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Case Study 1: Drystone Room
This project was in a turn of
the century terraced house with a strong hierarchy in the plan,
reflected in the elevations. The back is plain, without ornament,
and given over to kitchen and laundry functions, while the front
is elegant and well-proportioned.
The garden was originally designed as a 'back green' for storing
coal and drying clothes. Although it faces south, it runs steeply
uphill. During the seventies, a lean-to was added to house the
boiler and a tool shed, forming a further physical barrier between
the house and the garden.
The current owners wanted to improve the light and sense of space
in the ground floor rooms, use the old kitchen for dining and
to establish some sort of connection between the house and the
rear garden, which they wished to use as an outdoor living space.
We demolished the lean-to, made a large new opening in the rear
wall, and dug out the hillside to create a new outdoor room at
the same level as the house. A retaining wall in dry stone construction
was built to form a dipping crescent with curving steps to the
upper level which narrow as they rise, creating a sense of receding
perspective, and giving the illusion of a much larger space.
Internally, at each side of the new window, glass shutters incorporate
a light box, which supplements daylight in the winter and increases
the apparent size of the window.
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