Oatlands
Location:
Surrey, UK
Client:
Private
Engineer:
BTA Structural Design
Landscape Design:
Rosalind Millar Landscape Design
Main Contractor:
Verve Concepts
Photographer:
Andy Matthews
Awards:
RIBA South East Award 2018
RIBA South East Small Project Award 2018
Winner - British Homes Award 2018
We were asked to look at renovating and extending an existing 4-bedroom house on a long north/south axis site in Surrey. The existing house had a very poor connection to a fantastic rear garden. The plot is on the bend of the road and makes the house sit at an angle to the long rear garden, which for us created an interesting dynamic and great opportunity.
Our approach has been to stretch a new ground floor extension across the width of the site, maximising the space to the east as it opens up into the garden. A new lower garden studio has been set into the garden to create a stand-alone workspace, giving a different perspective and orientation to the main house. A new Main Bedroom has then been added at First Floor Level, set back from the edge to maintain privacy from below and linked into the retained circulation.
A new extensive planting scheme has been incorporated into the new works to soften the new buildings into the extended garden. The new buildings have been constructed from a contrasting light grey brick, with sedum roofs to the studio and ground floor extensions softening the house further into the garden setting.
RIBA Awards Assessor:
"The architects have created a delightful, spacious series of spaces that open up to the garden and significantly enhance the client’s life in the house. The new additions are bold, employing an asymmetrical form, which is a departure from the usual run-of-the-mill, glass box house extensions.
These moves are a contextual response to the site: the geometry of the new extension and pavilion unlock parts of the garden previously disconnected from the house.
The garden pavilion has an idyllic location located in a beautifully-landscaped garden, at the point where the garden kicks off in a different direction unseen from the main house.
The material palette is simple and robust: grey bricks, used on walls both inside and out. This gives a solidity and sculptural quality, which is simple and bold, avoiding fussy detailing and complex junctions.
The project was delivered on a reasonably tight budget, yet demonstrates a high quality and clever resourcefulness."
Our approach has been to stretch a new ground floor extension across the width of the site, maximising the space to the east as it opens up into the garden. A new lower garden studio has been set into the garden to create a stand-alone workspace, giving a different perspective and orientation to the main house. A new Main Bedroom has then been added at First Floor Level, set back from the edge to maintain privacy from below and linked into the retained circulation.
A new extensive planting scheme has been incorporated into the new works to soften the new buildings into the extended garden. The new buildings have been constructed from a contrasting light grey brick, with sedum roofs to the studio and ground floor extensions softening the house further into the garden setting.
RIBA Awards Assessor:
"The architects have created a delightful, spacious series of spaces that open up to the garden and significantly enhance the client’s life in the house. The new additions are bold, employing an asymmetrical form, which is a departure from the usual run-of-the-mill, glass box house extensions.
These moves are a contextual response to the site: the geometry of the new extension and pavilion unlock parts of the garden previously disconnected from the house.
The garden pavilion has an idyllic location located in a beautifully-landscaped garden, at the point where the garden kicks off in a different direction unseen from the main house.
The material palette is simple and robust: grey bricks, used on walls both inside and out. This gives a solidity and sculptural quality, which is simple and bold, avoiding fussy detailing and complex junctions.
The project was delivered on a reasonably tight budget, yet demonstrates a high quality and clever resourcefulness."
