Kensington Penthouse
A contemporary extension concealed behind a traditional mansard roof opens up to the sky via a central courtyard
The existing apartment occupied the fourth floor of a listed six storey mid Victorian terraced house within the Queen’s Gate Conservation area, close to the museums of South Kensington. Our clients had successfully negotiated with the freeholder for the purchase of the roof space above the apartment, and our brief was to extend upwards into this loft to add an additional storey to their home.
photos Taran Wilkhu
The historic listed status of the building required us to maintain a traditional external form, so the roof extension sits between slate tiled mansard roofs at the front and rear with dormer windows. Internally however, the new storey takes on a contemporary open form, derived from the deep plan of the building and lack of window walls. A courtyard garden is sited in the centre, giving both bedrooms a double aspect and allowing views and daylight to percolate through it.
The stairwell and bathroom are also glazed onto the courtyard, and a large roof window above the stair and second bathroom ensure that all rooms on the new storey have plentiful natural light, diffused down the stair to the centre of the plan below.
Relocating bedrooms to the roof extension allowed the previous clutter of partitions on the entrance floor to be removed, providing a full width living room across the front of the apartment, connected via a sliding screen to a kitchen dining space at the rear. The spine wall between these spaces is reconceived as a storage wall, with openings inserted through floor to ceiling shelving.
The clients are big fans of the rich mid century interior of the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank. In response to this we created a warm material palette, with oiled oak joinery, doors, architraves, slatted balustrades and parquet floors, accented with dark bronze door handles, Calacatta marble and honed black granite. On the entrance floor this contemporary aesthetic blends with elements of the original character of the building in the form of painted panelled doors and plaster cornices.
