Commissioned by multiple generations of the same family, the brief for Canonbury House was to create two separate homes for grandparents, and their children and grandchildren, within the same Grade II-listed townhouse. 

The house had seen only minor alterations throughout its history, including the addition of a small, low quality, lower ground floor extension. The original closet wing was still clearly defined, and there was a desire from the planners that the historic character of the rear of the house be maintained. 

The solution was to create two new lead-topped glass and timber rear extensions, one for the grandparents as part of a new lower-ground floor flat, and one as part of the larger family home on the upper levels. These two extensions, similar in materials and character create a unifying approach to the house and provide equal access to the shared garden, yet offer clear differentiation between the two domains.  

The design of the two extensions echoes the form of the existing closet wing, and amplifies the character of the rear of many Georgian townhouses, with a series of shifting volumes of differing heights and depths.