walled extension to a Georgian red-brick house and the transformation of a ruined 17-century parchment factory into a contemporary residence.
      The photography is by Nick Dearden.

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      Neil Dusheiko transforms London fashion showroom into light-filled home

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      Architect Neil Dusheiko has converted a showroom in west London into a bright, contemporary residence designed to meet the changing needs of its elderly owners.

      Nicknamed Danish Mews House for its minimalist Scandinavian furnishings, the home is tucked away in a quiet mews lane in the Lancaster Gate area.
      The mews house was once a showroom for the owner’s fashion companyAlthough in recent years the current owners repurposed the building as a showroom and warehouse for their clothing company, it was originally built as a Georgian coach house for storing horse-drawn carriages.
      Dusheiko’s primary concerns when converting the property into a home were bringing in more light, as well as making sure that the interior could support its inhabitants as they grow older.
      The main kitchen and sitting room are on the first floorFor this purpose, the house was fitted with a guest bedroom, kitchenette and toilet on the ground floor, which could ultimately be used by the inhabitants themselves in case their mobility becomes restricted.

      A lift was installed to provide easy access to the upper floors of the house, which can also be reached via a central staircase.
      Glazing in the stairwell brings light into the living spacesIn the stairwell, a newly installed skylight and a wall of gridded glazing on the first-floor landing allow sunlight to seep into the interior.
      Behind the glass partition lies a sitting room and a kitchen with oatmeal-coloured cabinetry as well as a small dining area.
      Light leaks in from a skylight at the top of the stairwell. Photo by Rachael SmithBoth here and throughout the rest of the home, several of the furnishings were sourced from well-known Danish design brands including Carl Hansen, Louis Poulsen and Montana.
      The second floor is illuminated by six new dormer windows and accommodates another two bedrooms plus their respective en-suite bathrooms.

      Neil Dusheiko creates home for his father-in-law featuring a wall of ceramics and glassware

      The principal bedroom is largely clad in wood, save for a section on the rear wall that is finished in chintzy floral wallpaper.
      Glazed doors with black metal frames run along one side of the room and can be slid open to access a sun terrace lined in Douglas fir battens.
      Floral wallpaper features in the principal bedroom. Photo by Rachael SmithThe space is decorated with a couple of folding director’s chairs and a built-in white-brick planter.
      Danish Mews House is one of several residential projects that Neil Dusheiko has completed in London.
      The room also has its own sun terrace. Photo by Rachael SmithPreviously, the architect created a home for his father-in-law in Stoke Newington, in which a striking wall of shelving is used to display ceramics and glassware.
      Dusheiko also overhauled a home in Hammersmith, introducing a curved brick extension and a cinema room.
      The photography is by Ståle Eriksen unless stated otherwise.
      Project credits:
      Architect: Neil Dusheiko ArchitectsStructural engineer: Price and MyersContractor: ABC LimitedQuantity surveyor: White and Lloyd

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      Alexander Owen Architecture wraps London house extension in two types of marble

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      Alexander Owen Architecture has added a marble-clad extension and garden room to this Victorian mid-terrace in East Dulwich, London, to accommodate a home office and a well-stocked bar.The owners, a couple with three young sons, wanted a place to entertain and ample space to spend time together as a family.

      Top image: the garden room houses a bar and home office. Above: the kitchen extension looks out at the garden and annexe
      In response to the brief, the architects created a single-storey rear extension that adds 13.3 square metres and accommodates an open-plan kitchen, utility room and toilet, plus a 16-square-metre annexe that serves as a work and social space.
      Separated by a paved garden, the facade of the extension and garden room are clad in two types of precision-cut marble – a lighter version with hazier veining called Arabescato and a dark grey Bardiglio marble with a more structured finish.

      Alexander Owen Architecture clad the kitchen extension in different kinds of marble

      “We wanted to create a holistic flow to the house and garden and a certain mimicry between the extension and garden room as new interventions,” Richard Bridges and James Webster, founders of Alexander Owen Architecture, told Dezeen.
      “The marble cladding on the extension and garden room has been designed to have similar cut lines and panel formations but the arrangement of the two marble types is reversed.”

      The marble is cut so that it wraps seamlessly around the glazing frames
      The marble has been mitred around the doors and windows and digitally cut to create precise, 90-degree junctions between the individual slabs. This allows the cladding and the cut lines to seamlessly wrap themselves around the glazing frames.
      “The wider site context provides an abundance of trees and greenery, which as the day progresses cast an ever-changing array of light and shadow across the site,” said the architects, who both previously worked at Foster + Partners.
      “The final selection of marble was informed by this layering of dappled light on top of the veining, colouration and movement inherent to each type.”

      The kitchen is finished with stainless steel worktops
      A set of sliding doors with Accoya wood frames opens the kitchen and dining space up to the outside, while the garden room is glazed with a set of bi-folding windows and a pivoting door.
      Alexander Owen Architecture chose robust, low-maintenance surfaces for the kitchen extension, including a poured concrete floor, stainless steel island unit, shot-blasted pewter brick walls and a timber ceiling.

      Pewter brick walls are contrasted with timber ceilings
      “Each material was selected based on how it would sit against the other materials and its ability to sit in an almost ‘raw’ state – the very engineered precision and sheen of the stainless steel and geometric texture of the pewter blocks versus the natural, organic strength of the marble and warmth of the timber,” Bridges and Webster explained.
      “The palette tries to create a very calming balance between the organic and the engineered.”

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      The steel island unit also incorporates a bench seat for the dining area while a linear skylight lets in sunshine from above.
      The same black, wire-cut bricks that pave the garden are used on the floor of the annexe to create a seamless connection between indoors and outdoors. In the garden room, walls are clad in yellow Valchromat MDF and birch ply, as are the built-in desk, bar and storage cupboards.

      The garden room offers a “grown-up” space for entertaining
      According to the architects, who established their studio in 2013, the home’s layout is carefully divided into various zones tailored to the family’s daily routine.
      The utility room and toilet are located in the mid-section of the property so that the kitchen and garden room at the back can function as a peaceful, “grown-up” area that can be kept tidy for dinners with friends.

      It also houses a home office
      “The rest of the house can effectively be shut off, with the utility space playing a key role in storage,” said Bridges and Webster. “The family snug in the front part of the house means the owners can read books and listen to music on their record player while their children can watch TV or play in the other end of the space.”
      The garden room serves as a home office during the week and helps the couple maintain a boundary between work and family life. It also has an expansive bar that can be used for small gatherings.

      Bar seating runs along the bi-folding windows
      According to Alexander Owen Architecture, there has been a marked increase in clients wanting to create an office space in their home.
      “We have had a lot of interest in garden rooms since the start of the pandemic, with some new clients even prioritising this ahead of developing the main house due to the need for home working, schooling and simply more space,” explained the architects.
      “It’s undeniable the impact that the last 12 months have had, not only on how much time we spend in our homes but on how we use them as live-work accommodation.”
      Covid-19 has forced companies around the world to embrace remote working, with many predicting that working from home will be here to stay long after the virus has been brought under control. Last month Dezeen rounded up 10 products to improve your home-office setup.
      Contractors for this project were Create Bespoke and photography is by French+Tye.

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      Echlin uses broken-plan layout to create spacious interiors within London mews house

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      A nearly six-metre-high green wall and a basement floor with a walk-on skylight are among the additions made by design and development firm Echlin to this remodelled mews house in Knightsbridge.The resulting design is described by the local firm as a “reinterpretation” of a classic London mews house, with plenty of useable and flexible space, an abundance of natural light and a strong connection to nature.

      The ground floor living space, top image, is separated from the dining area via an open shelving system, above
      Located on a quiet mews in easy reach of Hyde Park, the 225-square-metre family home is arranged across three floors and connected by a helical oak staircase, which was handmade in East Sussex.
      Entered through an oversized bronze door, the ground floor features an entrance hall cast in grey Pietra marble. This is separated from a generous living space, dining area and study via a sliding partition wall.

      The basement level features a sunken seating area and a kitchen

      The newly created basement level accommodates a large, split-level kitchen and living area while the first floor is occupied by three bedrooms, each with its own en-suite bathroom.
      A 5.5-metre-high living wall stretches between the lower ground and ground floors.

      The ground floor dining area features banquette seating
      Each floor follows a “broken-plan” layout, in which built-in furniture and level changes help to loosely demarcate different areas.
      “The vision was to transform a small mews with compromised rooms into a contemporary home with a great feeling of space,” explained Steve Clinch, Head Architect at Echlin. “This has been achieved by opening up the plan and providing views into other spaces, allowing the full width and length of the house to be experienced.”

      The ground floor also accommodates a small study
      Wide, sliding and pocket doors create views through the different spaces, as does bespoke joinery such as the open shelving that divides the dining, study and living areas on the first floor.
      On the lower ground floor, which was added in by the firm, a sunken seating area is located beyond the kitchen and dining area. The level change is intended to create a visual separation while allowing the spaces to remain connected to each other.

      The kitchen is made from walnut wood
      The walnut kitchen has been designed by Echlin so that all utilities can be concealed behind pivoting pocket doors when the owners are entertaining.
      A walk-on skylight on the ground floor terrace is located directly above the sunken seating area to maximise the amount of daylight in the basement. This is also helped by the fully-retractable, floor-to-ceiling glass door that leads out onto a small terrace and frames the view of the green wall.

      The basement’s ceiling is a walk-on skylight
      Three bedrooms are located on the first floor, where pitched ceilings create a feeling of spaciousness while skylights ensure the spaces get plenty of daylight.The sliding doors in the master bedroom create a visual connection all the way through from the dressing area into the en-suite.

      Sliding doors lead into the master bathroom
      Much of the furniture in the house is designed by Echlin and made in collaboration with a network of skilled craftsmen. Bespoke pieces include the pale timber table on the lower ground floor, which was handmade in Brighton, while the sofas on the lower ground and ground floors come from Oxfordshire.
      According to the studio, the home’s “sense of calm and tranquillity” was created through the use of natural materials, organic textures and a gentle colour palette informed by the nearby park. Meanwhile, the use of metallic surfaces and heritage colours nod to the home’s historic location.

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      “The current climate has placed an even greater emphasis of the importance of how our homes are designed, how we use them and its impact on our moods,” said Sam McNally, who co-founded Echlin in 2011 with Mark O’Callaghan.
      “We recognise that mood, wellbeing and happiness are all shaped by what surrounds us and we are committed to making these spaces as stylish but also as user-friendly as we can.”

      A helical staircase connects the three floors
      In a thought piece written for Dezeen last year, design writer and TV presenter Michelle Ogundehin outlined 11 ways in which the pandemic will impact the home.
      As well as predicting a return to practical kitchens and more intimate room layouts, she believes there will be a desire for more human-centric homes, where natural materials are used to benefit the occupier’s wellbeing.
      Photography is by Taran Wilkhu.

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      Office S&M injects bold colours into renovated Mo-tel House in London

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      An abundance of bright hues and recycled materials were used by London studio Office S&M to renovate a Georgian townhouse in Islington.

      Mo-tel House now has a kitchen at the front
      The Mo-tel House project involved remodelling the lower ground floor of a home owned by the founder of online fashion rental service On Loan and her family.
      The company promotes reusing garments rather than buying new, so the architects took a similar approach when selecting materials for the renovation.

      Rearranging the layout created a space for dining to the rear

      These include melted, discarded milk bottles and chopping boards for bathroom counters; leftover marble chips for kitchen worktops; and crushed bricks for ceramic pendant lamps.
      “Mo-tel challenged us to see reuse as a design tool for bold new ideas, and we found value and opportunities in materials that would otherwise have been overlooked,” said Office S&M founding partner Catrina Stewart.

      Custom furniture pieces include a seating nook for the dining area, which also incorporates storage
      Overhauling the terraced north London home began with opening up the dark and cramped space at the home’s entrance level.
      Removing the internal dividing wall allowed light to enter the living area from both front and back elevations, and also afforded a change of layout. The kitchen was moved to the front of the building, and a dining and seating area inserted towards the rear.

      A wide variety of colours are applied across the open-plan space
      Larger design elements were treated like scaled-down architectural features. For example, a pale pink structure with a double-pitched “roof” was added to provide a dining bench, seating nook and storage unit.
      In the kitchen, a light blue volume with a rounded top forms a pantry and acts as a visual anchor for green terrazzo countertops made from the recycled marble.

      Pink and green house designed by Office S&M to offer antidote to London’s “dire rental market”

      An apple-green shade was applied to the ceiling, window recesses and a band around the upper walls, complementing the surface of a pill-shaped dining table.
      Office S&M, founded by Stewart and partner Hugh McEwen, is no stranger to colour. Its previous projects in London include a house extension with bright yellow accents and a property painted Millennial pink.

      A ground floor bathroom pairs pale pink and dark tiles
      At Mo-tel House, the studio also chose teal cupboards, a pink tile kitchen backsplash, and tinted mirrors throughout the home.
      Pale timber floorboards are laid diagonally and contrast with the brightly coloured surfaces, which extend to hardware like radiators, light switches, electrical outlets and door handles.

      A colourful staircase leads up to another bathroom
      The renovation, totalling 55 square metres, also encompassed bathrooms on two levels that are stacked at the back of the building.
      On the lower ground floor, the first is reached through a pink utility room and is lined with dark tiles.

      The ground-floor bathroom features yellow accents and recycled plastic counters
      The second bathroom is reached by climbing a staircase decorated in pink and yellow. This washroom was reconfigured to fit a shower as well as a bathtub, and now features the recycled plastic surfaces made from recycled plastic.
      Yellow tile grout was chosen to match the bathroom’s window frame and shower curtain, while the rest of the space is white.
      Photography is by French + Tye.
      Project credits:
      Architect: Office S&MEngineer: Foster StructuresContractor: McEllingott BuildingFurniture build: McEllingott BuildingKitchen surfaces: In OperaRecycled plastic surfaces: Smile Plastics

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