Project: Ledcameroch RoadProject Type: Alterations, Renovations and ExtensionsYear: 2012Context: SuburbanSector: Private
Our client had recently purchased an interesting arts-and-crafts house in Bearsden. Though attracted by the character of the house and a magnificent garden, they required significant additional space and larger public rooms
In expanding the house we wanted to also enrich it in plan and section. Internally this entailed introducing the complexity and depth of interest characteristic in the morphology of a well designed larger house – sequences of related rooms, alternative circulation patterns and additional stairs. Externally it involved developing what we sometimes refer to as a more complex coastline, a more differentiated relationship with garden, approaches, and external space at different levels. We elected to develop the house seamlessly in the same basic idiom of steeply pitched slate roofs and harled walls at the same time allowing new twists in the overall composition.
The west side of the building was opened up and significantly extended to create a wing accommodating larger public spaces and giving the house a much more expansive presence to both road and entrance approach. To the south a poorly designed 1980s extension was replaced with a new kitchen wing that more constructively developed original character. Externally the new wings serve to model new external space at different levels. Internally, the building was comprehensively reconfigured and refurbished to bind old and new as a coherent whole.
Though undoubtedly rather lavish as a single family dwelling, a technically very dated house has at least now been comprehensively upgraded to greatly improved standards of energy consumption.
Substantial additions have been carefully incorporated without overwhelming the original Arts and Crafts House creating a coherent composition using the idiom of the original with contemporary twists. Internally a comprehensive reconfiguration elegantly meshes together old and new improving the quality and interconnection of spaces whilst strengthening the relationship with the garden. It is a house of considerable quality.