Case study
Camden — a wraparound brick extension delivered with Vatraa
Geoff and Nicky’s north-facing Victorian terrace in Camden had everything a growing family needed except light — a dark kitchen-dining room under small windows, cut off from the garden. Working to Vatraa’s design, we extended the ground floor with a wraparound that re-laid 99% of the demolished flank and rear walls in reclaimed brick, opening the back of the house to the garden and giving the family the storage, the light and the calm all-white interior they had asked for.
Project at a glance
| Location | Camden, London |
| Property type | Victorian terraced house |
| Project type | Wraparound ground-floor extension |
| Programme | 80 working days |
| Investment | circa £140k (guideline) |
| Architect | VATRAA |
The brief
Geoff and Nicky, a growing family in a north-facing Victorian terraced house in Camden. The existing kitchen-dining area was dark and gloomy under small windows; the homeowners wanted an efficient layout with storage, more natural light, a stronger relationship with the garden, and an all-white interior palette. Vatraa was the architect.
The brief was constrained two ways. Budget was tight — value engineering was a design ambition, not a fallback. And the design called for a sensitive intervention that paid homage to the original Victorian fabric, which meant the new work had to read as part of the same conversation as the old.
The build
The wraparound geometry called for the demolition of the original flank and rear walls. Rather than sending those bricks to landfill and importing new ones, the design specified that 99% of them would be cleaned and re-laid into the new external walls. Our job on site was to make that target real.
Demolition was sequenced to keep the bricks intact. Each brick came down by hand, was cleaned of mortar, sorted for face quality, and stockpiled on site. The re-laid pattern in the new external walls reads as if the extension has always been there — a complementary addition that respects the character of the original Victorian house rather than competing with it.
Cellular beams separate the original building from the extension, doing the structural work and letting light penetrate between the two volumes. We coordinated the steel installation with the brick salvage programme — the demolition could not start before the steels were specified and ordered, but the brick reuse meant the new walls could not begin until demolition was complete.
Inside, the all-white materials request became a play of textures rather than a flat palette. The gentle north light meant we could specify exaggerated openings without overheating risk. A blue stained-glass round window picks up the colour of the original front-door glass, reconnecting the new space to the old.
Credits
Designed by VATRAA (Anamaria Rusu, Bogdan Rusu).
A wraparound extension that re-laid 99% of the demolished flank and rear walls in reclaimed brick, longlisted for Don’t Move, Improve! 2022 and built in 80 working days.
