London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 03, 2025

Rooftop Additions – A New Way Of Dealing With The Lack Of Ground Space

Rooftop Additions – A New Way Of Dealing With The Lack Of Ground Space

A building is not completed when the roof is added. In fact, it’s difficult to say with certainty that a project is indeed finished when there are always so many things that can be added or adjusted. A lot of buildings around the world are starting to get rooftop additions.

In the large cities this option is embraced for two reasons. First of all, the land on which one can build from scratch is pretty much nonexistent at this point. Second of all, the view from the rooftop of a tall building is a lot more impressive and beautiful than the view from the ground floor for example.

The pop-up restaurant in Milan


Palazzo Beltrami in Piazza Della Scala is a beautiful building in Milan. It recently got a temporary rooftop addition designed by Park Associati. The structure is a pop-up restaurant and this is just one of the many possible locations in which it can be installed. The restaurant is opened to the public and, on occasion, it can host special events where leading chefs are invited to showcase their skills.





The restaurant can be completely assembled in two days and it consists of eight individual blocks installed by crane at the desired location. The interior is divided into two sections. One is the kitchen and the other is the dining area which is organized around a single large table.

The temporary restaurant in Paris


Although it was installed on the roof Le Palais de Tokyo museum in Paris, this is actually a transportable restaurant which can be relocated to a different location. It was a project by architect Pascal Grasso and it consists of a glass cabin and a metal screen.




Inside, the restaurant features a dining room which can sit up to 12 people and a central cooking area. In between the metal screen and the glass structure there’s LED lighting which makes the restaurant stand out at night.

The LoftCube in Austria.


Hotel Daniel is located in Graz, Austria and, in addition to its 107 rooms which have been recently completely redesigned, it now also offers its guests a rooftop loft. Named LoftCube, the structure was installed on the hotel’s roof and it has become the highest hotel suite in town.





The LoftCube was designed by Werner Aisslinger and it’s a prefab structure which can basically be relocated anywhere else, allowing it to be very versatile and to also be used as a vacation house. The suite measures 44 square meters and it’s the first one of its kind to be permanently installed on a rooftop.

The rooftop cabin in Athens.


Because these days it has become pretty much impossible to find an empty remote plot for a getaway cabin, architects Panos Dragonas and Varvara Christopoulou decided to create a cabin that can be installed on rooftops.



The duo created this interesting structure which allows those in Athens to escape the daily routine and to get away from everything without actually leaving the city. They named their project Detached and they envisioned it as a small cabin measuring 9 square meters. It looks like a wooden shed elevated on four pillars.

The rooftop trailer park in South Africa.


Trailers are meant to be taken out into the wilderness or at least somewhere with beautiful views. Who would expect a trailer park to be located on the rooftop of a building? Yet that’s exactly where the Grand Daddy trailer park hotel can be found.





Here, on top of a building in South Africa, these trailers with Florida license plates bring a little bit of America into the Metropole hotel. This trailer park is their most recent addition and it’s indeed very interesting. The interior of the trailers are very bold and suit the themed names which have been given to them, such as Goldilocks & the 3 bears, Dorothy or Plasantville.

The Everland mobile hotel.


If you want a room with a view, wherever you are, you should definitely stay at the Everland hotel. It has the perfect room for you which is actually a capsule installed on a building’s roof. It measures 35 square meters and it can only be booked for one night.





The interior of the capsule includes a king-size bed, a mini bar, a lounge, a bathroom and a retro vinyl record collection and it was a project by architect duo L/B. The Everland Hotel is not fixed to only one location. In fact, it traveled quite a lot so, who knows, maybe it will pop up in your own town next.

The rooftop office extension in Vienna


Back in 1988 when the law firm that occupied the first and second floor of this building in Vienna wanted to extend their office, the solution found was to create a rooftop addition. The project is a two-storey structure, 7.8 meters high sitting on a 400 square meter surface.



The interior consists of a 90 square meter meeting room, three office units and a reception area. The whole project lasted a year and, when it was completed, it stood out with its unusual design. The futuristic look still allows it to stand out even today.

The rooftop house extension in Rotterdam


This is Didden Village, a project by MVRDV situated in Rotterdam. The name is a bit odd, considering that the project was developed on the roof of an existing building. But once you take a look at the redesigned rooftop, you understand what it’s all about.




The architects built a series of houses divided by streets, plazas and alleys so this whole project resembles a mini village. The project consisted of an extension of a private residence. The solution found by the architects was not only ingenious but really interesting and inspiring.

The container rooftop workshop in Buenos Aires


This whole project started out simple. The client wanted to enlarge a small house and wanted FPS Architecture to develop it. The extension would become a workshop for the owner and it had to be built on a small budget.



In order to respond to all the client’s requests, the architects came up with the idea to build on top of the existing house and to use a shipping container. The container was connected to the interior spaces with a set of stairs. The solution found was fast, simple and practical.

Family home built on top of a warehouse in London


Because the owners of this rooftop home needed more space for their growing family and didn’t want to leave the city, they tried a rather unusual approach. Instead of moving into a bigger and a lot more expensive home, they chose to build this extension on the roof of a warehouse building.




The end result was this 2,800 square foot apartment with a steel frame. The project was completed after five years and raised a lot of challenges. For example, since the warehouse didn’t have an elevator, the couple had to build a bridge so they could use the elevator from a nearby office building.

The new rooftop addition of this old Victorian warehouse



Building on top of old warehouses is actually not that unusual, a point proven by this project. This is the Hanover House, the result of a refurbishment and roof extension project. The new rooftop addition merged with the existing warehouse and together they formed a single structure.

Manhattan’s rooftop houses



In a city like Manhattan, it’s basically impossible to find an empty lot to build on. So, naturally, architects found other solutions. So it’s not exactly a huge surprise to see all these houses built on top of existing buildings. The first one is a mysterious-looking structure that those living in the area like to tell stories about. However, it seems to be merely a guest room connected to the top floor apartment.





Another odd-looking extension is this large house which occupies the entire roof of the building and even has a chimney and everything.





And then there’s this rooftop addition which looks a lot like a ski chalet. This is actually the house of architect Andrew Tesoro and it’s a really quirky and interesting structure.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×