The central surgical act is the excision of the exterior brick wall at the back of the house. This sharp delineation allows the robust articulated brick exterior to be retained, while the interior becomes reductionist in its focus on essential elements of light, proportion and volume. This ‘shearing off’ is expressed through new brick soffits that visually resolve the chimney and second floor stair whereby they float above the sharp steel line between original and new. The lower part of the brick exterior walls are replaced with super scaled glazed walls that contribute a new connectedness to the site. A new concrete plinth creates a new two-sided courtyard that aligns the outdoor space with the interior. Within, sharply contrasting elements include razor thin-aluminum fins that notionally cut through restored crown moldings and wainscoting to achieve pristine full-height openings that connect the more formal rooms of the ground floor.

Throughout the house, the beautifully constructed layers of the original structure are revealed and celebrated. The team was careful to keep the surface record of the house’s auspicious history, achieving a light-filled and well-proportioned balance between past and present. Certain features are stripped back to the bare brick walls, with traces of the past left behind as evidence that the building has been cared for and adapted over the years, with each generation adding its own layer to a unique history. The most expressive example is the north gallery wall, a palimpsest of previous openings and floor levels. The renovation leaves untouched brick joist pockets, a jack arch, a black brick stringcourse, and exposes the lesser-valued yellow brick of an unearthed original rising wall. This historical narrative is washed in light by the over-scaled transparent openings of the modern intervention.