Stunning additions: home extensions for extended living spaces
From stunning additions to modest refreshment, an extension to the house is a much-needed, beloved staple when it comes to residential architecture; Here, we explore some of the latest examples of the genre, from London to San Francisco
Home extensions are a creative and flexible way to expand a home, and with so many dwellings prevalent in many cities, they are also much of the architect’s bread and butter. It can be amazing, modest, grand or peugeot, but it always aims to improve the living space of its occupant. These alluring modern projects show new ways to extend a traditional home, bringing new life and new light into the home with a new kitchen and living area. Explore with us some of the best home accessories of this type in London and beyond.
Home accessories create contemporary living spaces
Extruded House by MCK Architecture
Photography: Willem Reithmer
The unassuming front facade of a Union-style suburban home in Australia conceals a dramatic rear extension by MCK Architecture. The project is called ‘Extruded’ because it takes the shape of the pitched roof of the original structure and turns it into a double-height and full-width structure, and the project consists of a solid structure. This gives the new space a huge thermal mass, with no direct sun to heat it up in the summer. One end is fully glazed, the other covered with wood, with access to the original house, while the floors and walls were left as bare concrete. The elegant kitchen occupies one wall, with an outside grill emerging as a continuation of the cabinets.
Curve of Appeal by Nimtim Architects
Photography: Megan Taylor
Nimtim Architects transformed a 1920s semi-detached house with what the architects call “a single joinery element.” The new kitchen is a collection of plywood basements, alcoves, and cupboards that create a unique new element within the home without the need for massive structural invention. Inviting the viewer to look through and explore the space, Nimtim layers the interior of the house with this delicate assembly, creating a warm and inviting kitchen that prioritizes play and display,
West Square Nick Leith Smith
Photography: Juliette Murphy
To expand a listed Georgian house in south London, architect Nick Leith Smith chose to highlight rich materials and strong colours. The client, photographer Marcus Lyon, wanted a classic London extension, extending the lower ground floor to the garden and using glass to make a connection between the interior and the exterior. Leith Smith, who has extensive experience fitting out high-end stores for brands like Manolo Blahnik, used bronze cladding and structural glazing, ensuring every detail was rich and subtle. The new glazed living space connects to the new lower ground floor kitchen, with an opening providing seamless communication, while a glass and bronze staircase connects the old to the new.
Sunday Brunch House by Forgeworks
Photography: French and Thai
This North London project explores the open-ended aesthetic of expanding the modern kitchen, transforming the back of a Victorian terrace into a series of tectonic spaces that blend materials and shapes. Charcoal bricks, polished concrete, whitewashed timber and new joinery all come together to unify the ground floor, with a playful variety of views across and through the new space. Careful cultivation increases the feeling of intimacy.
Frame house by Amos Goldreich Architecture
Photography: Olli Hammek
As the name suggests, the Framework House makes the most of the structure required to extend the house into the garden. By combining white brick with an exposed stained pine frame, the asymmetric project weaves storage into the structure, maximizing the amount of space available. The garden terrace is also paved with bricks, while the reading spot is suspended in the garden. The kitchen cabinets are a mix of standard Ikea and Holte Studio custom fronts. The new green roof expands the perception of green spaces when viewed from the house.
Lancaster Gardens by Lumin Architects
Photography: Anna Statake
A modest proposal to increase the living space of this 1940s home in East Finchley, London, has resulted in a serene space beneath a new pitched roof extension. Lumin Architects used a muted color palette, with the kitchen finished in gray, navy, and natural wood, complementing the cement floor. Crittall’s large doors inside and out bring light into the original part of the house and connect the house to the garden.
House wrapped by SAW and White Space
Photography: Paul Dyer
A Spanish home in San Francisco has been renovated in the 21st century, courtesy of Spiegel Aihara Workshop (SAW) Architects. The Wraparound House, a committee for a family of five, included updating an existing home, adding space to accommodate group and recreational activities, as well as stabilizing and treating the land below, which was polluted and in need of remediation. Committed, the architects, to transform this San Francisco home into a light-filled and generous six-bedroom residence that connects past and present, while restoring its site. They say the architects worked on the design “vertical and horizontal.” Rather than just building on the new land, we saw the challenge as to redistribute the land vertically across the site, throughout the building. While many buildings have terraces, balconies or things like that, we set out to maintain complete continuity of new ground across the entire house, ensuring that every roof is not on top of something, but rather on the bottom of something – says Dan Spiegel of SAW .
Franklin Road House by Jack McKinney Architects and Katie Lockhart Studio
Photography: David Street
An Edwardian home in the Ponsonby neighborhood of Auckland, New Zealand, renovated for the 21st century with a comprehensive redesign and a touch of simplicity – through the symmetrical architecture of the extension. The residence, a family home on Franklin Road, was designed by Jack McKinney Architects and interior specialists Katie Lockhart Studio, who drew on the principles of modern architecture, particularly tropical modernism, for the warm, uncomfortable interiors of the new building and the sharpened exterior of the new building, minimal scheme. The house now features a monolithic contemporary rear extension, illuminating the architectural garden in the rear, clad in light-coloured stone, alluding abstractly to the forms of the heritage architecture of the original house and the wider neighborhood beyond. Large glazed roofs and openings connect the new space to the outdoors and the home’s private pool.
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