A reimagined Victorian terrace house full of light, joy and unexpected material flourishes. The project navigated challenging construction cost changes and changing personal circumstances for the whole team to make it happen. It is ultimately a reflection of a shared design vision but also the household’s own creativity and resourcefulness. 

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Nimtim’s unique briefing game defined the objectives of the project: 'A fun, practical house that is out of the ordinary, unexpected but warm and liveable.’ With both clients working within the architecture universe, ambitions were high and budgets low: Frank Gehry’s own Santa Monica House was a key reference point. There was also an *almost* non-negotiable requirement for glass blocks to feature in the project.

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A shared objective was to minimise material waste and carbon where possible and to use simple materials in an honest and playful way. The structural strategy was therefore to minimise the use of steelwork and to use timber and/ or engineered timber where possible. The project uses just a single steel column within the ground floor extension and two further steel columns within the existing house at the front. All beams are glulam timber. Existing materials were re-used where they could be (for instance demolished bricks were used to create new party walls) or expressed honestly for example the existing 1st floor outrigger. 

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In the side and rear extension: easi-joists (a low cost and low-material joist usually stuck between floor and ceiling finishes) were deployed. These joists create bold shadows when the sun falls on them and visual interest when it doesn’t. Elsewhere, standard engineering bricks were creatively reinvented as internal and external flooring. 

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