Chelsea Brut

A 1960s townhouse in a Chelsea conservation area, sensitively reconfigured and extended, provides a contemporary home with generous, flexible living spaces. The existing building structure was carefully investigated so that it could be stripped-back to its essential loadbearing structure of ribbed concrete floors on load-bearing masonry walls.

Following a review of the surrounding ground levels, existing foundations were investigated and confirmed to extend a significant depth below the internal ground floor level. Working with these existing levels around the building, it was possible to significantly increase the ground floor storey-height at the rear of the property without the need for costly underpinning works.

Discrete local interventions were made to the structure to introduce rooflights, and increase the size of structural openings in the external walls to increase natural daylight levels throughout the building. A modest rear extension was designed in timber to support an intensive green roof visible from the large first floor window.

The project has been well-covered in the press: Dezeen, Architect’s Journal, Wallpaper.