Mews House
Client Private | Dive Architects Ia Hjärre, Andy Nettleton, Catherine Pease | Structural Engineer Eckersley O'Callaghan | Main Contractor Varbud Construction | Photographer Åke E:son Lindman + Jefferson Smith | Location London, UK | Size 180 sqm
A mews house off Oxford Street, stripped back to its perimeter brick walls and rebuilt within. Once a five-bay garage with a flat above, it is now a family home crowned by a roof garden.
With exterior alterations tightly restricted by planning, the street elevation was preserved. The only intervention at ground level was to re-centre the entrance, unlocking a more coherent plan within.
The design turns on two incisions through the house: a rooflight running its full length, and a new staircase that carries both circulation and daylight down through the levels. Lowering the slab over the former garage yields four stepped floors, with a roof terrace tucked between the butterfly roofs.
Living spaces and bedrooms are distributed across both storeys rather than stacked in the conventional manner. Bounded by neighbours on three sides, the house draws light from every available edge — the rooflight above, the cantilevered roof terrace glazed on both flanks, and new openings onto a narrow courtyard.
The result is a layered sequence of spaces, each with its own distinct quality of light.
