OEB Architects pulls London extension back from boundary to frame garden

A green-tiled kitchen island, a red-tiled column and a glass-block wall sit at the heart of London Tropical, a rear extension to a Victorian terrace in Southwark by local practice OEB Architects.

The brief was an open-plan kitchen and dining space for the three-storey terrace, designed so the owners would feel "surrounded" by the garden. The studio's answer was to reject the standard template.

"The clients were keen not to have a conventional top-lit infill extension, with a roof light sloping down to the boundary, as is common among extensions to Victorian terraces," project architect Gabriel George told Dezeen.

Instead, the practice pulled the volume back from the southern boundary and lined it with a glass-block wall plus full-height windows. The move produced a courtyard and side return where most projects would simply build to the edge.

"This expansion is set back from the boundary, providing both a passage and a new outlook from inside," George continued. "This results in two new external spaces, a courtyard addressing the main house and the rear garden serving the extension. Each is wrapped in full-height glazing with a range of transparencies responding to each view."

An end wall of full-height sliding glass doors completes the perimeter, letting the dining space open fully onto a patio wrapped in leafy planting.

Why the 1980s?

The interior combines glossy ceramic tiles with white-painted surfaces, stone floors and pale timber carpentry and ceilings. It's a quiet backdrop with two loud anchors — a fair description of 1980s taste, arguably.

"The material and spatial ideas were driven by conversations with the clients discussing architectural precedents along with art, graphic and design references, including mid-century West Coast American case study houses, 80s interiors and tropical modernism," George said.

The glossy tiles and translucent glass blocks aren't decoration alone. They were chosen to shift the quality of light through the day, an effect the south-facing courtyard can reinforce with translucent curtains that screen it off.

"The project considers how an extension to a typical Victorian outrigger can connect to its modest urban garden," George told Dezeen. "It explores the layering and overlaying of translucent and reflective materials and bold, graphic objects to give a nuanced and varied space through all seasons, contributing to a feeling of living surrounded by the garden."

How the plan works

The extension's floor level steps up to meet the back of the main house, with a connecting corridor flanked by a bathroom and pantry.

OEB Architects was founded in 2018 by directors Tessa Baird and David Eland and works from London and Brighton. The studio previously expanded a semi-detached home in Tottenham with a simple blockwork and timber structure.

Project credits:

• Architect: OEB Architects
• Structural engineer: Bailiss & Company
• Approved inspector: Stroma
• Main contractor: Oakfield Limited London
• Joinery and finishing: Oakfield Limited London
• Column tiles: Blueprint Ceramics
• Kitchen island tiles: Johnson Tiles
• Floor tiles: Solus
• Glass blocks: Glass Blocks Direct
• Fabrics: Vesom

With London Tropical, the set-back typology does the heavy lifting that roof lights usually perform — a model that trades maximum floor area for daylight on three sides, and one other terrace owners in Southwark may well study.