London-based architecture and interior design studio Studio Jayga Architects has created interiors featuring greenish kitchen cabinets, powder-colored walls and ceilings with soft-curved arched doors in Loughton, Essex.

Named nnU House, the house is a 41-square-metre project that emerges as new kitchen extension for a young family with demanding city careers in Loughton, Essex.

The studio redesigned the ground floor of the 1930s semi-detached house, including a brand new kitchen extension. As the studio explained, the project brief required creating a space for modern day, open-plan living with a strong connection to the 300 ft long beautiful garden.

The ground floor of the original house consisted of three spaces towards the back, including a dated narrow kitchen, a cramped windowless living room and a 1980s extension serving as the dining room. 

The rooms were taking place on one level, nearly a 1 meter above the garden, there were only a set of steep steps providing access to the garden. 

There was a further imposing outbuilding located very close to the house, which obscured the view of the garden and reduced natural daylight internally.

The studio proposed the demolition of the outbuilding and reconfigured the three spaces at the back by adding a new rear extension, to create a split-level design connected with internal steps. 

"This enabled the new kitchen floor to be level with the outside," said Studio Jayga Architects. 

The design team added a pair of metal arched doors to provide a direct physical and visual connection to the garden without any level changes. The arched doors also add a playful appearance to the façade with inverted arches.

The team designed a linear rooflight between the existing house and new extension linking the two internal spaces and allowing natural light into the centre of the house.

The up-and-over frameless glass box has been designed as a unique curved window seat. 

"It cantilevers out and provides uninterrupted views out into the garden and up into the sky. It is a great place to sit throughout the year and also allows natural daylight to flood the dining table below," the studio added.

The studio created bespoke solutions for the kitchen. The bespoke kitchen units and island was also designed by Studio Jayga Architects to evoke the soft curves of the arched doors and curved glass box. 

The shape of the island is elliptical and wrapped around with curved flutes and finished off with a colourful terrazzo worktop. 

The studio designed full-height wall units to maximise the amount of storage. They used natural colour tones to compliment and bring the colours of the garden in.

"The external envelope of the extension has been cladded with timber which has been charred on-site, using the ancient Japanese technique of ‘shou-sugi-ban’," added the studio.

nnU House is named in line with the geometric shapes of the two arched doors (‘nn’) and the up-and-over glass box (‘U’) when viewing the house from the garden.

Floor plan / before renovation

Floor plan / after renovation

All images © Marcus Peel

All drawings © Studio Jayga Architects

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