Not far from the Emirates Stadium, a house sits on a quiet, charming residential street that feels tucked away from the city’s constant hum, yet closely connected to the energy of north London life. The neighbourhood has that distinctly Islington character: a mix of Victorian terraces, young families and long-time locals, with the occasional wave of Arsenal fans making their way to the stadium on match days.
When architect Roberto Di Donato first visited the house, it was cold, cluttered, dark and awkwardly configured, with a series of disconnected rooms and little relationship to the garden. Nevertheless, he says, ‘I was struck by its modesty; it had the charm of a home that had been well-lived in’. He was particularly inspired by the established garden – unusually long for the area with a towering tree at the end. ‘It conveyed a sense of peace and isolation. That garden, with its sense of depth and calm, became a key inspiration for how the project would unfold.’
His clients, a young professional couple, had found, like many others, that the experience of lockdown exposed the limitations of their living conditions. Their cluttered and compartmentalised home no longer supported their needs, but it offered the ideal canvas for a thoughtful transformation.
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The clients never gave Roberto a detailed brief with specific functional requirements or stylistic references. Instead they approached the project with an open and exploratory mindset, expressing a desire to simply maximise natural light, establish an intuitive spatial flow and create uplifting workspaces – far removed from the typical dark and forgotten box room. Ultimately, he recalls, they said ‘whatever the outcome, make it exciting, an architectural escape to break the monotony of the everyday’.
His studio’s approach to architecture is rooted in the belief that design is not about imposing sudden bursts of inspiration, but rather a thoughtful process that weaves together the existing context with the clients’ aspirations. For what they came to call the Dome House, the starting point was a deep engagement with the site’s potential and the couple’s vision for a transformative living space.
They began by reimagining the layout, focusing on the scale and possibilities of the garden extension. A key decision was to place the living area at the rear, opening onto the garden to create a retreat-like atmosphere. This maximised the house’s full width between party walls, breaking free from the spatial limitations of the narrow Victorian footprint. They positioned the kitchen at the front, so it could connect with the vibrancy of street life while remaining close to the central staircase for easy access to the upper floors.
Curved surfaces and the distinctive domed design emerged organically as a solution to practical needs: maximising ceiling height at the room’s centre to enhance spaciousness while keeping lower heights along the party walls to meet planning regulations and respect neighbouring properties. The construction of the extension’s distinctive domed roof was a complex challenge. The design, also featuring a green roof finish and curved skylights, demanded meticulous detailing and coordination.
The roof structure consists of steel profiles forming a trapezoidal framework. The internal dome was crafted by suspending a timber skeleton from this structure, clad with curved plasterboard to achieve the desired aesthetic. This intricate assembly required seamless collaboration between architects, structural engineers and skilled craftspeople, whose expertise was critical in bringing the vision to life with precision and finesse.
In line with their ‘soft-minimal’ design approach, Roberto and his team developed a natural, tactile palette aimed at enhancing the sensorial qualities of the space and its curved geometry. Alongside oak joinery and warm-toned brick, the use of Clayworks clay plaster across all walls and the ceiling was key. This continuous, earthy finish brings a softness to the interiors and generates a cocoon-like atmosphere, unifying the spaces while amplifying the effect of natural light across the textured surfaces.
While the dome is undeniably the ‘diva’ of the project, the detail Roberto is most satisfied with is the first skylight encountered when descending into the extension. ‘As you move down the steps,’ he explains, ‘the ceiling gently bends upward, culminating in the rounded skylight. It not only floods the room with natural light but, more importantly, becomes a transitional moment, a spatial threshold that marks the passage from the old part of the house into the new. It acts as a kind of quiet crescendo, a physical and emotional link between past and present, compression and release, structure and sky.’
His clients appreciate how the design has transformed their daily life, noting, ‘We still have a tendency to over-clutter, but the renovated space is at its best when kept simple. The parallel lines of the kitchen and the big sweeping curves of the skylight cutouts draw your eye through the house, out to the garden and up to the sky, creating a sense of space that exceeds its actual dimensions.’
They also highlight the dynamic shift in ambience: ‘At night the character completely shifts, the texturing of the walls captures the play of light and shadow, creating a comforting and intimate space (enhanced by a really effective lighting design!).’
Beyond the practical and aesthetic success, they were pleasantly surprised by moments of joy woven into the design: ‘the passage of the ellipse of light across the dome allowing you to track the sun’s progress across the sky, the ceiling disappearing above you as you step down into the extension, the kitchen doors that fold open and double up as door to the utility.’ These elements have made the space feel uniquely theirs, blending practicality with unexpected charm. rddarchitecture.com
