This house in Wimbledon was designed by Sir Philip Dowson of Arup Associates in 1963 and was listed in 2013.
I had the rare opportunity of working together with the original project architect, now Professor Richard Frewer, to alter the house in order to realise the maximum development potential of the property, whilst minimising the impact of doubling the overall plan size.
An extract from the Design & Access Statement encapsulates the original architectural concept of the house and forms the starting point for the new development:
“We were asked to design a house with a modest budget for a family of parents and three growing children. The architectural idea was to create a private inward-looking building while optimising the ‘sense of space’ within the very limited and overlooked site, exploiting both plan and section to do so.
To this end, a ‘courtyard house’ was devised which could be replicated as a terrace.”
For the alteration, we devised a scheme which would largely be “out of sight”. This strategy allowed us to utilise the natural slope of the site and the configuration of the existing house, where for budgetary reasons, amongst others, this was not exploited at the time of the original construction.
The brief for the alteration was: A new open ‘family hub’ of kitchen / dining / living room, 4 new en-suite bedrooms, a new utility room / laundry (replacing the present kitchen), play/health facilities, accommodation for new services
A new pavilion is inserted on the vacant north strip of the site, which will maintain and acknowledge the floor and roof levels of the house. The extension is attached to the existing building with an entirely glass link (structure, cladding and the staircase within it). See Elevations and sections adjacent.
Full Planning and Listed Building consent were granted in 2014.
