Houses tend to evolve and expand over time, sometimes in a piecemeal fashion, and often we have to edit existing extensions, to make the house work and flow much better.
In this recent project the three main issues were:
1 – Flow: Living and dining spaces became a ‘through route’ to the kitchen, the most used spaces in the house, making the living spaces feel like a corridor.
2 – Existing extension: The kitchen was extended into the plan making it dark without any direct sunlight.
3 – Garden: The house was on a crescent, so the garden geometry meant the living spaces faced the boundary wall rather than into the garden, which was also north facing.
Plan: The red dotted lines represent the old layout, and the parts in yellow are the new works.
To help rectify this the five key moves we made were:
1 - Edit: We tweaked the layout by relocating the shower room, allowing the hall to open direct into the kitchen without passing through the living spaces.
2 – Extend: We planned a new kitchen extension and re-aligned it to face directly into the garden.
3 – Sunlight: At the dining space, we tilted up the roof, facing direct south, allowing it to scoop direct sunshine deep into the plan. Additionally, we provided a full wall of glazing onto the east facing garden to maximise morning sunlight into the new space.
4 – Rooflight: We also added a large rooflight over the kitchen island unit, which brought in the evening sun.
5 – Energy: The existing house had a poor thermal performance, so we insulated all the external walls to reduce the energy consumption and installed an ASHP Air Source Heat Pump.
Concept Sketch illustrating key design moves
Concept Model: Re-aligning the new extension with the garden
The roof was tilted up where it was South-facing.
Initial Internal Concept - A wide angle sketch!
The yellow column in the above sketch was replaced by beam to keep the floor space clear.
(Kitchen units by Plykea, Glazing by RTT: Russell Timber Tech in Glasgow)
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