London architects built themselves an extension for enjoying rainy weather

For their own home in north London, architects Anna Liu and Mike Tonkin of British firm Tonkin Liu spent 12 years designing and building an extravagant rear addition envisioned as a theater for the weather.

Alex Peacock via Designboom

A curved glass-walled hall leads past a courtyard terrace to a small covered space backed by a mirrored workshop. The swooping roof of the structure is richly planted with sedum and punctured by glass-domed holes that bring circles of light into the space.

Edmund Sumner via Designboom

But the real magic happens when it rains. Water gushes off the roof of the main house into a black downpipe that curves along the interior edge of the extension’s roof to gush out into a rainwater harvesting tank. The water from the tank can be used to flood the terrace, turning it into a reflecting pool at the push of a button.

“It is a good place to be on a bad day,” say the architects.

Edmund Sumner via Designboom

The backyard extension hides a sunken basement bedroom and two new bathrooms—lit by a sunken light well filled with plants.

Edmund Sumner via Designboom

Via: The Guardian, Designboom