Bracondale, Cheshire // Cheshire
A luxurious extension to a Cheshire cottage in Allostock blending traditional and contemporary architecture featuring an outdoor swimming pool and glass link.
What was once a modest rural cottage has been extended numerous times into its current incarnation which makes it a difficult design challenge to wrestle with. Through a combination of a design-positive approach and an in-depth client briefing period, JAR has put together a very exciting proposal.Richard Sandbach ARB, RIBA (Architect)
Bringing Contemporary Living to a Cheshire Cottage
There are a number of characteristics of the work we do on retrofitting and extending existing homes that are common across the board; working from home and accommodating the changing family dynamic are chief amongst which.
The original cottage predates 1836 and has seen a number of extensions in its long history resulting in a building that is both architecturally incongruent but also not optimally serving the owners as their family dynamic changes. There are implications of the numerous changes to the design; not only in what is achievable in the design itself, but what could be justifiable in terms of the planning case. It is a challenge that JAR's design-positive approach s well-suited to. The design philosophy is to intervene in the storied fabric to make the building capable of supporting growing children, home working and large family event as well as improving the sense of arrival. By enshrining these aspirations at the heart of the design, JAR have developed an architecture that satisfies the client brief featuring the following:
Removal of the existing flat roof extension to introduce a pitched roof element to accentuate the entrance
A two-storey extension to the gable end which is intended to contain a home office and to produce an addition bedroom and master bathroom upstairs
The single-storey kitchen extension is to be replaced with a contemporary equivalent providing views to the back garden and the countryside beyond
The conversion of a garage into and activity space with an en-suite bedroom above
A luxurious glass link-way will form a connection between existing dwelling and outbuilding into a singular dwelling
To improve the amenity of the back garden, a covered seating area will be created complete with a dual-aspect chimney
Throughout the design process, the intent is that views through the building to the countryside beyond the back garden is the experiential quality of navigating throughout the space; a key aspect of the architecture is expansive glazing to the rear. The elevational treatment therefore must reconcile the cottage aesthetic with that of the rear without falling into the pitfall of creating an inconsistent massing. Rather than shying away from the design challenge, we elected instead to clearly distinguish the newer elements of the architecture from the original to ensure the legibility of the historical context of each part of the building. Resultantly, there is a clear architectural language for rear of the building featuring vertical timber cladding, floor-to-ceiling windows and zinc cladding which is carried from the two-storey extension through to the kitchen and then the link-way where the frontage leverages the vernacular Cheshire brick and slate. Overall, we are very pleased with the outcome of the design and are looking forward to seeing how the planning process unfolds.
If you have a complex design problem that you'd like us to turn our architectural problem-solving skill to, please feel free to get in touch:
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