A discreet yet highly accomplished new-build house that demonstrates Ellis-Miller + Partners’ particular expertise in unlocking the potential of tight, complex urban sites.

The project forms the final piece of a sensitive urban composition: a new 2-bedroom family home built on a narrow infill plot immediately adjacent to a Victorian end-of-terrace house that the client simultaneously refurbished and extended as their main residence. The two properties now read as a coherent pair while retaining their own distinct identities.

Set across three storeys plus a newly excavated basement, the house is organised around a dramatic double-height lightwell that brings natural daylight deep into the plan at every level. The lightwell faces a two-storey living green wall, creating a calm, verdant outlook from principal rooms and forming a private external courtyard at basement level.

Externally, the massing and scale carefully mediate between neighbouring properties. The façade is clad in hand-made Belgian Vande Moortel brick chosen to complement – rather than mimic – the traditional London stock brickwork of the adjacent terrace, resulting in a contemporary yet contextual addition to the street.

Inside, the palette is warm and tactile: exposed in-situ concrete soffits, sawn European oak joinery, and bespoke metalwork create a refined, understated elegance. Working drawings and site delivery by Paper House Project.

The result is a sophisticated, light-filled urban home that feels generous despite its compact footprint – a quiet, confident addition to one of Hackney’s most characterful streets.