Design Challenge and Design Ideas

Existing house and a sustainable design approach.
This project involved the restoration and extension of an historic double fronted Regency style end of terrace house, ensuring its future and make a modern, energy efficient family home, appropriate to its context. Previous alterations and extensions since its original construction made for small, dark rooms and convoluted circulation. Typical of its age, the house had issues with damp and thermal performance while archaic plumbing and electrical systems required upgrading.
Works involved a deep retrofit of the existing house, substantially improving the energy rating of the whole house to an A3.
Maximising natural light and ventilation to all rooms in the house, while retaining as much garden space as possible for planting was key to the design.

How the brief was fulfilled

A palette of natural oak, painted plaster, lime-washed brick and polished concrete characterise the interior of the house. The architecture and interior design were considered as one by ALWA, choreographed as a series of connected spaces moving from old to new, each with its own particular spatial and light qualities, and with a shared material language and all with a special connection to the landscape beyond. Deep timber lining mark out the transitions between spaces.
For comfort and sustainability PV Panels, a heat pump for space and water heating and a mechanical heat recovery ventilation system are utilised in the design.