White Rabbit House is a renovation of a 1970s Neo-Georgian terrace house in London’s Islington by local architecture firm Gundry + Ducker. The house underwent a total overhaul, keeping only the roof and external brick walls, while the 1970s interiors were removed to make way for a completely new interior and a new extension was added at the back.
A simple box shape in pale brick and a mottled white terrazzo lend the back extension a contemporary feel, in contrast to the brown brick of the rest of the building. Arched windows here and arched doors inside are a nod to the Neo-Georgian style of the building, while also being (again) completely contemporary. Green steel-framed glass doors open out directly to the outside.
Inside, the kitchen and dining space feature a striking forest green, while the terrazzo continues here, white with a dark fleck underfoot and black with a white fleck on the island benchtop. A large skylight above the kitchen floods the space with light.
The rest of the interiors branch off from a pill-shaped cantilevered staircase that runs across all three stories. “Local planning restrictions inexplicably prevented dormer windows to the rear (or any form of roof extension). Our solution was to move the floor levels around to achieve three stories, within the available space,” say Gundry + Ducker.
In the hallway, arched doorways continue through the internal hallway to the front door, while the white terrazzo is combined with a black marble in a checkerboard pattern. “We worked with a terrazzo specialist on a bespoke mix terrazzo used both in-situ and precast formats. This formed the stairtreads, the flooring, work tops and the cladding of the rear façade.”
Here, the selection of forest green, white terrazzo, checkerboard patterns and arched doors create an unmistakable sense of interior style that is also deeply rooted in architectural history.
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