The project transforms a mid-century house on Green Lanes in North London into a unique family home that is simple and restrained from the outside but sophisticated and materially rich and inside.

The existing house, a 1960s end of terraced home in Hackney, had its own unique typology - simplistic in form and reminiscent of a child’s drawing of a house; complete with distinctive front gable, tall chimney pot, front garden and long path to the front door. The brief for the project was developed using nimtim’s briefing game and identified a desire for spaces that would be calming and restorative for adults to sit, alongside spaces that were playful and robust for children. Two distinct zones were created: an area of movement defined by hardwearing finishes such as ply-lining and a softer more tactile zone defined by textural finishes including neutral-coloured textured natural plaster that gives a sense of warmth and diffused light.

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To demarcate these two separate layers of the house nimtim proposed an internal partition that would run vertically through the entire house: unifying new and old. This screen is infilled with panels of solid timber, fluted and clear glass to allow for natural light to diffuse across the spaces, frame views or provide privacy between the different uses.

The open plan ground floor is anchored around the kitchen which acts as a ‘room within a room’ and clad in a deep burgundy recycled paper composite. The kitchen was co-created and delivered by Holte, using a lego model the client brought to their showroom. It affords views onto the separate dining and living spaces through large hatches with sliding fluted glass screens allowing for connection or privacy when needed. A playful and large contemporary interpretation of a serving hatch, often found in kitchens of the house’s era, faces onto the dining space and frames views of the garden beyond.