WHOLE-HOUSE TRANSFORMATIONS
Neil Dusheiko Architects is a London studio specialising in the careful transformation of existing houses. We work with homeowners planning substantial renovations where the entire home needs to be reconsidered: its plan, light, circulation, material character and relationship with the garden.
Each project begins with a close reading of the building and the life unfolding within it. We look for the qualities worth preserving, the constraints that can become opportunities and the moments where a precise intervention can alter the atmosphere of the whole house.
Tell us about the building, the scale of work you are considering and how you would like the house to support daily life.
Best suited to
The studio is particularly suited to design-led projects of meaningful scale, where the ambition is to transform the whole property.
House Renovation Architects - London
Before drawing, we listen. We want to understand the rhythms of the household: where mornings gather, where quiet is needed, how you move through the home, what should be held onto and where the existing house could be improved..
The brief grows from these observations. A stair can become a source of daylight and orientation. A threshold can slow the transition from street to home. An opening towards the garden can change the temperature, colour and mood of a room throughout the day. Each move is considered for the effect it has on everyday life.
Heritage and Conservation
London houses carry layers of use, alteration and memory. Victorian terraces, inter-war villas and later family homes each have their own logic. We study their proportions, fabric and relationship to the street before deciding what to retain, repair, remove or add.
This approach can preserve the character and embodied value of the existing building while allowing contemporary life within it. Reclaimed brick, oak, lime-washed plaster, stone and metal are selected for touch, warmth and the way they will age. New work is designed to belong to the house while remaining clear in its own time.
House renovations
Many substantial London renovations involve conservation-area controls, sensitive neighbours, historic fabric or complex structural change. These conditions shape the design from the beginning. By resolving planning, spatial and technical questions together, the proposal can develop with clarity and architectural purpose.
Our approach to residential architecture brings close observation, design exploration and detailed coordination together from the earliest stages. For listed homes, our listed building architecture guidance sets out the additional considerations.
Our Projects
House of the Elements transforms a late-Victorian terrace into a five-storey living landscape. Full-height voids carry air and daylight through the house, while a double-height planted wall, terracotta thresholds and layered views bring nature into the centre of family life. The original front room retains its Victorian character; beyond it, the house opens vertically and becomes a place of changing light, growth and movement.
Aberdeen Park House is an inter-war villa in the Islington Conservation Area, reconfigured for a young family around light, airflow and a closer relationship with the garden. Its brick extension draws from the language of a neighbouring warehouse. A triangular rooflight brings morning light into the ground floor, while a curved stair rises past preserved stained glass towards the converted loft.
Tree View House began as a 1930s bungalow beside parkland. The renovation reorganises the home around gradients of rest and activity, from a compressed entrance to generous rooms that dissolve into the landscape. Cedar, terracotta, lava stone and poured concrete give the interiors warmth and depth, while the garden becomes part of the daily experience of the house.
Design process
Whole-house renovation asks for decisions to be made in the right order. Early studies establish what the building can support, how the brief might be organised and where planning or budget risks may sit. The design is then developed through drawings, models, material studies and close conversation with the client and wider consultant team. As the project moves towards construction, architectural intent is carried into junctions, surfaces, joinery, lighting and the many small decisions that determine how the finished house feels. This continuity matters on substantial renovations, where atmosphere depends on the coordination of the whole.
Our work is best suited to homeowners planning a substantial, design-led transformation and looking for an architect to consider the building as a whole. Read Is Your Project Right for Us for guidance on project type, ambition and ways of working, and review our project budget guidance before making an enquiry.
Planning a residential project
Across more than a decade of residential work, the studio has developed a body of award-winning renovations united by light, material craft and close attention to domestic life. House of the Elements won Best House at the Evening Standard Awards 2024. Tree View House received British Homes Awards for Home Transformation of the Year and Interior Designer of the Year, while earlier London projects have been recognised by the AJ Retrofit Awards and New London Architecture.
Recognition is one measure. The more enduring test is whether a house continues to reveal moments of pleasure after the project is complete: clouds moving above a rooflight, the texture of timber under a hand, or a familiar garden seen anew from the place where a family gathers.
FAQs
The studio focuses on substantial residential work, including whole-house transformations, complex refurbishments and renovations where extensions, interiors, planning and material detail need to be considered together.
Ideally, before the scope has been fixed. Early involvement allows the existing building, planning context, priorities and available budget to inform one coherent brief before major decisions are made.
Yes. The studio has experience transforming period and characterful homes in planning-sensitive settings. The building’s history and fabric are studied at the outset so that new work responds carefully to what is already there.
Yes, where this forms part of the agreed scope. Interior architecture, joinery, lighting and material choices are often developed alongside the wider architectural design so that the house feels resolved as a whole.
It is helpful to speak to us early, especially if your home is listed, in a conservation area, structurally complex or likely to involve planning permission. Early advice can help clarify the ambition, constraints, budget, programme and design direction before key decisions are fixed.