Projects

The brief

The clients wanted to create a family living area by doing something with the dilapidated and not very usable conservatory and in doing so radically change the feel and look of the back of their home.

The property

The property is a 1900s end of terrace town house. The house is built with red brick, it has predominantly timber windows and doors (some new and replacement PVC windows) and it has red concrete tiles on the pitched hipped roofs. The kitchen was already a reasonable size, with a larger than necessary utility room to its front and to the rear was a conservatory. The conservatory was in a poor condition, its single glazing provided little thermal insulation and the access from the house through the conservatory to the rear garden was awkward. The least attractive and under-used part of the house took up what should have been the best and most utilised part and it created a barrier between the living space and the garden.

The solution

The solution was to remove the conservatory and build a single storey ‘wrap-around’ extension in the side return of the property combined with the replacement of the existing conservatory. The extension follows the building line at the side of the property, leaving the side passageway as a visual and physical barrier between the extension and the neighbouring property. At the side, the extension has solid walls and a glazed roof, whilst at the rear it has wide bi-folding doors making it light and airy and reflecting the conservatory it replaced.
Internally the combined kitchen, dining and living room maximizes the light and aspect at the south-east facing back of the house. The utility room was pushed back into the centre of the house and to give light and ventilation to the rear reception room a new window was inserted into the side wall.

The result

The result is a large, light, airy open-plan kitchen, living and dining room that the family spends as much of their time in as they can. Every part of the room is bathed in light and if you need more rays there is direct and easy access to the garden.
The extension is clearly a modern structure but it compliments and echoes the existing. An internal steel column replaces the original structural corner of the house, the glazed roof reflects the red brickwork above and the pitch of the glazed roof mirrors the pitch of the existing roofs.

“Having employed Martin upon recommendation to design our loft extension in 2002 we had no hesitation in asking him back to design the alterations to the back of the house in 2014. Martin is always enthusiastic and an excellent listener. He understood our brief for function and simplicity and was a pleasure to work with. The result is a kitchen which has a real wow factor when visitors come and yet is totally in keeping with the spirit of a relatively modest property. It has transformed the way we use the house and inspired a renewed love of the garden which is now an integral visual and physical presence in our lives.”

Vasco & Kathryn, Brighton