Ribbon House
Ribbon House
Ribbon House is a thoughtful transformation of a listed Victorian property, reworked to meet the needs of modern family living while honouring the building’s historic character. The project challenged us to balance preservation with invention, introducing a contemporary extension that draws from the language of the original architecture without mimicking it.
Set on a uniquely wedge-shaped urban plot, the house presented both spatial and geometric complexity from the outset. The listed South-facing frontage, protected for its heritage significance, remained entirely untouched. As a result, the design strategy concentrated on the northern side of the property, where a more expressive architectural response could unfold.
Internally, the ground floor plan was completely reimagined. The existing layout lacked cohesion for contemporary use, so rooms were reorganised to improve flow, privacy and flexibility. Changes in floor level, ceiling height and room depth generated a dynamic spatial sequence that required carefully coordinated structural solutions to maintain clarity and lightness throughout.
The rear extension introduces a contemporary counterpoint to the Victorian fabric. Its form plays with ideas of solid and void, pattern and shadow, drawing subtle influence from the building’s original detailing. A bespoke cladding design, derived from features such as the high-level brickwork, forms the defining element of the façade. This pattern demanded exceptional precision in both design and fabrication. A central structural column anchors the form, dividing the extension into higher and lower volumes that reflect the asymmetric geometry of the site.
“We love how the team at Stylus transformed our previously impractical warren of dark rooms across multiple levels into expansive, light-filled living spaces, while remaining true to the scale and character of the original house.”
Joe and Liz (Client)
Dynamic Spaces
The open-plan kitchen and dining area forms the social heart of the house, bringing clarity and generosity to what was once a fragmented arrangement. A carefully layered palette of materials, including timber flooring, exposed brickwork and finely detailed joinery, gives the space warmth and depth, while reinforcing the distinction between old and new.
At the rear, a full-height ribbed timber wall provides both visual focus and functional surprise. Concealed within it are drinks stations, bar storage and a discreet connection to the lower ground floor gym, allowing practical elements to remain hidden while contributing to the overall rhythm of the space. The kitchen itself is similarly restrained, fully concealed within an opening in the original brick wall, ensuring the room reads as a unified living space rather than a service zone.
The island anchors the width of the room, reinforcing its lateral generosity, while the architecture above subtly zones the plan. A large glass roof draws daylight deep into the kitchen, contrasting with the more solid, enclosed dining area beyond, which opens via sliding doors to the patio and garden.
Design Philosophy
The extension is conceived as a contemporary intervention that responds directly to the scale, proportions and detailing of the original listed building. Its form is broken into two distinct volumes, a taller dining space and a lower kitchen seating area, creating variation in height while maintaining a balanced relationship with the existing house.
A bespoke ribbon motif runs across the rear elevation, spanning the tops of the sliding doors and continuing through a central column that divides the glazed openings. This repeating pattern was developed as a modern interpretation of historic detailing found within the original building, allowing the extension to feel rooted in its context without imitation.
A planted facade element is integrated into the architecture, with sliding doors passing over it to align with a full-width internal window seat. This creates a direct visual and physical connection with greenery, blurring the boundary between inside and out. Internally, the design carefully balances solid and void, with rooflights strategically positioned to draw daylight into the depth of the plan. Internal glazing further enhances light penetration, ensuring even the most internal spaces feel open and connected.
The three-dimensional plan reveals an approach shaped by both building and site. Rather than imposing a rigid geometry, the layout responds to the irregular plot, strengthening existing adjacencies while introducing new connections that improve flow, legibility and natural light throughout the house.
Spatial Transitions and Connections
Movement through the house is defined by a sequence of carefully aligned thresholds, where doorways frame views, borrow light and establish visual continuity between spaces. Sightlines are deliberately extended across rooms and levels, allowing the house to be read as a connected whole rather than a series of enclosed compartments.
These moments of transition play a critical role in how the building is experienced, offering glimpses of light, texture and activity beyond each threshold. The result is a home that feels intuitive and fluid, where circulation spaces are given equal architectural importance to the rooms they connect.
Every Nook
Bespoke joinery is integral to both the character and functionality of the house, transforming residual spaces into purposeful moments. A large custom unit within one of the key transition zones responds directly to the site’s wedge-shaped geometry, using it to organise storage with precision.
At its narrowest point, the joinery becomes a bookcase. At its deepest, it opens into a walk-in pantry. Between these extremes, coats and shoes are neatly accommodated, allowing the unit to serve multiple functions while maintaining a cohesive presence. Elsewhere, finely detailed bar storage and breakfast seating are concealed behind ribbed timber panels, reinforcing the idea that utility should enhance, rather than interrupt, the architectural language.
Sky Views
Light is treated as a material in its own right, changing character throughout the day and across seasons. While overcast conditions emphasise the softness and evenness of daylight, moments of direct sunlight reveal a more dramatic quality, casting patterned shadows across walls, floors and joinery.
Rooflights and glazing are positioned to capture these fleeting effects, animating the spaces and reinforcing the connection to the sky above. The result is an interior that feels constantly in dialogue with its environment, calm and diffuse one moment, vivid and expressive the next.
“One of the key challenges of the project was to rationalise the volumes and the spaces, bringing a sense of order and flow. The building occupies a tight, irregularly shaped site, so ensuring that natural light could penentrate deep into the plan was a central consideration.”
Matt (Architect)
