Reducing the number of rooms while creating more space turned an uninspiring house into a thing of beauty with an exotic garden to match
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lready weary from multiple house viewings that didn’t meet their criteria, Purvi Harlalka and Jyothish George were unenthused when details of a large, long-neglected HMO (house of multiple occupancy) in north London dropped into their inbox. First impressions in real life were equally lacklustre, at least for George.
“We arrived for our viewing and he whispered, ‘There’s no way we’re going to buy this dump!’” says Harlalka. “But later, I convinced him of its potential. It had so much light and, importantly, a garden. I knew it was the one.”
Harlalka’s brief to architect Jo Edwards of Edwards Rensen was to create a sense of spaciousness throughout the property, delivering fewer rooms but more space. “One of the attractions of this project was that the clients didn’t want to squeeze every bit of space out of it,” says Edwards. “They just wanted to make a beautiful family house for themselves.”
