Work has recently started on site to extend this house on the edge of Bath.  The original house was only completed in 2012 and has only ever been occupied by one family. 

The challenge was to extend on a plot which was already relatively tightly occupied, to provide the additional living space required without compromising the useability of the garden.

The result was to propose two single storey extensions: One at the front turning the garage into a gym and adding utility room, office / study and an enlarged front entrance.  The second extension is effectively a bay window, adding functionality to the kitchen.  Other changes included changing the doors connecting the kitchen to the garden for greater accessibility and changing external ground levels to better connect the kitchen to the garden. An external roof is also added to shade the West facing glazing into the kitchen to help prevent overheating and to create a rain shadow outside the new glazed doors.

The original house was designed with overt references to the Arts and Crafts style.  We treated the design as we would with any extension to an existing building, regardless of the fact that it is a modern house built in a historic style:  The design needed to be sympathetic, but still distinctly legible as a new intervention.   We have kept to the same basic palette of materials, but added zinc for flat roof facias. Natural stone mullions framing steel window frames become a strong motif – reminiscent of the great Arts and Crafts houses of the early C20th.  The proportions are rather exaggerated:  taller and narrower –  more elegant – than the existing house, without becoming a different style at odds with the existing structure.

Status – Under Construction

Contract value – Confidential

Design Team: Structural Engineer – Skeletal

Main Contractor – Build Twenty Two