The project involves a modest rear extension to a 19th century mid terrace house and it’s comprehensive refurbishment together with the addition of a garden studio and external landscaping.
Dan, MATA’s director, and his wife, Samantha, have lived in the house for a number of years with their two children. Now reaching adolescence and early teen years, the children’s natural desire for greater autonomy and personal space (and their parent’s) was one of the main drivers behind the project. The refurbishment transformed the house from one with a single family bathroom used by all, to one where the parents and both children now have their own en-suite bathrooms. The garden room provides a separate place where children can entertain their friends. The extension of the kitchen/ dining room provides space for a second, more informal, living room so that everyone has multiple options for finding both personal space and coming together as a family.
Use of colour and materials throughout the house has been limited to a palette of raw earthy and natural to foster a sense of calm. The rear extension is clad in a zigzagging pattern of triangular sections of charred Oak (‘Honshu’), whilst the garden room envelope is charred Larch battens (‘Takage’); both products of Sho Sugi Ban, the Japanese technique of sealing timber through charring. Hard landscaping of the courtyard garden is a large format contrasting tumbled Dijon Limestone.
The garden was treated conceptually as a courtyard space mediating between two opposing interior spaces; the kitchen/ dining room at the rear of the house and the garden studio, housing gym and kids TV/ gaming room. The design of the extension with large glazed sliding doors and level threshold aims to improve the kitchen/ dining space’s connection with the garden.
Team:
Architects: MATA Architects
Architect project team: Dan Marks, Alice Thompson, Taylan Tahir
Structural engineer: Simple Works
Landscape design: Adolfo Harrison
Party wall surveyor: Goodman Mann Broomhall
Approved inspector: London building control
Main contractor: JK Construction
Joinery: MTM Joinery
Photographer: Lorenzo Zandri
Materials Used:
External walls: English Oak Burnt (Honshu)
Paints: Khadi, Cotta, Ghost, Solstice, Piha Green - by Atelier Ellis
Flooring: Tate Bute in large format herringbone (by Solid Floor) (ground) Tate Sky in linear planks (by Solid Floor) (master bed)
KAP 80 no trim (FLOS)
Shadow dots no trim (FLOS)
Marbul Recessed (Modular)
I-Model cordless, Oxydized copper (Anour Lighting)
Romeo Moon (FLOS)
OK Light (FLOS)
Kitchen: Custom joinery by MTM Joinery, internal carcasses in eggerboard, external door/ drawerr faces in oak veneer finished in Osmo clear oil and wax
Counter tops, island and splashbacks in ‘white macaubas’ leathered qurtzite. Sourced from Imperial Stone.
Fixtures & fittings from Lusson Stone
Master bedroom en suite ‘bluestone’ marble tiles from Mandarin Stone
Kids bathroom tiles; ‘Design 2’ by Gresstec and cobalt blue terrazzo effect porcelain by Mandarin Stone
Dijon Limestone, tumbled by Mandarin Stone.
Glazing: Sliding glazed doors, rooflights by Euro Windows, UK
