Knox Bhavan completes "elegant and refined" overhaul of Notting Hill home

Oak joinery and white surfaces run throughout the interior of Heartwood, an end-of-terrace house in London renovated by local architecture studio Knox Bhavan.

Located within the Colville Conservation Area in Notting Hill, the four-storey home was overhauled after years of neglect had compromised its structure.

A new oak-framed "shopfront" entrance declares Knox Bhavan's renovation, which required rebuilding the collapsing walls, uneven floors and a damaged roof to create light-filled interiors.

Front elevation of Heartwood by Knox Bhavan — Knox Bhavan has renovated a home in Notting Hill

"This project was an exercise in turning constraints into opportunities," studio director Fergus Knox told Dezeen.

"Structural failings and tight urban conditions demanded inventive solutions, which in turn shaped the character of the design," he continued.

"At the same time, the project embraced opportunities for sustainability, introducing a discreet solar array and air-source heat pump within the historic envelope."

Oak entrance to Notting Hill home — An oak entrance declares the renovation

Entering through Heartwood's oak frontage immediately reveals a skylit, white-steel staircase at its centre, which reorganises a previously cramped series of rooms into a stack of clearly defined levels.

At the rear of the home, a terrace features a large walk-on skylight that pulls light down into an expanded basement.

Bookended by this skylight and a lightwell at the front of the home, the basement contains a snug, kitchen and dining area, which is overlooked by a timber-lined study and library on the ground floor.

"The defining moments are the new shopfront and the generous roof light, which bring daylight deep into the house, transforming the basement and ground floor," Knox said.

"The central staircase is the architectural heart of the project, a sculptural, lacy steel structure with oak treads that unifies all levels, animates circulation, and floods the interior with light," he continued.

Interior of Heartwood by Knox Bhavan — Oak joinery and white walls are used throughout

Heartwood's first and second floors each contain an ensuite bedroom, with the third floor hosting two bedrooms that share a bathroom with a cylindrical, skylit shower.

The oak finish of the home's frontage is carried through into the interiors, where it has been used for storage and bookcases in the snug, library and bedrooms, as well as the floors of the upper levels.