RO-019_CAMBERWELL
Three Outies: Ground Floor Flat Refurbishment & Extension
The client was living in a ground floor flat of a Victorian terraced house. The 2 bedrooms in the main body of the house (typically front and rear reception rooms) were of a good size and well proportioned, however the kitchen and living room in the rear of the L-shaped plan were relatively small and a dining space was missing. The bathroom positioned in the right location between bedrooms and kitchen needed refurbishing as well and a new layout to include the previously separate WC. The flat featured a beautiful, generous and deep rear garden.
The project was under time pressure and needed to run absolutely smoothly as it had to be finished for the birth of their twins!
We discouraged a side return extension in this case as the space was needed at the end of the annex and not in front of the bathroom and the 2 double bedrooms should not be compromised in terms of space, light and outlook. No planning risk was to be taken. The garden offered plenty of space to extend.
The developed design proposed a standard 3m rear extension of the existing annex and a scheme of 3 large, modern, square bay windows, which were pushed out into the side return. They feature frameless glass corners and the solid floors and roofs cantilever out over the external ground, so no foundation work was necessary.
The big glass pane facing the side return is opaque to let much light but no views in while the clear, small side panels channels the views to the garden and through one ‘outie’ after the other.
Each of them contains one of the crucial functions of the new, main, open-plan space of the flat. This layout proved itself very spatially effective: The first ‘outie’ – all of them being 600mm deep- offers a space for part of the kitchen run, comprising the sink.
The second is the client’s study, with a desk neatly built into it, some pull-out table top for the keyboard, space & connection cables for the computers and folding door panels in order to close it all off after work!
The lounge outie features a build-in couch allowing sitting -even in winter- half inside and half outside, blurring the boundaries between the lounge and the garden. The couch, cushion and pads could fold out into a guest bed as well, which could be closed off by an extra curtain.
2.8m high sliding folding doors allow opening the kitchen-dining-living area in its entire width to the patio and garden, without any threshold, which provides a spatially generous feel for the whole flat.
Photos: Roger Deckker
