Casa del Sole

Our clients, David and Anson, wished to make the most of their sun baked rear garden in East London and posed us a spatial puzzle of wishing to move the existing ground floor bathroom without compromising any of the other rooms. We proposed a more Mediterranean style of home to make the most of the glorious aspect together with a radical reorganisation to relocate the bathroom to a new loft extension, extending at ground floor to link the kitchen and dining spaces and refurbishing the whole house in addition.

We cut away the corners of the building at ground floor and inserted glazing to link the inside with the terrace and garden beyond and although our clients desired highly glazed spaces, they did not want to overheat or feel over exposed and favoured colour and texture for the interior spaces. In response, we suggested a glazing system with solar control glass and smaller panes of glass to give a sense of enclosure whilst playing the huge amounts of Southerly light off against a palette of rich, dark materials with lots of tonal depth.

Although open plan, we used a change of level and floor finish at ground floor to distinguish the kitchen, dining and living spaces from one another and proposed a small seating area within the kitchen to provide social interaction across the spaces. We re-used and renewed much of the ground floor and proposed an exposed open ceiling across the kitchen to unify the mismatched existing ceilings in this area.

Mindful of our clients green fingers, a open timber framework perfect for climbing plants to trail across shades the rear glazing - perfect for shady summer lunches.