This was the third project where as an Architectural practice, we designed and built one of our projects in-house. This project we extended our arm of delivery and made all the bespoke joinery in our workshop - staircases, shelving, doors - you name it - we made it.
This Edwardian house stands on a corner plot in Dulwich. This was the second project working with the client and they wanted to extend the existing Edwardian building to form a lower ground floor level to provide them with extended living spaces.
The client wanted to extend the living spaces and re-fit out the first and second floor levels of the building. The brief was to extend to the rear, but only minimally - to avoid encroaching and losing too much garden space.
The ground floor was exended by only 1.5m, with the ground floor plate being reduced to form an internal double height staircase and lightwell. The double height space is crucial to ensure that you have a visual connection to the garden from the basement spaces as the staircase has a half landing that can lead outside through a new set of double doors.
The basement spaces provide a further living room, TV room and kids playroom. These spaces are an extension of the living spaces, further enhanced by rolling the ceiling from the basement spaces up towards the ground floor.
The oak staircase was cut and made by our joinery team in our workshop - the handrail is a solid piece of oak winding it's way down to the basement. The oak staircase wraps it's way around the living spaces in the form of oak panelling to create a ribbon of material to link the spaces together.
A concrete fireplace provides a focal for gatherings - with the hearth extending to form sitting spaces.
The kids playroom has a dance studio with hanging trapeze and the joinery forms an arch from which an adjustable gym bar hangs.
The staircase acts as a mediator between the basement, dining, kitchen, hallway and garden spaces.
From the outside we wanted to use the existing material palette of the house in the form of the rich red brick that forms decorative features around the original house. The original arched windows have influenced the use of arched windows in a green colour to face the garden. The strength of the extension is in its simple materiality and references to the original house.
The house was changed over to an air source heat pump fed servicing from a boiler - further improving the environmental performance of the building.
