Daylight in the basement

Kitchen side extension to a Victorian house with a new basement below.

Why is this special?

Top lit stairs to a basement TV / games room with daylight from 3 directions.

The Challenge

In the search for more space for family life, the two obvious places to look on a typical narrow Lon-don plot are backwards and downwards. But do both and you risk running out of windows, leaving the original rooms as well as the new spaces in the dark.

Our Solution

Starting from the unlikely constraint of not wanting to lose the toilet under the original stairs meant finding another way to reach the basement. Adding striking sculptural stairs to one side of the original rear wing meant they could have a glass roof, bringing daylight direct to the middle of both basement and ground floor. Sliding glass doors at the back of the big dining / kitchen connect to the garden, but via a glass bridge across a full width lightwell. The finishing touch is a window in the kitchen floor, directly below another skylight. So, yes. That TV room

The Results

More space on two levels. A spacious family dining / kitchen facing the garden. A light filled fea-ture staircase at the centre of house leading down to a bright and contemporary home theatre/ playroom filled with light from both ends and above. But it also comes with blackout blinds, hidden screens and speakers for when what’s wanted is a cinema room.