extension and alteration
Sometimes moving house or premises and starting again is just not the right option.
If the site is still good and the buildings still sound then to work on that basis can be the best way forward. Frequently, but not always, this involves extending with additional accommodation. Sometimes, a careful internal alteration or re-modelling is all that is required. Most often perhaps, it’s a combination of the two that is needed to unlock the best solution.
Three examples are shown below, together with some of the design drawings made during their development.
Strathblane
so often, older houses were designed for quite a different way of life and, as a result, they just don’t quite work for us any more. This house was no exception - a carefully composed villa with formal lawn and front rooms; behind all that a dull, rather mean back-of-house with utilitarian kitchen and almost no connection with gardens or views. Bring on the changes!
North Lodge
a rather tricky, A-Listed, semi-detached house; modestly sized but finely crafted and on show as the gatehouse to an estate. The key to unlocking it was to drop a top-lit entrance space into the middle of the plan, forming a clear but useful joint between the old and the new. A heavy stone wall and chimney then shelter it all from a busy road.
Dumgoyne
How do you work with a building that has been altered and extended before without just adding to the muddle? Clear away accumulated debris, boil things down a bit and then put your best foot forward. Making new work that speaks to the old rather than shouting at it takes real design skill. Sympathetic and yet still bold and of its own time.
credits:
good buildings always involve collaboration. Thanks are due to Helen Campbell, Gareth Morris, Chris Platt and Davy McAllister for their hands in the above.
photography: Keith Hunter