Each year, the NLA (New London Architecture) runs a competition celebrating the best in home extensions and improvements.  Now in its seventh year, the 2018 shortlist shows more than ever the value of good design in home improvements, and how architects can work with tight constraints to create an intrinsically unique solution to a family situation.

Nimtim’s shortlisted project is no exception; a young family needing extra space, privacy, and addressing this on a multi-levelled site. The result is a modern, sleek echo of the adjoining terraced roofscape, and a considered approach to lighting and heating within this elegant design. 

The use of timber on both the external and the internal creates a cohesion throughout the project, and the way in which the existing ground floor layout of the home has been addressed, gives the impression on the interior that this is not an addition but a natural evolution of the house. As the larch cladding weathers, this external façade will, too, reflect the existing clad terraced houses it projects from.

Natural light through the exposed timber structure and underfloor heating were integrated into the design, so that the project is not only effective in its spatial use but efficient in its inhabitation.