PRIVATE LIBRARY AND STUDIO

We have worked on numerous projects with our client, and this, our fourth project together, created a library and workshop in the garden in a new building that replaces an existing single-storey garage and shed, with a new single-storey annex. The corner site is located in the De Freville Conservation Area of Cambridge, with the scheme designed to enhance the conservation area while contrasting with the surroundings. Our client’s brief was to produce something ‘interesting and special’, with space to shelve a considerable (and expanding) book collection, along with a workshop area to support our client’s interest in art, machinery and tools – a space for painting, furniture restoration and creativity. The desire was to achieve very high environmental standards – including ongoing energy consumption, carbon used in construction and crucially a safe book environment! The building shape forms an ‘end stop’ to the garden. The pitched roof and ceiling provide a sense of space & and volume on a restricted site, with any overshadowing limited to a path and adjacent garages. A west-facing roof overhang of 1.3m provides an appealing sheltered external sitting area and also passively limits both solar gain and ‘book harmful’ ultraviolet rays entering the library. The roof & and cladding material relate to nearby buildings with metal roofing (including the client’s own house). The walls, including boundary garden walls, were built with reclaimed Cambridgeshire bricks. The new external boundary wall replaces concrete hard-standing and an ageing garage. The end result creates a far more appealing street scene with traditional garden walls, enabling the new building to peek over the top, contrasting and complementing adjacent and reclaimed materials.