Picture Frame House is a ground floor extension and full internal refurbishment of a terraced house in the Albert Gardens Conservation Area of Stepney Green, East London. The house had not been updated since the 1970’s and required modernisation. A side infill extension allowed for the internal rearrangement of the ground floor which created a larger flexible kitchen area. The resulting spaces have been further enhanced through collaboration with a local picture framer who fabricated bespoke American black walnut and oak ‘picture frames’, which are used to frame different window-sized openings. Rather than the typical fully open-plan ground floors seen in many contemporary properties, it was decided to add these elements to allow for the individual areas of kitchen, lounge and dining to be defined without merging into one another, and to allow for unexpected interactions to naturally occur. (Photography by David Barbour)