Location: London, UK
Area: 104 sqm
Architects: Coffey Architects
Photography: © Timothy Soar
AWARDS
2015 Retrofit Awards, Best House under £300K
2015 AJ Small Projects Awards – Shortlist
2016 RIBA Awards London
2016 Stephen Lawrence Prize – Shortlist
The clients of the Modern Side Extension found themselves in a position common to countless thousands of other people in the UK, which makes the house we designed for them of generic value to others. Living in a three-bedroom terraced house, they wanted to expand and remodel for open-plan living on a limited budget. They especially wanted to avoid the cold and clinical aesthetic of many contemporary homes.
Conservation area-friendly brick, glass and bi-fold doors unite in a complex three-dimensional composition. Respectful to neighbours, the Modern Side Extension shows that the smallest architectural projects can be transformational.
Inside, the materials – polished concrete floors, brick, European oak and white sprayed MDF joinery – are warm and unostentatious. Bi‐fold doors and frameless rooflight glazing dissolves the distinction between inside and out and allow light deep into the property.
The Modern Side Extension is a homely and uncompromisingly modern answer to the question of how to extend a terraced home.
SOLID & VOID
Coffey Architects have avoided both the typical glass side infill solution and the intrusive projecting rear extension by reversing the infill condition. Built from contextually apt London Stock brick, this essentially involves a structural solution that allows the existing volume of the house to slip past a brick pier; a continuation of the party wall. The composition is a subtle game of solid and void, breaking down the threshold between new and old, inside and outside.
STRONG, WARM MATERIALS THAT AGE BEAUTIFULLY
The self‐finished internal materials including polished concrete floors, brick, European oak and white sprayed MDF joinery add a sense of context and warmth; a key criteria of the client who wished to avoid the cold and clinical aesthetic of many contemporary residential projects.
DISSOLVING THE BOUNDARIES
Slim aluminium bi‐fold doors and frameless rooflight glazing ensure the distinction between inside and outside is dissolved; in effect making the exterior another room of the house and allowing light to permeate deep within the property. No columns, no dodgy glazed infills, no ostentatious materials. The Modern Side Extension is an uncompromisingly modern solution to the expansion of a terraced home.
Coffey Architects
Coffey Architects
Phil Coffey
Founded in 2005, Coffey Architects has built a strong reputation for designing beautifully crafted, intelligent buildings that ingeniously add value for our clients.
Whatever the scale and no matter what kind of client, our unique talent is to choreograph the demands of strategic objective, budgets, deadlines and delivery for great results.
A growing team of twenty-five talented and dedicated architects, we share a culture of excellence. Our projects have been recognised with a clutch of awards won against stiff competition.
CONTACT
enquiries@coffeyarchitects.com
+44(0)20 7549 2141
11-12 Great Sutton Street
London
EC1V 0BX
United Kingdom
