Dundonald Room

The room, which stands in the garden, is made almost entirely of wood. The glue laminated timber frame and roof panels are larch tree wood, the picture recess walls are faced with waxed birch tree wood, the short plank timber carpet is white ash tree wood. It is an interlude between within and without. It is introverted, intimate and tactile. Almost all the exterior surfaces are a matching dark red meranti wood, bringing it close to the appearance of a tea caddy. The outside has a smooth dull appearance due to the all-over finish of rosewood oil and the brown metal zinc roof. The textural surfaces of the existing pebble dashed walls are the perfect foil. The ambition was to make an indivisible whole. Metal screw piles were used to displace carbon-intensive materials such as concrete and brick for the foundations, to reduce the carbon footprint of the building. The roots of a rose tree would also be protected, as well as the garden walls and fences. All of the wooden elements were first fabricated and pre-assembled offsite to reduce time, resource and energy spent on-site. An install of wooden furniture more than an intrusive build. Precast concrete lintels were recycled into shoe stones, perfectly convex in shape to stop rainwater collecting, and left over stone slabs repurposed into patio stones. One of a series of thresholds that are a calibration from garden to house. Over time it is intended that the wooden materials and metal roof will age beautifully within the garden. It is a sustainable approach to a small house extension.