Rise Design Studio brightens Harvist Highway flat with glass-walled lightwell

Expansive panels of glass helped Rise Design Studio join the previously light-starved dwelling areas of this northwest London flat to the outside.

Located within the neighbourhood of Kilburn, Harvist Highway flat has been reconfigured by domestically primarily based Rise Design Studio to be extra in touch with its rapid environment.

The flat occupies the bottom ground of a Victorian terrace that had a rear extension, and a convoluted  ground plan that hindered any pure mild from reaching the central dwelling areas.

A small house between the extension and the house’s boundary wall was additionally proving to be redundant.

Reclaimed London inventory bricks and glazed roofing have been used to bridge the prevailing extension and alleyway, whereas a handful of partition partitions have been knocked via to kind an open-plan kitchen.  It’s full with slate gray cabinetry and a chunky white breakfast island.

This room is now fronted by black-framed panels of glass that may be slid again to present inhabitants easy accessibility to the patio and backyard.

The bedrooms have additionally been brightened by the addition of a full-height glazed door and an enormous trapezoid window that extends as much as the roof.

A panel of sensible glass – glass that may change from translucent to clear when voltage, mild or warmth is utilized – has been put in instantly above the bathtub within the flat’s toilet, giving inhabitants the choice to look via to an ornamental lightwell that is centred by a fern tree.

To supply some separation between the flat’s dwelling zones, totally different supplies have been used for the flooring. Darkish oakwood floorboards run all through the rooms that sit in the direction of the entrance of the flat, whereas hexagonal blue tiles have been utilized within the toilet and polished concrete is used within the extension.

“The contrasting materials palette was chosen to create drama and distinction between the three essential areas by means of emphasising the numerous sensory experiences,” defined the studio.

Behind the backyard, a small studio has been erected the place the consumer can retreat to work.

Pink plywood has been used to kind its partitions, ceiling, desk and storage cabinets, which characteristic small holes as an alternative of standard handles.

Its facade has a big nook window, which the studio hopes will create a “dialogue” between the quantity and the glazed components that characteristic on the principle home. A small panel of stained glass has additionally been built-in into its door.

Different quirky particulars within the flat embrace a hidden door within the entrance hallway that may be drawn ahead to present extra privateness to the entrance reception room – when not in use it merely seems as a panelled wall with coat hooks.

Rise Design Studio was based in 2011 and is headed up by architect Sean Ronnie Hill. Earlier this 12 months, the studio renovated and prolonged a flat in London’s Willesden Junction to extend the quantity of space for storing for a household of 4.

The extra areas have been accomplished with clay plaster partitions to evoke the medieval streets of Barcelona’s El Born and El Gótico districts, the place the consumer lived for a number of years.

Pictures is by Jack Hobhouse.

Mission credit:

Architect: Rise Design Studio
Structural engineer: CAR
Occasion wall surveyor: Osprey Constructing Consulting
Contractor: Capital Constructing Contractors