A new glazed pavilion extension to a Victorian terrace house in Stoke Newington, north London, creates a seamless transition from refurbished kitchen to re-landscaped garden. Its elegant form with narrow mullions is inspired by the curved shopfront windows of the Victorian era. The simplicity of the form belies a complex structural solution which creates the sense of a floating roof, allowing focus to remain on the glazing and views out to the garden. A monochrome interior palette, together with the dark frames of the glazing, creates a neutral backdrop for the owners’ furniture and homewares.

The single-storey, north-facing pavilion is sandwiched between a basement level and first-floor bathroom; the design had to respond to existing levels and ceiling heights and nestle carefully within. To open the space laterally, the pavilion roof is designed as a cantilever, with a single narrow column providing structural support. The complex structural balancing act is concealed in the roof soffit, which appears to float with ease above the pavilion’s glazed walls. The resulting structure is as lean as possible, celebrating the geometry of the curved glazing.