Surface Design Awards – Complete

• HOUSING - EXTERIOR
  Buildings such as houses, flats and apartments that are used for sheltering people. These could be either part of the private or public sector and could be individual dwellings or multi-dwelling developments. Social rented, affordable rented and intermediate housing, provided to specified eligible households whose needs are not met by the market are included.

The Old Apple Store in East Grinstead, Sussex, extended and remodelled a detached property. Replacing a derelict glasshouse, the new addition dramatically improves the amenity of the house and its connection to the surrounding natural setting.

The existing house was originally an apple store for the nearby manor house and still contained 2 large green houses on its grounds. The house consisted of a central circulation spine with 2 wings of accommodation on either side and a utility room at the end. The rooms were very disconnected from each other and lacked any real link with the gardens. The brief was to significantly increase the size of the property by adding new open plan kitchen/dining and living areas, as well as a master bedroom suite. And most importantly - the extension needed to embrace the beautiful landscape setting.

The extension sits in a new structure adjacent to the existing house, echoing its pitched roof volumes with three new pitched roofs that each articulate a different space beneath. The new pitched volumes are rotated 90 degrees to far better address and open up views to the garden and delineate the new forms from the existing.

The central circulation spine is extended through a glazed link to connect the new addition with the existing house. A small courtyard space was created in front of the glazed link, framed by an existing decorative brick arch, with the old and new structures on either side. The glazed link leads through to the new large open plan kitchen/dining space, which have floor-to-ceiling glazed openings orientated towards the garden and landscape beyond. This light and open family space is visible as soon as you open the front door and draws you through the existing circulation space. Beyond the open plan kitchen is a new sunken living room space with a window that aligns with the circulation spine of the house, offering views to the garden all the way from the front door, which is some 30m away. Set off to the sides of the circulation spine are a new W.C., additional side entrance, breakfast room and stair up to the first floor en-suite bedroom, which sits above the sunken living room.

Bricks that match the existing, root the extension in its context, while a lightweight zinc upper level gives a contemporary twist to the existing vernacular.

The extension is formed from two key materials; a base of brick, chosen to blend well with the bricks of the existing house, and crisp black standing seam zinc roofs above, that bring a contemporary feel to the design and reference the surrounding rural vernacular. There is a crisply detailed continuous datum line between the zinc and the brick that emulated the strong eaves line of the existing house.

The interiors are designed to be simple and minimal whilst reflecting the external materiality of the building. The external brick walls continue from in to out, bringing their natural warmth to the interior while the polished concrete floors give a continuous flowing surface to the new parts of the house. The new spaces are enlivened by the warm and colourful joinery pieces of the kitchen, window surrounds and benches. Attention has also been paid to light fittings and switches that add interesting, detailed touches to the interior.

Sustainability was a key driver of the client’s brief. As the client was also the structural engineer for the scheme, particular attention was paid to creating a design that reduced the use of steel to the absolute minimum. The project also included extensively insulating the existing house and providing much better levels of thermal performance in the extension than the building regulations required. An oil fired heating system has been replaced with an air source heat pump that provides heat for both the under-floor heating of the extension and the radiators of the existing house, which is in part powered by the addition of 16 new photo voltaic panels on the extension roof.

A SAP assessment was carried out for Old Apple Store, which stated that the Dwelling Emission Rate was reduced as a result of the new extension and incorporation of sustainable systems. CO2 emissions per m² = 53.23kg CO2/year.

Originally the scheme was designed with a blackened timber cladding to the pitched roofs, but the client encountered difficulties with insurers due to the use of this material. We did everything we could working with suppliers to convince the insurers of the materials benefits and suitability but to no avail. Therefore, the external material design had to be revisited. A new design was conceived using black standing seem zinc to clad the pitched roofs. This material choice was thankfully accepted by both the planners and insurers but did result in a delay to construction.