02/08/2025
The skip is staying empty for a while yet; deconstruction over demolition. 🧱
Work has started on site in Stoke Newington and .london has just finished a careful strip-out at our Stoke Newington project and every brick from a two-storey outrigger to the rear is stacked on site, ready for reuse. Deconstruction over demolition keeps the history – and the embodied carbon – in the building rather than the landfill.
It’s a practice refined on a previous project in Stoke Newington where an ailing outrigger was deconstructed and rebuilt with its own bricks, in a single skin of brickwork with a well-insulated timber frame behind. Timber frames stood in for steel, proving that lighter, lower-carbon choices can still unlock wide openings and generous light.
The same playbook guides the next moves here: a lighter side-return and rear extension for a kitchen that spills into the garden, and a raised outrigger floor to borrow a little head-height magic. Lower carbon, healthier fabric, no compromise on daylight or space.
The first stage of any renovation reveals so much. Peeling back the layers also reveals the ghosts of past wall coverings: faded florals, bold stripes, tiny pencil heights, and these photos show how its rather special what you can find! By deconstructing, we learn how the house was built, how it has moved, and where it’s vulnerable, knowledge that lets us honour its history while preparing it for the next chapter.
This is why we deconstruct, not demolish. It is a slower, more deliberate process of dismantling, salvaging, and learning. 💌
P.S. a few details we like from .[email protected]'s site: keeping the downstairs loo intact as a site loo and deconstructing around it (pic 6) and a rather cute temporary house number (pic 7)
