Discover How Perforated Floors Transform a London Home with Dappled Light and Interconnected Spaces

Perforated metal floorplates allow sunlight to filter deep into the interiors of Komorebi, a terraced home in London renovated by local architecture studio ConForm Architects. Named after the Japanese concept of Komorebi – the uplifting feeling of dappled sunlight filtering through leaves – the dwelling in Dulwich was updated to create a more interconnected layout for a father and his two sons.

ConForm Architects introduced new living spaces at the rear of the home, while creating a large void crossed by areas of perforated floor to help "amplify" an existing skylight at its centre.

"For us, this project was about moving away from static rooms to create a better-connected home," the studio told Dezeen. "The real opportunity lay with an existing, unusual central rooflight. Instead of erasing it to gain floor space, we leaned into it, extending the void upwards to create a mechanism that draws daylight deep into the plan," it added.

"By using perforated steel floorplates and open voids, we allowed light to become both structure and atmosphere, filtering it through the home so the spaces feel alive and intrinsically connected rather than separated."

The central daylit void of Komorebi separates the largely unchanged front of the home from a series of entirely new concrete-framed spaces at the rear, which the studio says "unfold in unexpected vertical and horizontal layers". Alongside the exposed concrete frame, the brickwork that lines this daylit void was given a finish of slurried, whitewashed mortar to enhance the feeling of light and space.

On the ground floor, a newly opened-up axis passes through the central void to unite the dining, kitchen and living areas, with a lounge at the rear opening onto the garden through a large glass pivot door. Above, a first-floor bathroom and a study sit behind the home's bedrooms, topped by an inverted-pitch roof and finished inside and out in pale brickwork.

An additional "pod room" next to the central rooflight on the second floor offers additional living space for the client's teenage boys, ending in a large timber-framed window overlooking the garden and surroundings. A timber staircase with open treads alongside the home's central void connects each level, with its landings also given perforated metal floors.

"We utilised the existing split-levels to our advantage, knitting these zones together vertically with open stair treads and voids," said the studio. "It means that even when doing different things on different floors, the family remains visually and audibly connected," it added.

ConForm Architects was founded in 2017 by Ben Edgley and Eoin O'Leary. Previous projects by the studio include another extension in London that opens a flat up to its garden and a "homely" office in the brutalist Smithson Tower.

The photography is by James Retief.