North End Road

The brief from our client was to design an extension to a garden flat and first floor flat in a semi-detached property near Golders Green, London, NW11. With the second floor of the property being occupied by another party, a full planning  application was required for the proposal as permitted development rights were not enjoyed; this resulted in tighter design constraints being enforced by the local planning authority. It was these constraints which informed the massing of the two extensions, with the ground floor angling away from the neighbouring properties so as not to infringe upon their light and amenity. A more severe angle was also cut into the first floor apartment, again to ensure there was no loss of light into the neighbouring property. This increasing angled motif ties the new intervention back to the top floor of the property, which retained the original 45 degree cutout. The cascading form of the finished building was informed by the planning regulations stating that a first floor apartment extension could not be as deep as that on the first floor.

The idea of a stepped form was carried through into the pitch of each roof, the garden flat is topped with a contemporary flat roof while the first floor roof is pitched, and the original roof pitch steeper still. The natural topography of the site allowed for a generous height to the internal volume of the ground floor, and the pitched roof was angled in such a way to deliver a more generous head height at first floor. While the form of the extensions was governed by permitted development rights, this also helped merge the contemporary ground floor into the traditional existing top floor form giving these resulting dynamic stepped extensions.