Shortlist Announced Don’t Move, Improve! 2017
We are delighted to have been shortlisted for this year’s Don’t Move, Improve! 2017. The two LPA submissions are:
The Retreat: Our unique process has defined and re- imagined and crafted a Georgian town house to reflect the personality of both space and user. The proposal was to restore the building and painstakingly putting the building back together but, with a slight twist.
The walk through of the Retreat: Every space has been crafted to reflect the personality of both space and user. Within the lower ground floor, the kitchen is lit by a light box ceiling subtly and actively adapting and mimicking the light levels of outside, to the ground a quiet reading and reflection space surrounded by books on bamboo shelving provides refuge. We hung hand painted wall papers and added antique mirrors to provide grandeur and history.
The acoustics of the building change as one moves up the building, the walls are lined in fabric culminating in an explosion of fabrics where one can hear a pin drop due to the absolute deadening of sound.
A 5m high ceiling-ed studio sits beneath the garden. Lit by long slashes of glass across its ceiling, light penetrates the studio providing natural flood lighting compensated when needed by rows of concealed strip lighting. A glass box forms a pavilion that looks back at the grandeur of the historic town house in front of it.
Park House: Our clients fell in love with this end of terrace Islington town house. Its large reception rooms, impressive floor to ceiling heights, the scale and width of the existing property were identified as defining features.
The walk through of the Park House:
The lower ground and rear addition sat awkwardly against the historic proportions, closed in and dark. Therefore we defined, re-imagined and crafted a Georgian town house to reflect the personality of both space and user.
A double height glass extension was designed to sit gracefully against the rear of the property. Internally, the works transformed the introvert lower ground space, with its closed in corridors and segregated rooms, to an extrovert space that reach out and make connections with the garden and ground floor.
A glazed tryptic – a ground floor balcony, an oriel stair seat and an internal study window – overlooks the double height space, creating playful and connected family spaces. A new white folded steel staircase hangs from the ground floor, purposefully missing the last riser and appearing to float. The creation of a two storey high glass rear addition playfully connects family life together.
A new white folded steel staircase hangs from the ground floor, purposefully missing the last riser and appearing to float.
Don’t Move, Improve! showcases London’s best and most innovative new home extensions. A multitude of design solutions were submitted and a record number of entries, 120, were received.
The competition is in its seventh year. It will showcase how homeowners can extend above, below and through their buildings or reconfigure existing layouts to optimise or create space.
Don’t Move, Improve! is organised by New London Architecture (NLA) an independent forum dedicated to new architecture and construction and the Royal Institute of British Architects. The overall winners will be revealed at an reception at The Building Centre in London on 26 January 2017.
Judges included Dezeen editor Amy Frearson, NLA chairman Peter Murray, architect Carl Turner, Ash Sakula co-founder Cany Ash and Levitt Bernstein co-director Jo McCafferty.
A free exhibition of all Don’t Move, Improve! 120 submitted designs will be unveiled at the same time as the reception and will run from 27 January to 29 March.
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