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Free Spirit Architectural Design & Conservation Limited
 

Friday Street - Rendlesham

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Before construction:

 
 

CAD Drawings:

 

Construction:

 

Fact File

Client Type: Domestic Client - Family

Project Type: Domestic – Dwelling – Family Home – Self Build.

Project Location: Friday Street, Rendlesham, Suffolk, England.

On the Market: No

Client Requirements / Brief: Single and two storey extensions and alterations to accommodate:

  • Full / modern height new accommodation to alleviate restricted height of historic areas
  • New family entrance area with storage
  • Utility / plant room
  • Cloak room
  • Open plan Kitchen, Dining family area
  • Sunroom
  • Modern standard staircase to replace existing staircase
  • New master bedroom with en-suite shower room and walk in wardrobe
  • Retention of the historic cottage
  • Reordering of the existing cottage to include new family first floor bathroom and ground floor multi use space.
  • All bedrooms and the bathroom must be connected at first floor level
  • Clean, crisp traditional / minimalist styling
  • Energy efficient and environmentally responsible – new and existing areas
  • Connection with external areas / landscape

Environmental Credentials:

  • Whole house Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery System
  • Ground source heat pump with thermal store
  • Space heating via underfloor heating to all areas
  • Super insulated, breathable timber framed new external walls and roof
  • Woodfibre insulation and lime render
  • Existing walls and roof upgraded with internal insulation
  • Retention of the existing historic building
  • Triple glazed timber and aluminium framed windows and doors.
  • LED lighting for internal and external lighting

Site Constraints: Restricted floor and ridge heights of existing historic cottage. Sloping site. Existing planting / trees. Overlooking to adjacent properties.

Planning Constraints: Existing scales and AONB. Overlooking to adjacent properties. Public views of the site / building.

Site Opportunities: Site slopes to the rear, allowing the building to remain diminutive to the street facade. Large open landscape to the rear under Clients ownership.

Problem Solving: The site opportunity of the sloping landscape is used to the full, allowing the new side extension to step down, with a lower ground floor level for the kitchen and dining areas, keeping the restricted first floor and roof levels intact and connected.

The side extension reads as a traditional cross wing, with a higher roof creating a large, airy vaulted master bedroom suite. The new family entrance, cloakroom and utility / plant rooms are of a smaller scale to relate to the front elevation and include a one and a half storey vaulted entrance hall / cross passage.

The tight and restricted existing staircase in the corner of the existing cottage was removed, increasing internal floor area, and replaced with a purpose designed stair tower with feature helical staircase situated centrally to the first-floor corridor of the linier plan.

The new stair tower and two storey side extension are connected by a new rear sun room, allowing occupiers to move around the building and ground to first floors without having to pass through the small existing ground floor rooms, thus increasing usable floor space and enhancing the ‘flow’ of the property.

The retention of small-scale windows and doors to the front of the property, while the use of extensive glazing to the rear, retain the character of the site whilst connecting the interior spaces with the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The alterations and extensions successfully recreate a restrictive, difficult but characterful historic cottage into a 21st century, environmentally responsible, family home.