London Brut: Renovation of a brutalist townhouse in Chelsea

 West London, United Kingdom

Architecture & Interiors: Pricegore

Photography © Johan Dehlin

>>>

Pricegore Architects has revived and extended a brutalist townhouse in the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, taking a robust approach to the conservation of modernist architecture that draws upon the site’s Victorian history to maximise spatial potential.

The clients who admired the 1960’s block for some time purchased the house in 2020 becoming its second owners. In need of major renovation, they appointed Pricegore to rework the building and reconfigure the five-bedroom home into a generous three-bedroom plan, with living spaces better suited to contemporary family life.

At first floor level, the potential of the existing formal living room has been realised with new floor to ceiling glazing that slides back to give the room a loggia-like character. The tall plants and grasses on the roof of the ground floor extension provide a green threshold to the room, and add a sense of privacy from the surrounding homes. 

Pricegore Architects dramatically transforms a 1960s townhouse to create a sustainable and healthy home that connects to nature, and has won a 2025 RIBA London Award

Pricegore Architects have won the AJ Retrofit & Reuse award in the category of Private Renovation (£1m+) for their project to rework a 1960s townhouse to create a contemporary low energy home.

The house is extended both horizontally and vertically through the excavation of the ground floor to create a generous new living space. The house was stripped back to the structure, and insulated with carbon negative woodfibre insulation throughout. New systems including an air source heat pump and mechanical ventilation heat recovery provide efficient hot water, heating and clean air throughout the year. A new skylight above the stairs provides stack effect passive cooling in the summer months. Proximity to nature is maximised through the densely planted garden and roof garden, plus framed views of the surrounding trees. The house is situated within the Sloane Stanley Conservation Area of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.

The judges said:

‘It’s rare to find architects with the subtlety of touch to combine sophisticated architecture together with sophisticated retrofit’

The project also won the DMI Urban Oasis award in 2024