Historic home sensitively upgraded for modern use

For several years, life in this beloved family home centred around the basement – the location of the kitchen and dining facilities. A Donald Insall Associates-designed extension helps to relocate these areas, encouraging family interaction and entertainment on the principal floors. The discreet addition connects the main house to its extensive gardens and views of the River Thames, reflecting how the house and its grounds would have historically been experienced.

Uniting old and new

This West London home is an elegant timber-framed building, dating back to 1680. The pavilion extension has minimal impact on the historic fabric – a glass slot connects new and old lightly with an entirely reversible junction. Though the architectural language of the pavilion is unashamedly of its time, it links with the host building through the consideration of Contemporary Craft. The expressed oak frame of the pavilion is a physical reminder of that in the host building. Steel flitch plates reinforce the timber beams allowing the oak to contort, as in the main building.

The single-storey flat-roofed pavilion has little visual impact, at only 9.5m wide – less than half the width of the house. A simple palette of materials including frameless glazing with low-iron glass coupled with mullions of large sliding doors creates a highly transparent building, nearly invisible from the end of the garden.

The extension has upgraded the home to suit the needs of its 21st-century inhabitants while respecting the main house’s historic significance.