Heath House, Luxury Hampstead Home, Extended London Property, English Architecture Photos

Heath House Extension in Hampstead

28 Apr 2020

Design: Patalab Architecture

Location: Hampstead, Northwest London, UK

Heath House – Arts and Crafts Townhouse

Patalab were commissioned to transform Heath House, a detached Arts and Crafts townhouse in Hampstead for a local family with three small children. The brief was to create an airier, lighter and more contemporary feel for the young family’s home and their modern art collection. It was also important to increase the overall floor area.

We opted for an approach that expands the house horizontally thus making most of the spacious garden that surrounds the building. Many of the original features inside the house were retained, such as the central staircase and timber wall paneling but these were treated with white paint wash to achieve a less oppressive and more spacious appearance.

A key element in Patalab’s design for Heath House is the new connection between reception rooms on the ground floor and the back garden. The living spaces include a new-build wing and reconfigured kitchen with a dining area that opens up to the garden establishing an inside-outside relationship not previously present in the house.

This has been a critical factor in giving the remodeled home a feeling of openness and fluidity in keeping with the client’s desire for a less formal ambience. It also provides a generous backdrop to display the family’s art collection.

The garden wing is a long gallery-like space with a sunken seating area. It, too, has been designed to house works of art as well as entertain. Externally, the wing is clad in hand-made Danish ‘Petersen’ bricks subtly distinct from the red London stock bricks of the main house. The proportions and bond of the Danish bricks (only the horizontal joints are raked: the vertical joints are flush) emphasise the horizontality of the architecture.

Internally, the extension features an in-situ cast fair-faced concrete wall to add texture to the minimal white walls. The stepped bush hammered textured limestone approach from the wing to the garden extends the room outdoors and makes the most of variations in the topography of the site.

The main house has been completely refurbished with internal layouts re-designed to provide more space and to reduce compartmentalisation. The top floor features a loft space with two extra bedrooms as well as storage. This addition means that the central stairwell is a now a triple height space; its large skylight illuminating the entrance hall.

Warm toned flooring was selected throughout: distressed parquet in combination with mottled Azul Cascais limestone to the ground floor, and smoked oak above. New bathrooms on the upper floors include large format book-matched Carrara marble (ca. 1.50m x 1.25m slabs) to the master en suite. The family bathrooms have more playful geometric tiles in different colours.

Lighting
The lighting design as developed by Patalab is discreetly integrated into the building fabric, for example, by using recessed ceiling LED down lights. It nonetheless highlights the works of art in the house. The ceilings are plastered in wall washer to illuminate art. Patalab has also specified feature pendants as part of the lighting scheme at Heath House.

Fitted furniture
A fully integrated joinery package was designed, providing maximum storage and connect architectural elements together to complete the house. This is something that reoccurs on Patalab projects giving these a rich, crafted feel with exceptional levels of workmanship. At Heath House, the architects provided:

– A sunken grey leather and dark stained oak frame seating area that Patalab executed as a collaboration between joinery contractor Parry Page and specialist upholsterer Ben Whistler
– A white oak prismatic display unit in the new extension that responds to the architecture with integrated mirrors reflecting the garden
– Master bathroom cabinetry in dark stained oak, honed Carrera marble surfaces and integrated porcelain basins
– Wardrobes in the master bedroom with white Oak fronts and internal untreated Cedar lining
– Shelf unit in reception room made with a dark stained oak frame with sliding matt lacquered white panels that can be re-arranged and therefore alter the look of the unit

Landscaping /planting
The Heath House garden is a collaboration between Patalab and John Plummer from Greenmantle. It is in keeping with Patalab’s enjoyment in juxtaposing new and old in their buildings as it is planted in the manner of a traditional lush English country garden inspired from period when the house was originally built.

The front garden picks up the symmetry of street facing façade and the rear garden is terraced in a more informal manner. Patalab’s contemporary Danish brick extension links with the garden through a series of retaining walls creating a cohesive masonry enclosure.

QUOTE about Art + Architecture Uwe Schmidt-Hess:
“We immensely enjoyed designing this home as it houses a very personal collection of contemporary art and artefacts. There was a desire to display the works of art to their advantage and have these present throughout the house but without losing the intimate quality of a young family’s home. We believe our approach plays an important role in finding this balance culminating in the new garden wing.”

How is the project unique
1. Contemporary interpretation of an Arts and Crafts House: continuation of materials with refined detailing
2. Connection between house and garden: continious flow of space to make the garden into the outside living room during the warmer months

– Linking old and New: via choice of materials and proportions of new elements. Also by opening up layout of the existing building establishing a flow of space between old house and new wing
– integrating the new extension sensitively into the garden: sinking extension partly into ground, creation of sunken lounge area internally, positioning the extension to the edge of the garden, using same bricks for extension and garden walls
– brining more light into the existing house: creation of bigger window openings towards the garden, opening up entrance hall to loft, insertion of big skylight

Patalab were commissioned to transform a detached Arts and Crafts townhouse in Hampstead for a local family with three small children. The brief was to create an airier, lighter and more contemporary feel for the young family’s home and their modern art collection. It was also important to increase the overall floor area.

What were the key challenges?
– connecting Old and New
– integrating the new extension sensitively into the garden
– brining more light into the existing house

Heath House Extension, Hampstead – Building Information

Architect: Patalab Architecture

Project size: 415 sqm
Site size: 2000 sqm
Completion date: 2016
Building levels: 3

Key products used:
Brick for extension: Petersen
Sliding windows in extension: Panoramah
Tiles: Domus
Pendent in entrance Hall: Michael Anastassiades
Wooden Floors: Havwood