In a quiet Notting Hill mews, London studio Arya Douge has turned two tired garages into a 1,327 sq ft home built around a five-metre-high living space that pulls daylight deep into the plan.
Set on a cobbled lane in Notting Hill’s Conservation Area, the project reworks two former 870 sq ft garages into a contemporary two-bedroom house that prioritises light and vertical volume over maximising every inch of floor area. Located at 17–18 Colville Mews, the building once formed part of a network of coach houses and service structures for the grand terraces of Colville Terrace to the north, but had fallen into disrepair and was largely used for storage.
Externally, Arya Douge’s intervention restores the architectural character of the mews while introducing a new residential programme within the existing structure. Traditional stock brickwork is reinstated to the front elevation, failing garage openings are replaced with a finely detailed mews-style timber façade, and new timber sash windows with slimline glazing sit alongside traditional ironmongery and cast-iron rainwater goods to reconnect the building to its historic streetscape.
The site sits within a complex planning context, with earlier residential conversion proposals refused, so the practice explored several strategies for introducing daylight into the depth of the plan. “We tested a number of approaches to bring daylight into the building,” explains co-founder Adam Arya. “One option was introducing a light scoop to draw light down into the basement – something often used on constrained urban sites. But through testing the layout we realised the more compelling move was to reorganise the programme itself, placing the living space below and allowing light from the south-facing façade to fill a tall central volume.”
The home is arranged across two levels and accommodates two bedrooms along the rear wall of the ground floor, each with its own ensuite bathroom. Set back from the mews frontage, these rooms are lit by softer north-facing windows at the rear, while fluted internal glazing allows them to borrow light from the main living space without sacrificing privacy.
Below, a dramatic double-height void above the living area creates ceilings of approximately six metres, allowing daylight from the south-facing windows on the mews side to flood a central volume and travel deep into the interior. A bespoke sculptural staircase, designed by Arya Douge, occupies the centre of this space, functioning as both circulation and architectural feature as it rises through the five-metre-high volume like a vertical spine.
On the lower ground floor, an open-plan layout brings together kitchen, dining, and living functions within a single, carefully structured room. The kitchen is organised around a central island that becomes a natural gathering point, while the opposite end of the space forms a lounge and TV area that remains visually connected yet distinct in use. The servicing and structural strategy here allows part of the floor to be reconfigured in future as an additional room – whether guest bedroom, study, or snug – without major structural intervention, and a discreet WC ensures the level works as the main living floor.
Interiors were developed with designer Rebecca Roberts, who introduced a soft, muted palette to counterbalance the basement setting and complement the restrained architectural language. The result is a home shaped less by density than by light, orientation, and spatial experience
“On constrained urban sites it can be tempting to prioritise floor area above everything else,” says Arya. “Here we took the opposite approach. By sacrificing a small amount of square footage we were able to create a five-metre volume that brings light deep into the home and completely changes the experience of the space.”
