Remodelling of a family home
Sheen House
The objective of this project was to adapt a 1920s house to today’s modern life needs by creating a well-connected open plan ground floor living space while creating additional living accommodation upstairs.
Despite previous extensions the existing house had small rooms which felt isolated with little if any connection to the large garden at the rear of the home. The brief was to ‘break the 4x4m grid’, making this project an example of how it can be more important to carefully remove parts of an existing building than to add to it.
The project includes a rear extension with a large open-plan space including the kitchen, dining space, lounge and library which form the heart of the family home. This space is connected to the front of the house by alternative routes, forming a circular route without dead-ends and making the maximum use of space.
The entrance and stair has been radically modified to open up long expansive views through the house and into the garden beyond. The new orientation of the stair allows daylight into the entrance hall which was previously obstructed and creates a generous double-height entrance space which allows a view up all the way to the top floor.
