Tsubo Niwa House is a minimal home located in London, United Kingdom, designed by Fraher & Findlay. This house is a Victorian large single family dwelling situated in Hackney. The client were the founders of Studio XAG. From the very beginning, the project was about refurbishing and extending the house whilst injecting the Clients creative personalities as designers and makers themselves.

The building had fallen into a state of disrepair and was in need of full refurbishment. Works included a loft, rear and side infill extension. A set of living spaces at lower ground floor level were used as additional accommodation for visiting family, it was important for these to be connected to the main house above.

The design response looked to introduce a courtyard within the plan of the living spaces to help articulate a relationship between the existing house and the new architecture. The rear extension sits quietly at the back of the building with a flush threshold connection with the garden. The pop up wrap around window seat provides some extra head height to the kitchen and aligns the view between the original reception rooms, Tsubo, kitchen and garden.

The kitchen level was lowered in order for it to act as a mid way level between the ground and lower ground floor levels of the existing house. This helps to connect all the living levels of the house. The original period detailing such as the cornice, skirting and ceiling roses were carefully stripped back to remove decades of repainting.

Monochrome graphics are represented in the tile choices and patterns within the bathrooms as well as the artwork on the walls. The staircase up to the loft extension has natural light flooding in from above – stretching out the previously dark Victorian stairwell. The staircase balustrade was designed to sensitively depart from the original staircase balustrade – stretching up towards the new floor of the house.

Photography by Adam Scott

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