Garden Lodge

The clients had an Edwardian lodge and a tired rear extension. They wanted more useful space for the family — somewhere to cook and eat together, a separate room to sit in, and a third place teenagers could disappear to — without losing the character of the lodge or the trees around it.

The new work is organised as three single-storey volumes set low into the garden. One holds the kitchen and dining; one is the main living room; the third is a detached pavilion for a gym and hangout. A central axis runs through the plan and ends at a see-through fireplace that lets you read the garden from either side.

The volumes use articulated brickwork and roof tiles that match the original house, so the additions sit quietly in the street view and disappear from the front. Pitched roofs carry frameless skylights set deep enough to be invisible from the kerb. Inside, polished concrete floors run out under wide glazing to the terrace.