Home extension, Oxford. 14m2
Typical small single storey rear extension to create a larger kitchen / dining / family room. The design created a light & airy open plan space; a great improvement over the existing ‘galley’ kitchen and a huge improvement to the flexibility of this family home.
I must have done a dozen or more of this specific type of rear extension over the years, each one very ‘forensic’ and ‘tight grain’, totally site specific and bespoke, always loads of work for relatively small extra floor areas. It’s definitely quality not quantity that counts with such projects. These projects are some of the most satisfying to get right, but also potentially the most fraught with problems and hardest of all for an architect or builder to make money from!
As a client you’ll definitely ‘get out what you put in’ with this type of project in terms of doing your own homework to help fully explain your needs and expectations, then investing in a good architect’s proper design time. I often spend significant amounts of time and effort to arrive at a solution that looks simple and obvious only for the the client to think all I did was sit down for 1/2 hour and sketch it up! If you seek the best possible [bespoke] solution and want any chance of building on time, on budget and to the desired quality, you really must prepare yourself from the outset and be willing to invest in early design, the earlier the better! It’s at this stage especially that a skilled architect can add value in many ways.
House Extension, Herts. Extension: 43 m2 / Total House Area: 152 m2.
Grotty side alley with neighbour built against asymmetric boundary.
Sketch scheme with [part] two storey vaulted side extension.
