Studio Dera adds sculptural extension to Mozart House in London
Full-height windows framed by sculptural panels of glass-reinforced concrete overlook two stacked courtyards at Mozart House, a London home extended by local practice Studio Dera.
Located in the Belgravia Conservation Area, the Georgian terraced home is famous for being both the site where Mozart composed his first symphony at eight years old and later as the home of author Vita Sackville-West and politician Harold Nicolson.
Studio Dera was asked to create additional living space for the client, expanding an existing one-bedroom extension at the end of the home's garden.
This included transforming the volume of a former basement pool into an additional bedroom, excavating further to create a small lounge overlooking a sunken courtyard.
"The deep rear garden gave us the opportunity to think of the project as part of the landscape, rather than as a conventional extension," Studio Dera co-founder Marcel Rahm told Dezeen.
"Matching the volume of the former pool for the extension allowed us to get bold and creative with the extension while still allowing the Georgian house to retain its presence," he added.
Studio Dera described the layout of the home, moving from the living area of the main home into a glazed link corridor that runs along the edge of the garden, as an "episodic journey".
Full-height sliding doors open onto an upper courtyard, with a staircase leading down into the lower courtyard. This sunken space sits adjacent to the ne lounge space and the dining room within the original home opposite.
Above the excavated area, the ground-floor bedroom volume was designed to feel like a garden pavilion, with a narrow, deep-set frame surrounding a large set of sliding glass doors that link it directly to the courtyard.
"We were interested in the new work feeling like an extension of the domestic garden landscape, at moments almost becoming a landscape itself," said Rahm.
"The excavation grounds the project in the site, and the lighter pavilion elements bring openness and repose," Rahm added.
"The sculptural glass-reinforced concrete (GRC) intervention – particularly the light pavilion of the new bedroom at the rear – helps balance the weight of excavation with a more delicate architectural presence."
Both courtyards are paved, with large round planters potted with trees and shrubs. In the upper courtyard, areas of translucent walk-on glass provide natural light for the lounge and bedroom below.
Inside, finishes have been chosen to feel "timeless, tactile and robust", with travertine, timber and textured lime plaster echoing the sculptural GRC elements of the exterior.
Elsewhere in London, architecture studio Pinzauer recently extended the former home of Anna Freud, the daughter of Sigmund Freud, adding similarly pavilion-like, concrete-framed spaces overlooking its rear garden.
Other London house extensions recently featured on Dezeen include Komorebi by ConForm, which uses perforated floors to filter light, and Druid Grove by CAN, which features cave-like openings and green timber tendrils.
The photography is by Lorenzo Zandri.
The post Studio Dera adds sculptural extension to Mozart House in London appeared first on Dezeen.
