When the owners bought this former dairy, set amongst the 19th Century residential terraces of south London, it had already been converted into a house. However the rear courtyard and collection of outbuildings remained ramshackle and undeveloped. The owners, who had considered moving to Sydney, were inspired by houses overlooking Sydney harbour and chose to work with our practice because we draw on subtropical design influences to breathe light and life into the stuffy English housing stock. The traditional Victorian frontage belies the fact that the house has been completely remodelled in a contemporary manner. The existing staircase used to fill the hallway and cut the house in two. By removing the staircase and locating a new one to one side of the hallway the architects were able to free up space and create a new vista from the front door right through to the end of the rear courtyard garden. Bright light, even on the greyest London days, now draws you through the hallway and into a spacious living/dining/kitchen space that spans the full width of the house. To create the living space a large extension has been inserted in between the side access from the street and an original two-storey rear addition. By removing all visible means of supporting the existing addition and the original rear wall of the house, the rear ground floor of the existing house has been seamlessly connected to the new extension to form one coherent space. Drawing on a response to subtropical climate for inspiration, the house has been opened up to the rear courtyard across almost its whole width, with folding/sliding doors, an overhanging canopy roof and a level floor finish that blurs the division between inside and outside. The zinc-finished extension roof is pitched upwards away from the building to draw light and views of the surroundings and sky into the living space. Using tall glazing and rooflights the previously dark, cellular layout has been liberated by an outward looking aspect and an abundance of natural light. The outward-looking theme of the ground floor has been carried through to the second floor level, where a large loftspace has been converted and extended to create a master bedroom suite with the feeling of a penthouse apartment. Making the most of the low scale nature of the city, folding/sliding doors, a frameless glass balustrade and rooflights generate a sense of space by providing views over the neighbouring rooftops.