Shaping up

After settling into their London townhouse, and in need of extra family space, one couple set to work creating a rear extension with a difference

- Seán O'Connell

When Anna Mansfield and Ian Warren first moved into their townhouse in Hackney, east London, they knew they would have to eventually upgrade it to suit their growing family. “And after living there for a couple of years, the ground floor area was already feeling cramped and in need of renovation,” says Anna.

“Things were starting to break all over the place! Also, our immediate neighbours were building out at the back so that spurred us on to do likewise.” To get an idea of how the space could be improved, the couple called in Whittaker Parsons architects. “Matt Whittaker and Camilla Parsons came round and asked us the

relevant questions — how we use the space, what we did and didn’t like, what was important to us etc,” says Anna. “They came back with several ideas for making the ground floor more usable, including a plan to transfer the kitchen to the front of the house, which was interesting but not quite right for us. Eventually, after talking things through and refining down the original plans, we had the blueprint for a rear extension.”

MAXIMISING SPACE Matt points out the main objective of the project wasn’t to create significantly more space but instead how to make the most of the existing space while enhancing the connection with the garden. “This meant a complete reworking of the ground floor at the rear to make it work a lot harder,” he says. “To communicate the complexity of the proposal we made a model of the structure, which was helpful in many ways, including finalising some of the main decisions around the extension space, as well as selecting materials. This included widening ground-floor doorways to create a better flow from front to back.”