Located on a corner site in Portobello the clients had just purchased this house when they approached Newmark Architects. The house has been connected to the clients’ family for generations so they were eager to retain certain aspects of the house while still remodelling it to meet their needs. While the house possessed some very well-proportioned rooms, the main kitchen and dining areas were less spacious and had little relationship to any external space, leaving them quite dark internally.

The ground floor has been opened-up to accommodate a new kitchen, dining and living area, in a semi open-plan arrangement. The living room in the centre of the plan has been sunken to allow it be defined separately from the kitchen and dining area. You can essentially look through this room when you enter the house but it can be closed off when required. The original well-proportioned rooms of the house have been retained and two new bedrooms have been accommodated at first floor level. The corner nature of the site means very little sunlight reached certain parts of the house, to overcome this a new stairwell was located deep in the plan to allow light into the centre of the home.