What was the brief?
The clients, a family of four plus one cat, approached us to design the extension of their ground floor and improve the relationship from the house to the garden. The client wanted to create an overall feeling of light and freedom in their home, that open plan spaces afford, particularly when the design is enriched with a feeling of movement and several points of interest throughout the dwelling.
What were the key challenges?
The internal spaces felt constrained and fragmented, with a very narrow kitchen tucked behind the stair, an extremely tight entrance and no place to leave coats and shoes— a very unpractical condition for a family with two teenage children who love the outdoors! We decided that the extension was the perfect opportunity to incorporate all the service areas that the family needed, allowing these to be centrally hidden and so offering the opportunity to open up the rest of the house.
Once out to tender we came across a challenge on the budget, for the contractor our clients wanted we had to revisit the design and finishes to reach a compromise that worked, not reducing the quality but rationalising over finishes having one main ‘design’ element for each space. We also amended the roof design slightly, to reduce the volume (and cost). This hard work was worth it, the clients now have their dream house.
What materials did you choose and why?
Exteriors: we like to favour reclaimed materials where possible. For this project we set out from the beginning to use reclaimed bricks that matched the main building’s rear elevation. We liked the use of traditional materials with modern techniques. Hence the brick is laid in a stretcher bond, with no lintel design, to show the presence of the main steel beam. The roof finish and detailing is consistent with this approach. The slate is smooth and fixed with a mitred hip detail.
Interiors: ground floor finish was already a beautiful teak hardwood. We went a little distance to find the same supplier, source the same product, carefully remove the finish what we had, mix the two batches and then sand and oil again. The two batches are undistinguishable now! The walls are all decorated in white matt paint, with different details for the skirting boards, depending on the walls. Solid walls have a shadow gap flush skirting, partitions are floating over the floor finish. The ceiling and roof light reveal in the entrance is painted in a deep yellow colour, to soften and warm the light coming from the north facing windows. The cloakroom is painted in deep blue, as to remind of an underwater environment.
Material Used :
1. Facade cladding: Reclaimed brick to match original building.
2. Flooring: Part reclaimed, part new teak floor. Italian supplier.
3. Doors: L’Invisibile Doors. Flush doors, Rimadesio glazed sliding door to the ktichen.
4. Windows: Aluminium PPC sliding door system by IQGlass.
5. Roofing: Slate roof with flush hip details.
6. Interior lighting: Several lights: Flos Arco, Mr Resistor industrial spot lights.
7. Interior furniture: The clients owned the furniture.
8. Stone fireplace and worktops by Marble City Ltd.
