Nikjoo weaves terraces into townhouse on London parking space

London architectural studio Nikjoo has completed Lode, a redbrick townhouse in east London interwoven with courtyards to provide "sanctuary from the street".

The three-bedroom house by Nikjoo is located on a backland site tucked behind Stoke Newington's Church Street and was originally a parking space used by a convenience store to receive deliveries.

The site was bought by small developer Flawk to build Lode, named after a vein of precious metal to reflect the client's aim for the building to stand out like a "jewel" in the neighbourhood.

To reference the surrounding Victorian terraces, Nikjoo picked a deep red brick for the house's external facade mixed with a pink mortar to mirror the hues of the post-war housing blocks opposite.

With the intention of bringing light deep into the house's plan, the architect designed unusually tall windows on its east facade, as well as large skylights in bedrooms and circulation spaces. Playful portholes were added to its west facade.

The studio also worked closely with the structural engineer AS Construction & Structural Engineering to create a very shallow floor plate, allowing for generous ceiling heights of up to 2.8 metres.

Three outdoor spaces were included in the plan to create a connection to the outdoors, including two courtyards at ground floor level and a larger roof terrace on the second floor.

"The garden terraces introduce external rooms, providing sanctuary from the street through to the interior", said practice founder Alex Nikjoo.

On the ground floor is an open-plan kitchen, dining and living space that was given floor-to-ceiling glazing to let lin in natural light. The modular kitchen is positioned on one side of the room, where it sits against a wall of exposed concrete blockwork.

A staircase, which begins in concrete before moving into steel and then oak, leads upwards with a custom handrail designed by Flawk and made by north London-based metalworkers Atelier WAMA.

The balustrade features steel cables with suspended beads to add "playful sophistication".

The first floor includes two double bedrooms with built-in storage cupboards and ensuite bathrooms, as well as a utility and storage cupboard that is positioned off the stairwell.

To create visual continuity, exposed concrete blockwork and oak flooring continue in the bedrooms. At the top of the house is a third-floor main bedroom with a walk-in wardrobe, ensuite bathroom and access to a secluded roof terrace.

Flawk, a developer which says uses its residential projects as "platform for independent design", brought in a collection of objects, fixtures, and fittings by local makers and designers.

Hand-cast curtain rings were made by south London-based Jamps Studio, while the curtains were sewn by local business Princess Curtains using fabric from Hackney Draper.

The developer also designed bespoke pieces in-house, including the disc-brushed stainless-steel kitchen and shelving unit, custom ventilation grills, house numbers and a large dining table.

Internally, Douglas fir window reveals have been added to create a sense of warmth, while outside steel roof detailing and exposed concrete aim to "create a dialogue between the building and the varied streetscape", the designer said.

"The building is passively ventilated and well insulated with a high thermal mass provided by its raw blockwork structure, which also aesthetically meshes the new building with the fragments of existing buildings on either side", added Nikjoo.

"Meanwhile, concrete blockwork exposed internally increases the building's thermal mass, acting as a heat store in winter and aiding cooling in summer," he continued.

Lode is an evolution of an original design for the Stoke Newington plot by local practice JUB Studio, which was approved in 2017.

After the site was purchased by Flawk, Nikjoo Architects' submitted a series of amendments to the consented scheme, which retained its design principles but made changes to the exterior brickwork and layout, as well as its detailing.

Other London homes recently featured on Dezeen include a renovated house in Peckham that features a blue-stained staircase and a Victorian home extension in Stoke Newington that is topped with a wildflower meadow roof.

The photography is by Lorenzo Zandri and Jasper Fry.

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