Origami House: A Folded Copper Extension for a Victorian Terrace in Haringey

Late Victorian terraces are some of London’s most understated masterpieces. Calm, rhythmic façades - repeating brick, sash windows and front gardens - form the familiar streetscape loved by generations. Yet, behind those façades are homes adapting to 21st-century life. Our Haringey project is one such story: a late-Victorian mid-terrace that now needs to stretch, fold and rethink how a London house performs.

This is our initial concept design for a wraparound extension in oxidised copper. It is a project shaped, quite literally, by constraint: planning rules, daylight requirements, boundary lines, neighbouring amenity and the fine grain of Victorian urbanism. Instead of fighting these constraints, we used them as the generative force for the whole geometry.

Origami House - a folded copper extension emerging behind a Victorian terrace in Haringey. Planning angles generate a sculpted roof form that opens the home to the garden.

The Triangulated Form

At first glance, the new extension appears as a sculpted fold in the garden - a shard of oxidised copper and glass emerging from the original brickwork. That shape did not start as an aesthetic gesture. It began with:

• planning visibility lines

• daylight angles to neighbouring gardens

• boundary setbacks

• roof height constraints

• existing door and window placements

By overlaying these angles, the plan drew itself into a series of triangular conditions. Those triangles became structure, which then became architecture.

What would normally be a one-storey rear volume is instead a sequence of planes, folded and articulated to bring light deep into the plan. The geometry isn’t arbitrary. Every angle is the outcome of design logic: obeying rules while expanding possibility.

The result is a language of clean, origami-like folds - a roof rising and dropping, a glazed corner that opens the dining space to the garden, and a copper canopy that shelters a bench and frames the kitchen.

A glazed corner seat at Origami House captures morning sunlight. The angled roof planes create a quiet place to read, shaped by planning constraints and daylight studies.

Oxidised Copper and London Brick

This geometry is clad in oxidised copper - a material with a spirit of permanence. As the years pass, the surface will deepen into green blues and earthy mineral tones; a quiet echo of the ivy-clad brickwork of the Victorian terrace.

To the street, the house remains Victorian - brick, bay, black railings, sash windows. To the garden, it evolves - angular, low-energy, contemporary. This contrast is important. It respects the collective memory of the terrace while giving the family the life they need today.

The copper is paired with honest materials: clay brick, lime plaster, timber, and polished concrete. The space feels like a continuation of the garden - earthy, tactile, warm.

Inside Origami House, triangulated ceiling planes draw sun into the kitchen and dining space. Clay brick, clay plaster and polished concrete form a calm, tactile interior.

The Dormer: A Lead-Folded Attic

The addition continues upwards, where a lead-clad dormer extension folds out of the roof. Lead was chosen deliberately:

• It’s a material with deep roots in London architecture.

• It visually belongs to the roofscape - recessive, soft, honest.

• It can be bent, folded and welded into precise geometric forms.

The dormer geometry follows the same conceptual line: sharp folds generated by constraints. What started as a planning negotiation becomes a spatial opportunity - a bedroom with better light, views and ventilation.

Internal Reconfiguration

Inside, the house is re-organised for clarity. Small rooms and narrow corridors give way to a flowing ground floor: kitchen to dining to garden in one movement. The triangulated geometry is visible at every turn - the ceiling planes, the glazed openings, the rooflights.

Natural light penetrates from three sides:
vertical glass, sloped roof glazing, and a corner window seat that captures morning sun.

With the new upper floor layout, the dormer allows a larger bedroom, improved storage, and enhanced acoustic and thermal performance to the rear.

The Tea Cosy: Low-Energy as Design

Beyond form, the project asks a fundamental question:
What is the simplest path to a deep reduction in energy use in a London terrace?

We are exploring:

• ASHP (Air Source Heat Pump) as the main heating source

• drastic reduction of thermal bridging

• increased insulation throughout - like wrapping the house in a tea cosy

• high-performance glazing

• natural ventilation strategies

• airtightness improvements

• low embodied carbon materials

We don’t see sustainability as a checklist. We see it as a way to reshape the building itself - how it feels, how it functions, and how it performs. The extension gives us the opportunity to treat the entire house as one energy system, not a patchwork of interventions.

Planning Constraints as Inspiration

Working in dense Victorian neighbourhoods requires both humility and invention. The angles, the folds, the geometry - they are all born from respect:

• for the neighbours

• for light and privacy

• for the original terrace

• for the planning envelope

The creative act here is to find beauty in those rules - to elevate what could have been restriction into identity.

In this project, constraint gave us the language: triangles, folds, planes, and material honesty. These become the architecture.

Towards Planning

This is an initial concept. The conversations ahead - with Haringey planners, with neighbours, with the family - will refine the proposal. But the story remains the same:

A late-Victorian house keeps its face to the street,
but dreams of the future through the garden.

And in between those worlds, architecture acts as the bridge.

Building for the future

At RISE, we believe that extending a Victorian terrace isn’t just about adding space. It’s about honouring what’s there while imagining what it could become.
It’s about crafting legacy - turning planning constraints into architecture, folding daylight into structure, and wrapping a home in warmth for the next generation.
A retrofit that answers to both climate and character.
That is bold enough to be different, and humble enough to belong in its street.

Thinking of transforming a Victorian terrace?
Let’s talk about how your home could unfold into the garden - and perform beautifully for decades to come.

→ Email us at architects@risedesignstudio.co.uk
→ Or call the studio on 020 3947 5886

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