A thorough refurbishment of a detached house with extensions on all sides.

This house was originally a bungalow which had several historic alterations over the decades, resulting in a compromised, incoherent design and various different types of construction mishmashed together.

This project was the opportunity to unify and integrate all those into a new cohesive whole.

Working with such heavily altered houses and altering them further requires good investigation and an expert eye.

Often structural investigation works is very inconvenient for the occupiers but still needs to be done well in advance of site works to inform design.

This is where experience and expertise makes all the difference.

Targeted minimal investigations, assumptions based on a wealth of experience, designing for contingencies and ability to quickly react to any remaining surprises on site.

Reviewing this project at the end, the initial sketches were very close to the final design, almost right first time!

This helped the owners continue living with minimal disturbance for several months, and achieved a smooth construction process.