Located in a conservation area, this detached Victorian villa in gothic revival style is set in a large mature garden at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac. Red sandstone walls carry distinctive steeply sloping slated roofs and decorative painted timber bargeboards. What may appear to be a modest one and half storey house from the street reveals itself as a three-storey villa to the rear south facing garden.

The house has been extended previously with a double garage abutting a single storey ‘lean-to’ at the gable of the house and a white pvc framed conservatory at the rear.

Complimenting a full internal refurbishment, we designed three distinct additions to the house: a one and a half storey extension with a double- pitched roof to replace the existing lean (inserted between the house and garage), a single storey curved glass dining room and an angular sunroom extension (phase 2) to replace the existing upvc conservatory.

Whilst relatively hidden to the street, both the curved dining room and sun room extensions are subservient to the original building, taken individually and when considered together. The pitches of the roof forms are related to the ‘host’ building and materials are consistent with the original house.

In particular the dining room extension sweeps around in alignment with the garages, and avoids competing with the existing canted bay. The new sunroom roof angles relate to the steep pitch of the existing house gable and the angle formed by the stepping 3- light window to the staircase. At present this window has a slightly awkward relationship to the conservatory to be removed.

On the front elevation, the new extension roof sleeves under the main house roof, and forms a clean and simple stepped junction between the main house and the garages.

The combination of the relatively discrete extensions have enabled a simple reorganisation of the internal rooms in a clear way that suits the current and future needs of the family. The extensions harmonise in their materiality and balance visually around the centre of the rear of the original villa, the focal point.