A jagged corrugated metal-clad extension sits atop a brick base at 6 Broadway Market Mews, London, which Delvendahl Martin Architects built over an artist's studio.

London studio Delvendahl Martin Architects refurbished the ground-floor workshop and built a new living space above.

6 Broadway Market Mews is one of a series of projects that the practice is working on in the area to address the displacement of local artists caused by east London's increasing number of conversions for residential use.

"Our client is part of the artist's community that has been based in the mews workshop since the early 1990s," project architect Joanna Barnes told Dezeen.

"The scheme responded to the conservation area's planning policy by retaining the workshop at ground floor and introducing a new residential unit at first floor."

This existing workshop provided the brick base for the new flat, which is constructed from a lightweight timber frame and clad with grey standing-seam metal panels, alluding to the area's more industrial past.

"Through these projects, we are aiming to establish a language of materiality and construction methods that is flexible, robust and cost-effective and versatile," said Barnes.

Located on a tight site, the extension has been created to ensure enough natural light can still enter into the workshop space below.

"The approach was to generate a shape which is set-back in plan to maximise the penetration of natural light into the workshop, while the roof form aims to minimise the sense of enclosure to the surrounding properties," said Barnes.

The studio flat above combines kitchen, living and bedroom space with a small terrace, sheltered under the roof and overlooking the garages behind the mews site.

For the interiors, the glulam spruce beams of the roof structure have been left exposed, with skylights helping to bring light into the white space. Out on the terrace, a gap in the wall covering frames the brick surface of the adjacent wall.

Several other narrow plots near to Broadway Market have also been the sites of small homes.

In 2018, Hutch Design extended a nearby mews house, and Liddicoat & Goldhill completed their Makers House project.

Photography is by Tim Crocker.

Project credits:

Architect: Delvendahl Martin Architects
Project team: Joanna Barnes, Estefania Alvarez
Structural engineer: PHI Design
CDM coordinator: Bernard Williams Associates
Building control inspector: Approved Inspector Services
Contractor: Sail & Sons