Very excited that another one of our projects has recently obtained planning approval.
Our clients recently purchased his property, and whilst they were generally happy with the layout, they felt some improvements were needed.
The building is a converted farm in the Green Belt, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Conservation Area.
Since cooking is one of our client’s main passions, they wanted a space that could work well for hosting and cooking simultaneously. Another main concern was the existing “dark corridor” structure of the house.
The existing house is a converted single storey farm. Although the existing pitch roof provided very generous internal headroom, the internal spaces felt dark and cramped. The kitchen, living and dining were all independent from each others and all rooms were connected by one dark internal corridor. A series of timber trusses run along the roof, however, these were partially hidden with so many room partitions. We felt the building had so much potential that wasn’t fully explored.
One of our main objectives was to reduce the number of partitions and expose the existing trusses, achieving a strong visual effect along the length of the house. We produced several options in order to explore different ways to achieve their expectations, whilst being mindful of the potential planning challenges we could face.
One option included a double-height pitched roof extension which housed the kitchen and a mezzanine above it. The mezzanine would benefit from amazing views towards the valley.
However, being aware of the limitations of extending in the Green Belt, our client’s opted for a simpler solution of a flat roof and timber cladding. Limiting the amount of additional proposed volume.
The final scheme allowed our client to have 4 decent size bedrooms, a generous kitchen / living area, TV room, and a small utility. Every main space of the house has a lovely view and direct connection to the garden, including the bedrooms.
Even though the extension is relatively small in size, the re-arrangement of the internal layout meant that all the spaces were fully utilised. No more empty dark wasted space!
A mezzanine was also included in the main house to make the most of the headroom inside, which will house a space of a work study.
We are very excited to see this project finalised hopefully later this year!
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