Structuralist Estates Belsize Park terrace houses, London real estate redevelopment architecture photos

Structuralist Estates in Belsize Park, London

30 September 2025

Architects: WILLIAM TOZER Associates

Location: Belsize Park, London, England

Photos © Lukasz Wielkoszynski

Structuralist Estates, London, UK

A housing estate project in Belsize Park, London, by WILLIAM TOZER Associates.

The project entails the extension and complete interior renovation of a pair of terrace houses on the Chalcots Estate, designed by architect Dennis Lennon and Partners in the 1960s, after Lennon left Fry, Drew and Partners. The additional storey extrudes the existing facade, a faithful reproduction of the original so as to not diminish the overall effect of the estate—and as a model for progressive widespread development.

The new interiors of the houses are distinctly different from one another, reflecting the distinct needs of our two clients—but both open up the original, Functionalist floor plan of cellular rooms into open-plan spaces.

The new layouts are more aligned with the work of Structuralist modernists, promoting social interaction by overlapping areas of use, and allowing views through and between spaces. In contrast to the Functionalist modern exterior elevations, the white and timber-clad interior forms are articulated as sculptural rectilinear volumes.

WILLIAM TOZER Associates understands architecture as compositions of abstract sculptural form and space, and discrete functional ‘furnishings’ at various scales. Each project curates and re-frames the context and history of its site, and captures the open-endedness of the processes of demolition and construction.

Their projects make sculptural compositions of volumes and planes, loosely dividing open-plan spaces into zones of use through their alignments and misalignments, changes of floor and ceiling level, and continuities and distinctions in the selection of materials, lighting, and other fixtures and fittings.

Experiencing their finished architectural projects gives users and viewers a sense of engagement with the processes of conception, demolition and construction that are usually erased—a form of ‘action architecture’, giving formal and spatial expression to contemporary craft processes, including writing and drawing.