The Old School

Framing the old

As is often the case with converted old buildings, The Old School offered bags full of charm, but the layout did not encourage an easy flow between functions. The kitchen was shoe-horned into an awkward corner of the property and the guest bedroom suite was completely remote from the rest of the house and only accessible externally.

The proposed contemporary architectural design involved filling in the courtyard, placing the kitchen at the heart of the home and connecting the hallway, living and dining rooms as well as the guest suite.

The Old School infill extension reinterprets the historic form and massing of the host dwelling in a contemporary manner through the placement of a third gabled form as infill between the original school building and an external guest suite built in more recent times.

The contemporary extension form is accentuated by the introduction of a wide box gutter which runs along three sides of the new standing roof. The enlarged gutter provides comfortable access to the roof for maintenance purposes whilst creating a visual separation between the old and the new with only a pair of frameless glazed elements connecting them.

The infill extension has been left fully glazed to the Northwest, and above ceiling level to the Southeast, to create a very light structure to ensure the historic form and fabric of the host dwelling remains visible and celebrated.

Extensive sun path analysis have been carried out to ensure the glazed areas do not cause overheating. We were fortunate that the geometry of the host dwelling allowed us to introduce more south facing glazed areas than what we would normally consider appropriate. This results in a very light kitchen and dining room with a strong visual and physical link between inside and outside.

It was important to acknowledge the form and massing and visual access to the host dwelling beyond the extension form and we specified a contrasting material to herald the new phase of the building's development. Siberian larch was chosen as rainscreen for both the walls and roof. Its fine grain structure offered a near homogenous finish which lets the form of the building do the talking.

Layers of meaning and interest were added through the introduction of textures and colours. Bespoke joinery we designed for the kitchen, hallway, study and games room with the fluted kitchen island taking centre stage in the vaulted kitchen.

The refurbished interior was treated as a series of contrasting light and dark spaces, capitalising on the natural characteristics of each space. Light and darkness is continuously offset against each other, with the ever changing position of the sun adding to the dynamic nature of the space.