Completed in 1845, Victoria Park provided much needed open space in London’s expanding East End. Over the next two decades, surveyors Hammack & Lambert planned a ‘ladder’ of terraces to the south called Victoria Park Estate. Fast forward to 13th June 1944, and a V1 bomb strikes nearby Grove Road, destroying entire buildings and damaging others. Some were later repaired and in 1988 the estate became Driffield Conservation Area. 150 years after it was built, a family with young children moved into one such house.

 

Interventions were planned to suit 21st century family living. Occupying the reconstructed rear ‘outrigger’ adjoining an underused side passage, the kitchen was cramped and access to the garden restricted by WC and utility spaces. These were relocated inboard into a serpentine polished plaster pod, creating a dining space with folding doors opening onto the garden. The brickwork side passage was preserved and infilled in frameless glass, flooding the space with light, and the kitchen relocated centrally, becoming the hub of family life.

 

Conceived as an outdoor room, the garden is enclosed by a strip of pollution cleansing ivy, a timber screen with cantilevered bench, and a terracotta rendered wall inspired by Luis Barragán. Drawing the eye through the house from the entrance hall, the wall transforms at night with a hidden lightsource washing the stippled surface.

 

The project represents a microcosm of the practice’s architecture: economy of means, attention to detail, permeable spaces, light washed surfaces, clean lines, sustainable, functional, elegant.