The scope involved the complete removal of all existing internal elements of the five-storey Georgian terrace house in Pimlico, leaving a six-sided internal volume. Award-winning architecture practise, ama, then re-imagined the spaces within to deliver a new home environment with transparency and connection, materiality and texture, light and shadow, excitement and tranquillity.

A restrained palette of industrial materials – raw concrete and steel, combine with refined glass, timber and carefully detailed plasterwork to create a relaxed but crisp interior. To solve the issue of a dark and unwelcoming basement level so common in this building type, a ground floor made up entirely of pavement lights was introduced, common but unappreciated on every London commercial street – repurposed here to allow natural light and activity to connect the first two levels of the building.

From the basement level, a handmade steel staircase connects to the ground floor and then works its way up to the first floor, at which point the solid steel plates transform into a perforated metal spine which cuts right through the building to the top floor. This use of the perforations throughout the house help to intensify the light through various aperture dimensions.