Curnow House

The house was constructed 25 years ago as part of a small development of four houses. While modest and unassuming, and with a simple pitched roof vernacular appropriate to the suburban style in the area, the dark palette of materials gives it an uninviting character and the hidden entrance affects the legibility of the house, providing a confusing approach to the property.

The project seeks to address these issues through the insertion of a new master bedroom suite to replace the existing suite within the loft space above the garage.

The garage structure at ground floor is retained and the loft space above is replaced with a lightweight timber-frame ‘box’ that cantilevers out over the garage to form a generous master bedroom, dressing room and en-suite bathroom.

The structure of the new master suite was discussed at length with the engineer to ensure the garage walls and substructure below could be retained in order to lower the carbon footprint of the project.

A projecting fibreglass profile, formed at a local boat builder’s, wraps around the face of the new suite and continues on to create a covered porch and entrance area. The porch leads through to a new double-height entrance hall connecting the master suite with the rest of the house.

The facades are clad in Accoya with large sections of glazing in-between to draw as much light in as possible.

Due to the proximity of the neighbouring properties, projecting Accoya fins line the facades at first floor to mitigate against the oblique views into the master bedroom.

The ground floor brickwork is overclad in Accoya battens to create a more unified appearance with the new first floor.

Annual CO2 data was not provided