Little Brownings by Archmongers Architects named London's best house extension

London studio Archmongers' "practical and playful" refurbishment of a home on Dulwich Estate was named the winner of the 2022 Don't Move, Improve! competition.

Little Brownings was named the overall winner of this year's Don't Move, Improve! – an annual award organised by New London Architecture (NLA) that highlights and celebrates innovative home improvement and extensions across London.

Little Brownings by Archmongers was named the winner of 2022's Don't Move, Improve!

The project saw Archmongers overhaul a dated 1960s terraced home in Forest Hill's Dulwich Estate to create a contemporary space that retained its mid-century characteristics.

It completed a full refurbishment and added a front extension to the three-storey structure.

Archmongers renovated and extended a 1960s terraced home

The studio converted a dated lean-to, with a roof lined with corrugated plastic, at the front of the home into a bright and open plan kitchen.

Glass panelling was incorporated throughout the home in order to maximise the look of the home without hindering light.

The front extension contains a kitchen

"The durability of our concept and materials demonstrates our approach to sustainability and placemaking," said Archmongers Architects partner Johan Hybschmann.

"These values have underpinned our work on Little Brownings, which sits within the renowned Dulwich Estate," he continued.

"Our design instills a freshness to the estate, but is driven by a sensitivity to its original vision, the context of each space, and the people that occupy it."

The home's material usage and now practical, playful and contemporary design is what led it to be selected as this year's winner by the jury.

"This overall winner strikes the balance between practical and playful with contemporary touches such as clay worktops in the kitchen and a secret study on the landing," said jury member and journalist Anna White.

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Read:

15 London home renovations shortlisted for Don't Move, Improve! 2022

](https://www.dezeen.com/2022/03/02/dont-move-improve-2022-shortlist/)

"This felt like the house we can all imagine ourselves in and the improvements we could all do if only we had the right designers! – the embodiment of Don't Move Improve," said Whitby Wood's founder and director Sebastian Wood.

Alongside White and Wood, the panel included property expert Kunle Barker and Coffey Architects director, Phil Coffey.

Don't Move, Improve! is an annual competition, open to home improvement projects that were completed in the last two years across any of London's boroughs.

The home is a three-storey structure

Little Brownings was shortlisted among 15 other projects, which were revealed on 2 March.

An additional five other projects shortlisted were also recognised in the awards spanning prize categories such as Unique Character Prize, Urban Oasis Prize and Compact Design Prize.

The studio used glass panelling throughout

Concrete Plinth House by DGN Studio was awarded the Materiality and Craftsmanship Prize. The Victorian terrace was renovated and extended by DGN who introduced a sunken concrete floor across its rear ground level.

In 2021, Studio Ben Allen's The House Recast took the competition's title of house of the year which was branded "rich and interesting" by the judging panel. Proctor & Shaw won the 2020 competition for its Soffit House extension.

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Dezeen Debate newsletter features London's best home renovations

The latest edition of Dezeen Debate features the 15 home shortlisted for the 2022 edition of Don't Move, Improve!

A converted artist's studio and a pastel-hued extension with Romanesque arches are among the projects vying to be named London's best home renovation in this year's Don't Move, Improve! competition.

Organised by New London Architecture (NLA), the contest celebrates the "most innovative home improvement projects" in the capital.

Commenters are impressed. One said, "Great works. I am inspired".

Women make up just one in five top positions at biggest architecture firms despite "huge jump"

Other stories in this week's newsletter include research conducted by Dezeen to mark International Women's Day, a story about a vulva-shaped spaceship concept, and BIG's design for its first building in the metaverse.

Dezeen Debate

_Dezeen Debate is a curated newsletter sent every Thursday containing highlights from Dezeen. _Read the latest edition of Dezeen Debate .

_You can alsosubscribe to Dezeen Agenda, which is sent every Tuesday and contains a selection of the most important news highlights from the week, as well as _Dezeen Daily , our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours and Dezeen.

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The House Recast by Studio Ben Allen wins Don't Move, Improve! 2021

A "rich and interesting" refurbishment of a Victorian house by Studio Ben Allen has been named London's best new home improvement project in the Don't Move, Improve! awards.

The House Recast is the overall winner of this year's contest, which is organised annually by New London Architecture (NLA) to showcase the diversity of homes in the UK capital.

Above: The House Recast has won Don't Move, Improve! 2021. Top image: the project was an experimental overhaul of a Victorian dwelling

Studio Ben Allen was invited to overhaul the dwelling by a retired couple who wanted to reorganise its layout while introducing a new kitchen and two bathrooms.

With an otherwise open brief, project architects Omar Ghazal and Ben Allen decided to use the project as an opportunity to experiment with off-site fabrication techniques and pigmented concrete for the home's structure and finishes.

Studio Ben Allen introduced two new bathrooms

The architects said this was inspired by the house's original Victorian design, "where the brickwork is patterned and decorated, while also being a load-bearing material and having the speed and quality by being fabricated offsite."

It was this unconventional approach and the way it complements the house's original features that led the project to be crowned the overall winner by the jury.

A Cloistered House won the prize for Urban Oasis of the Year

"It feels very much like a modern intervention, but it feels completely in keeping with the period of the property and the original motives," reflected jury member and architect Melissa Dowler.

"I think there's something really rich and interesting there in that relationship and I think they've played off that really nicely, without falling into pastiche or cliche."

The Environmental Leadership Prize was given to Fraher & Findlay's Segal House

Dowler was joined on the panel by NLA's curator-in chief Peter Murray, Amin Taha of Groupwork and Grand Designs Magazine editor Karen Stylianides.

Whitby Wood's Sebastian Wood was also a member, alongside property journalist Kunle Barker, Tom Foxall of Historic England and managing director of NLA Tamsie Thomson.

A playful revamp of a family home took home the Unique Character Prize

The competition is open to home improvement projects completed in the last two years in any one of London's 33 boroughs.

The House Recast was selected as the winner for 2021 from a shortlist of 22 projects revealed on 24 March.

A council house renovation won Compact Design of the Year

Eight other shortlisted projects were also recognised in the awards, including A Cloistered House by Turner Architects, which won the prize for Urban Oasis of the Year.

Fraher & Findlay's renovation and extension of a Segal House – a dwelling designed following Walter Segal's self-build methods – won the Environmental Leadership Prize.

Meanwhile, a playful revamp of a family home by CAN was the recipient of the Unique Character Prize. The project includes a rear extension topped by a fake mountain.

Two and a Half Story House by B-VDS Architects and a council house renovation by VATRAA were jointly awarded the prize for Compact Design of the Year.

Two and a Half Story House by B-VDS Architects also won Compact Design of the Year

This year, the programme also introduced an award for Work From Home Design of the Year, which was given to Sonn for its green terrazzo-clad garden studio.

A prize for Best Project under £100k was given to ER Residence – a pared-back overhaul of a north London flat by Studio Hallet Ike that included a blackened timber extension.

A terrazzo garden studio was named Work From Home Design of the Year

The final award, the Materiality & Craftsmanship Prize, was given to Hayhurst and Co for its remodel and extension of a semi-detached residence called Grain House.

Previous winners of Don't Move, Improve! include a "beautifully understated" rear extension by Proctor & Shaw and a home created within the shell of a derelict chapel.

House Recast photography is by French + Tye.

The post The House Recast by Studio Ben Allen wins Don't Move, Improve! 2021 appeared first on Dezeen.

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VATRAA adds pink plaster walls in south London council house renovation

Architecture studio VATRAA has won a Don't Move, Improve! award with this London council house renovation featuring pink-toned plaster walls and an oversized window.

Called Council House Renovation, the project involved a full refurbishment and remodelling of the two-bedroom home in Bermondsey, south London.

VATRAA's design was a joint winner in the 2021 Compact Design of the Year category for Don't Move, Improve!

An oversized window creates transparency from front to back in the Council House Renovation

VATRAA's clients wanted a warm, contemporary interior that gave them more space but without an extension that would disrupt the appearance of the council estate, which was built in the 1980s.

Instead, the architects aimed to create spaciousness within the small, 76-square-metre flat by making only minimal interventions.

The architects created a warm and contemporary look

Seeing the opportunities the small seven-by-seven-metre footprint presented for enhanced front-to-back transparency, the architects swapped out an ornamental bay window for a larger clean-lined square one.

It forms a new aesthetic feature and frames views of the evergreen front garden.

Ceiling joists are exposed in the living room

Another key feature is the textured, dusky pink-coloured walls.

This effect is created with what VATRAA describes as a "banal" plaster, British Gypsum Multifinish, avoiding the cost and resources of wall paint altogether.

VATRAA applied the plaster carefully to achieve a textured and slightly reflective finish that responds well to daylight, creating different moods and effects at different times of the day.

Teamed with white ceilings and white-washed oak floors, it forms an aesthetic backdrop to the clients' collection of art and design objects.

There are white-washed floors and white ceilings

For the floor plan, VATRAA were guided by the existing stairs and heating source, a pre-feed water tank that is part of a communal system.

To take advantage of its heat, they placed the laundry room around it so clothing would air-dry faster, and the bathroom directly above so the floor tiles would be warmed without additional heating.

An angled pantry optimises the space under the stairs

Each of the other spaces is given its own atmosphere according to function.

The architects made the entrance lobby grander by opening the ceiling to the pitched roof and incorporating the old external loggia into the interior.

The kitchen has bespoke furniture and cabinetry

In the living room, they exposed the previously concealed structural joists in the ceiling, making the 2.4-metre-high space feel loftier.

In the dining room, they created an angled pantry feature that makes the most of the awkward space underneath the stairs and added bespoke solid oak dining furniture.

Different qualities of light create different moods in the house

Upstairs, the two bedrooms are finished in calming all-white to create a contrast to the stimulating warmth of the downstairs living areas.

"The morning transition between the night and day zones becomes an event, giving the homeowner a sensation of energy, immediately as she steps into the stairwell and descends to the ground floor," said VATRAA.

"With thoughtful decisions fully grounded in the context we operated in, we managed to turn a disregarded ex-council house into a home with a distinctive character, now proud to tell its story through space, light and materials."

The upstairs bedrooms are a contrast in clean white

VATRAA was founded in 2018 by Anamaria Pircu and Bogdan Rusu, who are based across London and Bucharest. They completed the Council House Renovation in 2020.

It was named the Don't Move, Improve! Compact Design of the Year alongside Two and a Half Story House by B-VDS Architecture, another project in a council estate.

Photography is by Jim Stephenson

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A tiny house in Tokyo features in today's Dezeen Weekly newsletter

The latest edition of our Dezeen Weekly newsletter includes a tiny house in Tokyo formed of stacked boxes.

A small home wrapped in corrugated steel is being admired by readers, who are calling it "a really fantastic little building."

House Tokyo was designed by Unemori Architects to make the most of a small plot of land in a densely populated area of the Japanese city.

Don't Move, Improve! 2021 shortlist spotlights London's best house renovations

Other stories in this week's newsletter include the Don't Move, Improve! 2021 shortlist, Jean Nouvel's proposal for a giant opera house in China, and the Paradero Hotel in Mexico.

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Read the latest edition of Dezeen Weekly. You can also subscribe to Dezeen Daily, our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours.

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