A refined seasonal relationship of home to garden now exploits the amazing elevated park views and wonderful westerly sunlight. The ground floor is reconfigured and extended to provide a series of ‘broken-plan’ family spaces whose architecture is defined with a series of conceptually simple, but technically complex, robust columns and beams.
Three sequential spaces are created, a back kitchen and garden boot room, a kitchen and dining zone, and a living space, all connected to a 5m deep terrace through a variety of glazed openings, shaded by the fair-faced concrete full-width lintel above. Internal and external spaces have been designed to exploit the rarity of a 52m long city plot. The house now offers varied seasonal views and interaction with the outdoors through three new openings, defined with heavy-set columns and a concrete beam.
Sectionally the rear of the house is lowered two steps, harnessing the natural slope of the site (underpinning was avoided), to create generous ceiling height but also to ease the vertical connection with the sloped garden. The garden is zoned to celebrate its location, use and bio-diversity. The terrace leads down steps and planted retaining structures to a quintessentially English lawn with deep planted borders, then to a working Kitchen Garden, with raised planters and a potting shed, and finally concludes with a barked woodland play area for the children.
Externally materials are robust for longevity and the construction expressed. Concrete retaining walls and steps re-define sectional garden access. The heavy-set columns have deep reveals with soft corners, finished in a lightly pigmented 3mm polished plaster. The three glazed elements; the glazed boot room door, thin-framed sliding doors and bi-folding window seat, are set back from the concrete lintel above for shade. Shading is further offered with inset awning locations discretely incorporated in the lintel detail.
Internally the whole house was refurbished with assorted levels of intervention. Abundant warm timber finishes and craft were introduced. A completely new oak lined staircase, with curved oak balustrade, unlocks loft space whilst bringing grandness to the circulation core. Bedrooms were minimally altered with budget prioritised for three new bathrooms. The master ensuite is finished monolithically in light pink polished plaster, set against new oiled oak cabinetry, “A wonderful place to start the day!” (Client).
Sustainability - A fabric-first approach was adopted to the retrofit with select areas of the building being thermally upgraded, the new extensions are over insulated. An efficient Air Source Heat Pump was installed, and all appliances are electric (Natural gas supply was removed). Energy use has been recorded as 13500kwh for the first year. Which, with 262m2 GIA, is 51.5kWh/m2/yr. Well below the RIBA 2025 target of 60kWh/m2/yr.
