168 PORTOBELLO ROAD, NORTH KENSINGTON
Facing planning restrictions, then in power, which did not allow alterations to roofs facing the street, we gained planning permission to change the roof material from slate to glass. We gained headroom in the roof space by dropping the ceiling of the second floor. The new attic living room faces due west. Glorious sunsets can be watched behind the gable of the Notting Hill Community Church in Kensington Park Road. Light steel frame supports the glass. To aid visual lightness the horizontal joint between the vertical and sloping sheets of glass was left without a steel member. The central part of the glass roof opens like a gull wing allowing access to a roof terrace. The roof extension increased the developer’s profit as he did not anticipate this additional floor area when buying the building. In July 2003 a Channel 4 program production company filmed the project.
