While in the ‘80s British people used to change house as frequently as their shoes (so to speak, this actually happened once every 10 years), today this habit got slowed down by crisis, sky-rocketing prices and lacking market offers. According to a study by Hometrack, in 2015 the average real estate turn-over in the United Kingdom raised to 21 years.
Us Italians are not the only ones, after all, who tend to stick to our family house for as long as possible. A survey made in 2016 by Immobiliare.it-Movinga.it reveals that Italians move home four times in their lives on average. In 71.8% of cases they own the house they live in (Affordable Design Database). This English trend we can take inspiration from, shows an increasing willingness to transform typical British houses standards and to personalise them, from Victorian houses to council houses. The aim is always to gain extra space and to increase the market value.
This is the case of a project by London studio Nimtim. They increased the size and brightness of a house through a wooden and glass pergola that now hosts a modern open-space kitchen overlooking the typical garden on the back of every Victorian building. This renovation allows its owners to use the exteriors as interiors, especially in those rainy days when the weakest sunray is a gift to enjoy.
A similar project was completed by Rise Design Studio. They restyled an apartment in a mansion block from the 19th century in the heart of West Hampstead to gain some extra square metres by building a sort of veranda. In this case, the original load-bearing walls have been thinned to leave extra space to an open living area delimited by wide, ceiling-high windows contrasting with the external brick walls.
Bureau de Change’s restyling of a similar house, however, has a totally different feeling. Perhaps more industrial thanks to the exposed concrete in the living room. The opening to the back garden is guided by the unvarying white resin floor that goes beyond the glass walls. Defined coloured areas, edgy and geometric lines and the light cutting through the ceiling create a contrast between empty and full spaces, while our sight automatically goes to the outside.
Let’s go back to glass, which substitutes the typical bricks in the restyling of this house in the Islington district. In this case, Lipton Plant Architect expanded both levels, giving extra space and natural light not only to the kitchen and dining room on the ground floor but also to the living area on the upper floor. Eliminating closed rooms and hallways, this family will have more bright spaces connected by modern prospective. And will certainly not move home.
The extension of a townhouse from the 1800s is much more flowing with its mix of lines and volumes. The project was commissioned to Scott Architects studio as the house was too small for the owners. We are in Hackney, east London, where gentrification is moving fast and where those who are privileged enough to own a house tend to keep it. This time, the idea was to create a new volume made of oak wood and covered by plants, like a winter garden to be at one with nature even in such a metropolitan area (first photo).
To own something in London, it might even mean to simply own a garage. However, with a good restyling project, even that can be transformed, like from pumpkin to carriage and gain an incredible market value. This is the case of De Rosee Sa’s project, the transformation of a garage in West London into a design residence. It was an extremely precise and long work going beyond urbanistic restrictions, which, for instance, were forbidding the extension of the house upstairs. The outcome is an interesting hybrid between a home and a green house, with a basement with two bedrooms. The lack of external windows made the architects design two opposite atriums made of steel and glass to light up the apartment.
Mews 02 by architect Andy Martin was a garage too. Now it is an independent house on 4 floors with a minimalistic style. It is an excellent example of extreme revaluation in the heart of the British capital. It plays with closed spaces (sometimes voluntarily narrow) and large areas lighted up by glass walls and skylights. A place to call ‘home’ for as long as possible.