Kloof Street

Retrofit open plan living

Kloof Street is our family home in South Africa. A bungalow with lots of square meterage but much of it in the wrong places! Previous owners enclosed a patio to provide a living space which resulted in a bedroom, bathrooms and pantry with no external windows. A narrow passage through the pantry provided access to the living room which connected to the garden.

It was a back to front kind of layout, with no proper link between the garden and the living areas. Very similar to what we see in many properties in the UK. The bungalow had a large undeveloped loft space. My approach was to partly develop the loft as a guest bedroom suite. The landlocked bathroom, bedroom and pantry were consolidated into a dining area which was open to the kitchen as well as the living space. The loft was opened up over the dining room to provide a dynamic double volume space with a row of roof lights to deliver light to the centre of the house. A small extension to the side of the property provided a fourth bedroom and family bathroom.

The new integrated kitchen, dining and living room is connected to the garden with two sets of folding patio doors.

Our budget was limited to the internal remodelling of the space. I have therefore chosen to work with the 1930’s aesthetic of the building to highlight and strengthen the architectural language of the existing bungalow.