Sanya Polescuk Architects

If you’ve ever walked past a London terrace and thought, “Wow, that old brick house looks strangely fresh,” there’s a good chance Sanya Polescuk Architects had something to do with it. Known for breathing new life into historic buildings while keeping their character (and reducing their carbon footprint), this boutique London practice has quietly built a reputation for thoughtful, sustainable, and very human architecture.

Who Is Sanya Polescuk?

The practice is led by architect and founder Sanya Polescuk, a Croatian-born designer who studied at the University of Zagreb before heading to Amsterdam to work with renowned architect Herman Hertzberger, and then moving on to London. Before setting up her own firm in 1998, she worked with Hopkins Architects and a conservation practice serving the National Trust and ecclesiastical buildings.

That mix of European modernism and British conservation work is basically the DNA of the studio. You see it in their projects: strong, clear spatial thinking layered over historic fabric, with a careful respect for context. Instead of flattening everything into a minimalist white box, they let old bricks, arches, and Victorian quirks share the stage with contemporary joinery, sustainable technology, and smart layouts.

The Practice: Breathing New Life into Old Buildings

Sanya Polescuk Architects (often shortened to SPA) is a RIBA-chartered, award-winning practice based in London. Their specialty? Confident modern redesigns of listed residential and commercial properties and buildings in conservation areas.

In other words, they tackle the tricky stuff: homes and buildings where you can’t just knock down walls and slap on a glass box. Historic façades, protected streetscapes, tight urban plots, local authority requirements, and neighbors who care deeply about their viewall of that is part of the daily design puzzle.

The practice prides itself on:

• Sensitive conservation – carefully reconfiguring historic environments rather than erasing them.
• Sustainability – using low-embodied-carbon materials, high-performance insulation, and clever energy strategies.
• Contextual design – responding to the surrounding streetscape, landscape, and community needs.
• Client-focused flexibility – creating spaces that adapt as families and businesses grow and change.

This isn’t flashy “look at me” architecture. It’s thoughtful, quietly confident design that makes everyday life more comfortable, sustainable, and beautiful.

Signature Style: Modernity in Tradition

Looking across their portfolio, certain themes pop up again and again. Their projects have names like “Fresh and Green,” “Modernity in Tradition,” “Terrazzo Tetris,” and “Good Mews Story” – playful titles that hint at the design ideas behind them.

1. Brick, Timber, and Honest Materials

SPA loves working with brick. In their “Fresh and Green” house extension in Belsize Park, the architects used pale yellow brick with around 10% green-glazed overburnt faces, creating subtle texture and depth without shouting for attention. Brick floors continue from inside to outside, blurring the line between living room and garden.

Elsewhere, timber ceilings, joinery, and stair linings keep interiors warm and tactile. The materials are usually simple and robust: brick, timber, terrazzo, structural plywood, and lime plaster. The result is spaces that feel grounded and long-lasting, rather than delicate or trendy.

2. Indoor–Outdoor Living for Real Life (Not Just Photos)

A recurring move in the firm’s residential work is the deep, generous connection between interiors and gardens. In “Fresh and Green,” slim-framed sliding doors stack externally so the entire rear wall disappears. A red brick floor runs uninterrupted from the kitchen-dining area out onto the terrace, and a wildflower roof becomes a “third wall” of the garden, visible from the upper floors as a lush, green plane.

This is outdoor space that does more than just look good in a magazine. It gives families a place to play, entertain, and find a bit of calm in the citywhile also contributing to biodiversity and thermal performance.

3. Flexible Spaces and Clever Storage

Anyone who has ever tried to live in a London flat with kids and hobbies knows: storage is everything. SPA leans hard into that reality. In the garden apartment remodel that “Fresh and Green” is based on, they carved out generous dedicated storage rooms in the “light-less corners” of the flat for services, dry goods, and bulky items.

In the open-plan living areas, subtle changes in floor level, ceiling treatment, and material create different zonesspaces for cooking, reading, playing, and workingwithout chopping the space into tiny rooms. A small study off the kitchen transforms into a quiet extra bedroom with hidden sliding doors and a fold-down bed built into bespoke joinery. That kind of spatial flexibility is a hallmark of the office’s residential work.

4. Sustainability That’s Built In, Not Bolted On

Sustainability for SPA isn’t just about a solar panel here and a rain barrel there. It’s baked into the envelope, structure, and layout. In several projects, they exceed building regulations by adding layers of insulationPIR, vacuum panels, aerogelto floors, walls, and roofs, dramatically improving energy performance.

In a carbon-zero housing development in the Yorkshire Dales, the design uses locally sourced stone, slate, timber, corrugated metal sheeting, clay blocks made from on-site earth, and hempcrete as carbon-negative insulation. The houses are tucked into the landscape, grouped around a shared yard that doubles as a rainwater store, and powered by PV panels feeding ground-source heat pumps. The goal: minimal energy bills and a small environmental footprint, without sacrificing comfort.

Flagship Projects You Should Know

Fresh and Green, Belsize Park

Probably the best-known SPA project, “Fresh and Green” is a garden apartment and rear extension in North London that has been featured on platforms like ArchDaily and Rethinking The Future and shortlisted for awards such as the NLA “Don’t Move, Improve.”

Key features include:

• A brick barrel-vault entrance hall, cleaned, lime-washed, and turned into a dramatic threshold.
• A south-facing extension in brick rather than all-glass to avoid overheating.
• Strategic glazing: clerestory windows, slim frames, and carefully oriented openings to bring in light without losing privacy or comfort.
• A wildflower roof that benefits both residents and neighbors.

The result is a home that feels calm, bright, and incredibly practicala place where kids can sprawl with books, adults can cook and work, and everyone can drift outside through those disappearing doors when the weather cooperates.

Terrazzo Tetris

The wonderfully named “Terrazzo Tetris” is another London residential project where SPA uses color, pattern, and material to organize space. Clean white walls, a warm timber stair surround, and a playful terrazzo surface create a subtle grid of volumesalmost like a three-dimensional Tetris game.

The architecture is minimal but not cold; it’s softened by careful detailing and a strong sense of order, which is very SPA: calm, composed, and quietly joyful.

Carbon-Zero and Rural Housing Concepts

SPA’s work isn’t limited to London terraces. Their carbon-zero housing development proposal in the Yorkshire Dales explores how affordable ecological housing could support younger families in a rural community. Using low-tech, low-embodied-carbon materials such as hempcrete, locally made clay blocks, and structural plywood, the project shows that sustainable rural architecture doesn’t have to look experimental or alienit can feel as rooted in place as a traditional stone farmhouse.

Working in Conservation Areas and With Local Authorities

If you’ve ever tried to renovate in a conservation area, you know that planning can feel like a long, slow game of chess. SPA has turned that challenge into one of its strengths. Their listings on the Royal Institute of British Architects “Find an Architect” service highlight multiple projects in conservation areas and listed buildingsme mews houses in Camden, apartments near Hampstead, and adaptive reuse of historic structures.

They work closely with local authorities to navigate constraints while still delivering bold improvements in comfort, accessibility, and sustainability. That might mean preserving a historic façade while reconfiguring everything behind it, or using sympathetic materials and proportions so that a new extension feels like a natural evolution instead of a bolt-on.

Reputation and Client Feedback

Online reviews from platforms like Houzz consistently praise the practice for their collaborative approach, clear communication, and attention to detailboth in design and on site. Clients mention successful refurbishments and extensions in Belsize Park and other parts of North London, noting how SPA’s solutions feel tailored rather than “off the shelf.”

In the design press, SPA appears in features on retrofit and sustainable design, showcasing their ability to deliver energy-efficient homes that still feel warm, characterful, and deeply connected to their context.

Why Sanya Polescuk Architects Stand Out

In a market full of high-gloss renders and very sharp-edged glass boxes, Sanya Polescuk Architects offer something more grounded:

• A long-term mindset – designing “forever homes” that can adapt as families change.
• Serious sustainability – not just token gestures, but deep retrofits, low-carbon materials, and smart energy systems.
• Respect for history – working with heritage rather than against it.
• Human scale – rooms you actually want to live in, not just photograph.

It’s architecture that quietly makes your life easier and your footprint lighter, without demanding that you live in a museum or a spaceship.

Experiences and Takeaways from “Sanya Polescuk Architects” Projects

So what is it actually like to live in or visit a space designed by Sanya Polescuk Architects? If you read between the lines of project descriptions, press articles, and client feedback, a pretty vivid picture emerges.

Living in a Thoughtfully Retro-fitted Home

Imagine coming home to a flat where the entrance hall isn’t just a corridor but a small architectural moment: a brick barrel vault softly lit and lime-washed, giving you the feeling you’re stepping into a carefully curated, almost gallery-like space before you even drop your keys. That first impression sets the toneyou sense that the building’s history has been respected, not erased.

You move into the main living area, where your eye catches the gentle change in ceiling height over the dining table, the shift in floor material near the kitchen, and the way a sliding door line hints at hidden flexibility. It’s not one big empty rectangle; it’s a series of settingsperfect for a family that needs to cook, work, game, and relax in the same general space without constantly stepping on each other’s toes.

Storage doesn’t dominate the room because it doesn’t need to. The bulk of it is tucked into deep, windowless corners and choreographed into the joinery. The result is that the public areas stay calm and uncluttered, even when the realities of life (school bags, muddy shoes, Costco-sized cereal boxes) remain very much presentjust out of sight.

Seasonal Comfort Without the Energy Guilt

One of the underrated joys of living in a well-insulated, intelligently ventilated home is that you don’t have to think about it all the time. In SPA’s retrofits, you’re benefitting from multiple layers of insulation, airtight detailing, and heat recovery systems that maintain a comfortable temperature while still allowing fresh air to circulate.

Instead of “too hot in summer, too cold in winter” (the unofficial tagline of many London flats), you get a home that feels remarkably stable. The brick extension protects you from overheating; strategically placed windows bring in daylight without turning your dining table into a greenhouse. Over time, lower energy bills and a smaller carbon footprint become part of the everyday experience, not just bullet points on a spec sheet.

Experiencing Indoor–Outdoor Flow

On a sunny day, those slim-framed sliding doors between kitchen and garden disappear into a neat stack. The red brick floor guides you from the cooktop to the patio without even a visual hiccup. Kids run in and out; someone rolls out a yoga mat; a friend balances a glass of wine on the garden bench that doubles as a brick lantern at night. The wildflower roof, visible from the upper floors and neighboring windows, becomes a small shared landscape that everyone around can enjoy.

It doesn’t feel like a “feature wall” or a design stunt. It just feels naturallike the house was always meant to breathe this way.

Visiting the Studio and Seeing the Process

When SPA has opened their studio to events like Open House London, visitors have described the space as a kind of living case study: a 19th-century mews building where original cobblestones, tiles, and ironwork are retained, yet the interiors are carefully upgraded and made energy-efficient.

Spending time there gives you an inside look at how the practice thinks: models, drawings, and details scattered amid the historic shell, with new elements carefully threaded into old fabric. It’s the same philosophy they bring to their projectsrespect the existing, but don’t be afraid to introduce confident, contemporary moves where they’re needed.

Lessons for Homeowners and Designers

Even if you never hire Sanya Polescuk Architects, there are a few big lessons you can steal from their work:

• Use materials with character – brick, timber, terrazzo, and clay age well and feel good underfoot.
• Invest in the envelope – insulation, airtightness, and ventilation will improve comfort more than a new sofa ever will.
• Make flexibility invisible – sliding partitions, fold-down beds, and multi-use joinery can transform spaces without cluttering them.
• Think like a neighbor – green roofs, sensitive extensions, and good detailing benefit both you and the people living around you.
• Respect your building’s story – work with its quirks and strengths instead of fighting them.

Ultimately, the experience of “Sanya Polescuk Architects” is about living in spaces that are calm, functional, and future-ready, without losing sight of the past. It’s sustainable design that still feels personal, warm, and deeply rooted in place.