Mike Tuck Studio

Groombridge Road, London

Mike Tuck Studio completed the extensive remodelling and extension of a 4 bedroom Victorian town-house in Hackney, London for a couple relocating from California in 2018.

The clients are Danish and American and wanted the interiors to reflect their love of timber and open-fires. The floors and walls are clad in Dinesen Danish timber and a bespoke 3-sided fireplace forms the centre of the ground floor. The new fireplace structures the ground floor and makes the hearth the centre of the home.

​A new roof extension creates a timber-lined snug with views over Wells Street Common – an annex to Victoria Park.

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Trelawn Road, London

Mike Tuck Studio were commissioned Erik and Rachel to remodel their home in East London. The house was a typical Victorian terrace which had ‘good bones’ but wasn’t suited for modern family life due to the ground floor bathroom and a very small 3rd bedroom. Erik, a photography teacher and Rachel, a publisher of illustrated children’s books wanted to add space to the house but also dramatically change the quality of light. The rear of the house is south facing and looks over the Central Line and A12 road which posed the dual problems of noise and overheating. During a collaborative design process proposals emerged for a bespoke, robust timber framed glazed façade which could offer shading to the windows while allowing ambient light deep into the rooms. Quick hand-sketches were used to develop the design and convey the spirit of the proposals to the client. It was important that the roof extension and ground floor addition should speak to each other and be seen as a single piece of architecture, particularly given the prominence of the back of the house from a nearby pedestrian footbridge.

Siberian larch and Douglas Fir timbers were chosen for their resilience to external use while being sustainably managed and easily obtainable. Internally the kitchen was a bespoke Ikea hack made from birch plywood which helped to keep the costs down. The client also manufactured their own bespoke concrete sink for the bathroom.

Riverside, Cambridge

We were commissioned by a Cambridge-based ceramicist to design  a building of two parts. The first is an extension to an existing late Victorian end-terrace house to open-up the ground floor and provide a family kitchen and living area. The second part is a new garden ceramics studio.

The design is a call-and-return between the two structures with the larch-clad facades reflecting each other across the garden.

The project’s location in Cambridge meant that it was subject to possible flooding and Mike Tuck Studio worked with the planners, building control and contractor to implement flood mitigation measures.