Although many of the projects shown on this website are for whole new houses, the practice also takes on plenty of much smaller renovation / refurbishment and remodelling projects, of which this is a good example. This project was just taken up to planning, but we are always happy to be flexible about the level of our input.
This prominent house in a Conservation Area in the centre of a pretty Cotswolds AONB village presented an attractive facade to the village green, but to the rear, had been poorly extended in the past, leading to a garden elevation that was quite a mess, as well as a very peculiar internal configuration which didn’t work at all for the young family.
Part of the solution was to remodel the first floor layout to introduce an additional bathroom, and a key to unlocking both this and the ground floor layouts was to move the existing staircase. This was to be relocated close to the front door, freeing up the back of the house to create an open-plan kitchen / dining room that will open to the garden. The Utility Room will moved to form the link between the main house and an existing annexe. The geometry of the existing house’s relationship to the annexe was challenging, and it was important for the proposed extension to unify and make sense of the existing.
Various different materials and approaches to the aesthetics of the design were tested, and what was found to work best – traditional oak frame with contemporary glazing – was both modern and light, but also in sympathy with the existing house. A flat roof was proposed, both to minimise the visibility of the extension from the road, and because there were far too may different geometries already competing, and a flat roof was the best way to unify them.
Even on relatively small projects like this one, we use 3d computer modelling, which is invaluable, not only in communicating proposals to clients, but also for planners, the Parish Council and neighbours. This sailed through the planning process with no issues at all.