December 10, 2019

The Petersen Brick House by Neil Dusheiko Architects

Written by Rebecca Clayton

A new extension designed using hand-crafted Petersen brick

The Petersen Brick House designed by Neil Dusheiko Architects was a project that saw the extension of a Victorian end terrace house in Hammersmith, West London. The elongated module at the rear of the property was designed with a dark brick exterior to create a unique aesthetic to the new architecture. The dark brick provides a strong contrast between the existing light brick façade of the existing terrace home, thus representing a bold differentiation between the new and existing areas of the property.

It was a critical design element to ensure that the new modern insertion was differential to the main ‘host building’, the original Victorian terrace home, to preserve its original character. Due to the location of the house, set within a Conservation area, meant that the design of the extension needed to be sensitive to the surrounding architecture. The 38m² extension was designed with similar materiality to the brick of the original end-terrace, however, the new extension used a different colour and brick size to represent a clear separation between new and old.

The exterior brickwork was carried through to the interior across the sidewall to provide added texture to the interior design. These hand-crafted bricks were manufactured by Petersen; a manufacturer of specialist brick products based in Denmark. This elegant feature draws the attention of the homeowners up to the strip rooflight that runs the length of one side of the extension.

This well-lit extension creates an open plan kitchen/living space that opens up to the rear garden through large glazed openings; resulting in a seamless transition between inside and outside. IQ Glass designed and installed various 'over-sized glazing' systems to fill these large openings.

A large minimal windows Vitra Pivot and two-track sliding doors were installed to these openings. These systems were chosen due to their impressive sizes and their minimalistic framing that allows maximum glazing. These large elevations of glazing allow maximum light ingress to fill the new open-plan extension. The glazing design helps to fulfil the architectural intent of simplistic volumes filled with natural daylight.

In 2018 the Petersen Brick House was shortlisted for the AJ Retrofit Awards in the House £250,000 - £500,000 category.

Photography Credit: Tim Crooker

Architects: Neil Dusheiko Architects