Cheshire Street                  

This project was about making something affordable but extraordinary out of a very ordinary and common problem. The mid-terrace Victorian house came with the usual problems of restricted access and the desire to maintain natural light into the inner rooms. In early discussions the client also expressed the desire to retain the essence of the existing pitched roof over the tiny kitchen.

The new addition replaces an existing rear sitting room, single storey kitchen, lean-to garden store and external courtyard space with a flexible open plan space zoned to provide a new kitchen, dining and day space along with a hidden larder, shower room and storage to the perimeter of the plan. The clients brief was to create something special and different….to create a surprise space from the rest of the house.

The asymmetric form for the extension is shaped by this relationship of the memory of the existing kitchen paired with the enclosure of the courtyard space. The stepped extended volumes are unified by the overhanging upper facade plane which angles out to create a covered seating area as well as shading for the glazed wall…. providing the clients a much-improved connection with the garden and outdoor space.

The roofline profile echoes the terraced pitched roofs which form the background context. A glazed junction helps to separate the new infill extension from the existing brickwork, providing a defined break between new and old.

The use of Corten for the main facade material helped us knit the new into the colour palette of the existing housing, this use of weathered steel and its rich patinated orange tones also references the original railway heritage of the house along with a subtle nod to ‘Gingerbread’, which is something Market Drayton is known for.