Formation Architects were appointed to provide a new home for a private family in this Victorian townhouse in Holland Park. Working in close collaboration with Interior Designer Eric Egan, we produced a plan to reconfigure the main six storey house and mews house to the rear, connecting them with new accommodation under the garden. Planning Permission was granted in 2014 followed by a construction stage of 33 months. The completed house is three times the area of the original and contains finishes of the very highest quality.
Eric Egan
Interior Designer
The new two storey basement has a total size of 13,678ft2, this is connected to a re-constructed mews house at the back of the property via additional floors underground. Landscape architect Tom Stuart Smith designed a series of garden nooks, seamlessly blending the existing level changes and trees with a new sunken courtyard linking the two properties.
The new basement now houses a gym, private IMAX cinema, flight simulator room and media room amongst other luxuries.
Working in close collaboration with Heyne Tillett Steel, the new basement structure comprises a combination of reinforced concrete underpinning and an adjoining piled retaining wall with a concrete liner wall in front. Knight Build were the main contractor for the basement structure.
Working in close collaboration with the Interior Designer, M&E engineer SWP and AV consultant Cornflake we designed the UK’s first private IMAX home theatre. The 15-seat cinema is also completely sound-proofed to mitigate noise being heard elsewhere within the property. Size Group carried out the fit out.
In the original house, the interior and structures were entirely remodelled. The new central staircase, made from cantilevered limestone treads links all six floors, led by one long, smooth mahogany railing. Exquisite hand-crafted details include the dining room doors that took marquetry studio Aryma more than a year to recreate based on a design inspired by Hotel Gajoen in Tokyo, and painstakingly restored 18th-century chinoiserie wallpaper.
