Edwardian Home
A rigorously developed and detailed proposal for an extension, conceived as a contemporary addition to and an act of repair to an otherwise well-built Edwardian home.
The existing house is a detached, red brick Edwardian house with garden, built in the early 1900’s. It has survived the onslaught of any insensitive 20th century alterations, the proposed intention to replace the existing glazed conservatory with a modest and robust brick extension.
The new volume is anchored to both the garden and the existing house by the gable wall of the new extension; this has a substantial thickness that holds
a new bay window within its depth. A new brick hearth serves as the focus within the interior space, the brickwork carefully articulated to form recesses and reveals, with a set of glazed doors opening to the west beneath deep overhanging eaves.
These deep eaves mediate the threshold between the privacy of the new dining space and the exterior planted courtyard. The external spaces are given as much importance as the internal spaces - imagined as rooms themselves, the arrangement of the planted courtyard, space for seating and dining, and the ascending steps to the garden, are all considered in relationship to the new internal space.
Prominent bay windows at the front of the house establish a design criterion; these are reinterpreted in the proposed extension as a place to sit within and overlook the garden as it rises away from the rear of the house, adding complexity to the character of the space and to the transition between the interior and the garden.
Thought is given to natural light - a carefully considered window opening at high level, made possible by the generous ceiling height, furnishes the interior with an even natural light.
A restrained material palette is contained to lime-slurried brickwork, reused ceramic tiles, exposed Douglas Fir timber joists and bench seat. The proposed shallow pitch of the roof rises to meet a brick chimney stack, the interior playing with the generous height created as a result.
