RIBA Chartered Practice · Woking, Surrey

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Projects · Ickenham, London

Ickenham rear extension

A single-storey rear extension to a brick townhouse, with rooflights, a green roof and bifold doors that open the kitchen and dining room to the garden.

The rear extension with its black-framed bifold doors folded open onto the lawn, the brick townhouse rising behind

This brick townhouse in Ickenham, in the London Borough of Hillingdon, had a kitchen at the back that did not match the size of the house or the garden behind it. The owners wanted one room for cooking, eating and sitting, and a proper connection to the lawn.

We designed a single-storey extension across the full width of the rear. Black-framed bifold doors run almost the whole way along the garden side, so in summer the room and the lawn become one space. Two large flat rooflights bring daylight deep into the plan, which matters in a room this long, and the roof itself is planted with sedum so the view down from the bedrooms is green rather than grey.

Inside, the kitchen sits at the house end with a long island, and the dining table takes the light under the rooflight. A built-in bench seat between tall cabinets gives the family somewhere to sit that is not the dining table, and a media wall at the far end makes the room work in the evening as well as the day.

The extension is rendered white where it meets the brick of the original house, so the new work reads as its own piece rather than an imitation of the old.

The garden looking back at the house, the white rendered extension across the full width of the rear
The garden looking back at the house, the white rendered extension across the full width of the rear
The kitchen island looking through the open bifold doors to the garden
The kitchen island looking through the open bifold doors to the garden
The kitchen, with dark cabinets, a stone-topped island and three pendant lights
The kitchen, with dark cabinets, a stone-topped island and three pendant lights
The dining table under the rooflight, with the garden beyond the open doors
The dining table under the rooflight, with the garden beyond the open doors
A built-in bench seat with cushions, set between tall cabinets and a wine fridge
A built-in bench seat with cushions, set between tall cabinets and a wine fridge
One of the large flat rooflights, with the brick rear wall of the house beyond
One of the large flat rooflights, with the brick rear wall of the house beyond
The extension with the bifold doors closed, seen from the end of the garden
The extension with the bifold doors closed, seen from the end of the garden
The media wall, with a television set into white joinery and open shelves either side
The media wall, with a television set into white joinery and open shelves either side
Inside the extension, looking along the rooflight to the garden doors
Inside the extension, looking along the rooflight to the garden doors

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Accreditations

  • RIBA Chartered Practice
  • ARB registered architect, registration number 088216J
  • AECB member
  • Passivhaus Trust member
  • LABC Registered Partner, Partner Authority Scheme
  • Woking Chamber of Commerce member