Light bounds around the central, double-height living space of this home by architect Enrico Arrigoni, coming in from rooflights overhead and a via large picture windows that overlook a courtyard garden to the rear. The effect is that the generous volume is accentuated, imbuing the space with an airiness, which, together with the slanted angle of the ceilings and purity of the minimal design, contribute to something almost spiritual in its feel.

The challenge for architect Stuart Hatcher at this one-time mechanic’s garage near Mile End Park in east London was to get light into a terraced plot, all while retaining privacy at the front. Hatcher’s solution is a masterful manipulation of light and space where daylight comes through a central lightwell into the core of the space, before landing upon a courtyard garden. The light flows freely through the open spaces, dramatising the scale and volume of the plan.

“When you come into the main living space on a sunny day the house almost glows; there’s an incredible quality of light thanks to the unobstructed large, south-facing windows and bifold doors,” said Sophie Illingworth of the interior of her restored brutalist family home in Leeds.

“After dark it really does feel like a bunker, particularly downstairs; without any window dressings you can see out to the black skies and twinkling lights across the valley,” she added, highlighting the beauty to be found in total contrast to light too: darkness. Wrapped up on a cold winter’s night, fire on, wine in hand: there is a mood-lifting effect to night-time as well, we find.

As much as we love period homes (and we really do), advances in glazing are such that modern extensions frankly grant levels of light and openness to the outdoors that the Victorians could only dream of. But when the two come together – like they have at this RIBA award-winning renovation and extension – to offer both original features and light-filled contemporary living spaces, we’re fully signed up. Throw in a view across a valley and on to Salisbury Plain and we’re practically moving in.

JaK Studio, the outfit behind this modern interpretation of a London mews house in Fulham, dubbed the project ‘Lightyard House’, a moniker that should indicate what they prioritised in their design.

In fact, light permeates almost every inch of this house, with long expanses of rooflights, bedrooms that open out onto a central light-feeding courtyard and a sunroom that leads onto a roof terrace. Somehow, despite the challenges of the mews house typology, where typically light only comes in from the front elevation, this house is defined by its openness to the outside.