Using concrete and having an open mind means the owners of this London home have something very special on their hands
We can’t resist tinkering with our houses. In the 1980s we knocked through rooms and reached into the rafters to add loft extensions. In the 1990s side passages were glassed over and dusty coal cellars became utility rooms. Next came behemoth basement excavations. Now it’s all about the rear. Terraced houses that appear traditional at the front burst into cavernous open-plan extensions at the back. The glass box, gleaming with marble surfaces and bi-folding doors is every architect’s attempt to bring sunlit Californian modernity to cloudy British climes.