Corten Infill

It survived essentially unchanged into the 21st century, predominantly thanks to its Listing. The original design separated services and servants’ areas, such as scullery, pantry, boiler and loft rooms, well away from the principal spaces. Over the past 15 years, SPA has been working on the house’s gradual transformation. The marginal spaces have been re-shaped, re-purposed and carefully integrated back into the structure fit for the future. The final act of the future-proofing consisted of replacing reliance on fossil fuel with clean, on-site generated energy and freeing up the house of the marginal spaces. SPA inserted this intricately designed, Corten-clad box into the gap previously occupied by a garage between the house and its next-door neighbour. The timeless Corten cloak, a rather unconventional companion of the listed house brickwork, lends the infill not only the notion of permanence but also the protection to all the humble timber within. The concept appealed to the conservation bodies, granting the project planning and listed building permission promptly. The tapering skylights and the high-level glazing at the narrow ends of the slotted box bring in carefully moderated daylight. The perforated shading feature of the southeast-facing glazing brings a lace-like fragility to the otherwise stern front facade. Internally, both long sides of the box are lined by bespoke ply joinery which stops only to clear the listed features of the main house. The exclusive use of timber and ply for structure, insulation and internal fit-out achieved a significant offset of sequestered carbon from the embodied carbon of this small project.