How we brought Los Angeles to London

Lily Pond House

How we brought Los Angeles to London


Height of atrium 5.5m
2 lily ponds created
1 set of stairs moved

While this mid-terrace, double-fronted Victorian home in Muswell Hill had the potential for a fantastic garden, its owners Susie and Oliver, never felt quite connected to it: accessed at basement level via narrow stairs, the outside space was a full storey down from the front of the house.

Seeking extended living space, they entrusted us to make radical alterations to the inside of the house that corrects this relationship to the outdoors. We were inspired by the case study houses of Pierre Koenig in Los Angeles, with their open, efficient plans and minimal structures frame views out to bring the user closer to nature.

At Muswell Avenue, the talented garden designer Manoj Malde had created a series of pools and terraces so that there’d always be seating in the sun despite the garden facing north. We responded by relocating the main living spaces – which had been at the same level as the entrance, a full floor above – into the former basement and a new rear extension. These spaces no longer feel like a basement, with the garden brought hard up against them so they are flooded with light that bounces up and off the reflecting pools outside.

By shifting the existing four-storey stair to one side, we’ve created views from the upper floors of the house down into the garden and up to the sky. To further connect inside and outside, we took out the floor of the back room above the basement, a move that has created a double-height volume, light and drama. Finally, the roof of the extension forms a green terrace so that the remaining ground-floor rooms also have a direct connection to the outdoors.