Fernley Cottage
Program: House Restoration
Location: Hampstead, London
Area: 1,200 ft2
Status: Completed, 2025
Client: Confidential
Builder: Amirilan
Photo Credit: Jim Stephenson
Partner in Charge: Darius Woo and Katie Kasabalis
Fernley Cottage reimagines luxury through resourcefulness, transforming a neglected 150-year-old workers’ cottage in Hampstead Village into a generous 120m² family home. Rather than replacing the existing building, Kasawoo explored how much could be achieved by retaining, reusing and adapting what was already there—an approach the architects describe as “thrifty luxury”.
Kasawoo’s design preserves the cottage’s character while addressing its damp, impermeable construction and poorly executed 1980s extension. The narrow historic footpath leading to the house also shaped the construction strategy, with materials carefully considered for their weight and dimensions. A timber-led structural approach, using only two small steel members, minimises the need for heavy materials, extensive steelwork and concrete underpinning.
Resourcefulness continues throughout the interior. A kitchen designed with Holte Studio combines timber offcuts from other projects into an intentionally irregular three-species composition. Curtains incorporate surplus textiles and workshop remnants, while existing timber joists were catalogued and reused. A modular sofa rescued from a former client’s workplace was expanded with contrasting pieces, and a salvaged entrance door was transformed into the playful “Lemonade Stand”.
Hemp insulation, bio-based boards, clay plaster and mineral silicate paints allow the historic fabric to breathe while creating a comfortable contemporary interior. The original footprint was reorganised to eliminate corridors, giving every principal room front and rear aspects for daylight and cross-ventilation.
Fernley Cottage demonstrates how considered reuse can create richness without relying on excess, turning existing materials, constraints and traces of the past into sources of character, comfort and value.
Site Condition:
Other Works