Leigh built a brilliant working relationship with our Builder and kept everyone in-check ensuring the job ran to schedule and keeping an eye on the budgets.What should have been the most stressful time in our lives became an exciting creation of which ourselves, Leigh and the builders are all very proud.”

Mike and Caroline Neame, Kingswood

The client’s brief was to remodel the existing house to provide the following accommodation:

• Hot Tub room including Sauna and Steam Rooms, changing room;
• Gymnasium;
• Cinema / Games room;
• Additional bedroom with ensuite facilities;
• Additional large reception room opening onto the spacious and mature gardens;
• Replan the kitchen to provide an open-plan living / family space;
• Replace existing detached double garage for integral triple garage;
• Remodel the exterior to the rear to provide a more contemporary feel;
• Maintain the ‘traditional’ look of the front elevation;
• Replan the Entrance Hall to provide a more dramatic space and clear away the small ‘boxy’ rooms that littered the ground floor accommodation.

The solution proposed included the construction of two new wings to the south facing rear elevation creating a natural courtyard patio enclosed by the wings which the family room, hot tub room and new reception room opened. To the first floor the gymnasium and cinema were located above the new triple garage and hot tub area.

Clearing away all the walls of the annex to the right of the property allowed the existing dining room to be relocated and by removing the walls to the entrance hall, taking in the former dining room, and removing the bedroom and ensuite above created a very large grand double height entrance hall suitable for a house of this size. The incorporation of a new gable feature window to the front elevation allows light to flood into this previously small and dark entrance area.

Completed in 2014 this large remodelling and extension project removes a series of existing flat roofed ad-hoc alterations and a detached garage to open up the site to the front drive approach.

Despite the client being originally advised by the local planners that no sort of extension to the existing property would be allowed, due to its location within Green Belt, BWP Architects successfully achieved planing for a scheme that almost doubled the existing size of the property within its large grounds.

A 3m deep two storey rear extension is being created to increase ground floor living accommodation and to improve the size of the first floor bedrooms. This rear extension has been designed with gable roofs to match the gable roofs to the front of the house including matching roof pitches, eaves heights, window proportions and materials.

To the west side, a partial single storey, partial two storey extension is provided. This is set back from the front of the main building line and as such has minimal impact on the character of the area as views of it are limited. The roof over the single storey side extension has been designed to mimic the existing cat slide roof over the original side project to the east elevation.

In order to achieve a harmonious blend of new and old, the existing roof tiles and hanging tiles will be stripped and the whole replaced with reclaimed tiles to match throughout. On the ground floor the existing mix of painted brickwork, original brickwork with lime mortar and 1980’s brickwork with cement mortar will be rendered with new rough-cast render to achieve a single finish.

The existing roof space has been doubled in size and opened up to form a loft space for an additional bedroom, ensuite and games room. These spaces are lit by dormers and rooflights on the rear elevation only.

To read the whole post click here http://bit.ly/18ttYAy

I’m not sure how I feel about this; while it is laudible that R&BBC make their feelings clear on the planning issue, there is something a little distasteful in the potential economic influence they may exert here.

This week saw (despite the snow!) the foundation piles and beams installed on the construction of a new 8,000sqft GEA house in the sought after area of Kingswood, Surrey.

Three new detached homes for developer Prism Homes in Kingswood’s Residential Area of Special Character.

The new proposals addressed the concerns raised with the previously approved scheme prepared by another architect by repositioning the houses to improve the privacy of each by increasing the distance between the buildings and by orientating them away from each other. This orientation also allows the plans for each house to be designed to relate to its own unique aspect in terms of daylighting and views.

In addition, the new proposals minimised the excavation required on site and removed the need for the 5m high new retaining wall around the western end of Plot 2 and avoided the damage to the existing trees that would have resulted. The minimising of excavation has the added additional benefit of helping to maximise the retention of the existing mature planting around the perimeter of the site and to ensure that minimum damage is caused to the root systems of the large trees.

The houses are designed as two storey traditional brick houses with steeply pitched tiled roofs containing an attic storey. Reconstituted stone detailing around the windows, plinths and to boundary walls are complemented by diaper pattern brickwork in a dark contrasting brick and decorative detailing to the open eaves. Large timber glazed screens to the rear of the houses supplemented with timber French doors to the principal ground floor rooms and a large central rooflight to the double height Entrance Halls ensure that modern standards for large amounts of daylighting are achieved.

The individual orientation of each of the properties ensures that rear gardens face away from each other to maximise privacy while also limiting the potential overlooking issues apparent in the currently approved scheme. Privacy and a sense of enclosure is further enhanced by the new screen planting proposed along the existing driveway and between the plots.

The design itself has been constructed using the best principals of traditional Georgian architecture; rhythm, proportion, scale. Both the plan and the elevations are designed using a formal geometric grid of 3m x 3m and set around strict symmetry lines.

The main central symmetrical part of the house is differentiated from the garage block to the side by both position and material. The central main block of the house is in brick and raised up on a stone plinth; the garage block to the side is in stucco and is set both onto the floor and back from the main building line face. The subservience of this block is further reinforced by the lowering of the eaves and roof.

The main entrance is placed centrally on the main block and is treated with a traditional pediment and balcony arrangement. This differentiation is maintained on the rear elevation and the interjection of a central rear projecting bay and side bay in contrasting stucco render enhance the visual appearance of the main brick house.

Overall the footprint of the house is 16.3m in depth by 28.3m in width including the single storey bay projections to the front, rear and sides. The main two storey part of the house is significantly smaller at 12m x 24m. A large attic storey adds more accommodation including an au-pair suite, home cinema and games room.

The overall GIA of the new house is a significant improvement on the existing house, achieved by a rationalisation of the plan, and provides 611sqm (6,575 sqft) of internal accommodation (exc. garage).

Overall the architectural style of a simple Georgian country house is typical of many of the houses on the Estate and as such this design respects and is compatible with the character of the area as required by local planning policy.

The design and siting of the new house allowed the existing perimeter planting to remain and also maintain the visual predominance of tree cover and spacious gardens.

Consisting of two storey rear and side extensions, remodelling of the front elevation, additional single storey side elevations, new detached garaging, landscaping, double access driveway and the complete remodelling of the interior including new double height entrance hall this project will dramatically improve both the appearance and use of the house.

The project involves the complete redesign of the exterior of the house, replacing a disastrous mix of plastic cladding, stone cladding and facing brick with a modern, clean aesthetic of white render over a new layer of external insulation. The existing heavy concrete roof tiles are replaced with natural slate, the white plastic windows replaced with new double glazed powder coated aluminium windows in a dark slate grey colour to match the roof and rainwater goods.

The existing conservatory is replaced with a new sun-room below a new large balcony with glazed balustrading accessed directly off the new master bedroom suite with clear views over the adjacent Wray Common Conservation Area.

The existing single storey garage to the far side is replaced with a new two storey extension, extending both to the front and rear, incorporating the new master bedroom suite, guest suite, new utility room improved garaging, and the new music room extending into the south facing gardens.

The deep overhanging eaves to the roof provide passive solar shading from the summer sun to the first floor rooms. A new front projecting porch and gable provides the much needed balance to the front elevation as well as relieving the cramped existing bathroom accommodation to the first floor.

As the large extension and remodelling project for a private client in Kingswood, Surrey nears completion this month we are delighted to confirm our appointment for a similar sized project in neighbouring Chipstead.

The image above shows the rear of the Kingswood project with the inset showing the rear elevation prior to the works.

For more images and information on this project click here.