Westbank
Extensions
Location:
Dorking, Surrey
Client:
Private Domestic Client
RIBA Stages:
1 – 4 (Inception to Technical Design)
Description:
The clients came to us with the task of adding a single storey rear extension and improving the internal ground floor layout, in order to create a home that better met the needs of their family. Although the site had no planning restrictions, sitting solely within the residential area of Dorking, a steep bank leading up to the rear garden meant the careful design of how to add retaining elements would be necessary, along with how to work around an underground bunker set within the slope.
Through the rear extension and alterations to the floor plan a new L-shaped open plan kitchen, dining, family room was created, significantly adding to and improving the space in which the family planned to spend most of their time. The original kitchen was converted into a separate utility room and W.C., adding much needed additional facilities. The design increased the sense of space to the new open plan room by using a vaulted ceiling with two large skylights, which also succeeded in bringing in generous levels of natural light into the centre of the house.
A shallow pitched Zinc clad roof was designed to cover the extension, not only as an external feature and device to create a contrast with the more traditional aesthetic of the house, but also to serve a practical function of avoiding the existing first floor windows, which would have otherwise been in the way if a traditional roof covering was used. Also, as part of the works a two-tiered retaining wall system was used, breaking up the height of the ground to be retained whilst also creating a mid-level planter, adding wildlife to the immediate outlook from the extension.
