listed farmhouse extension, woking
our story begins in the early 18th century as kettlewell farm, the farmhouse of the roake family. it was renamed in 1876, extended in the victorian style, and divided into three homes in the 1930s. that division left no. 2 with no south-facing windows. its kitchen was the darkest room in the house, while the rarely used formal dining room got the most light.
for our clients clare and russ, we designed a single-storey extension that moves daily life towards the light. russ researched the house's history in depth, working with the surrey domestic buildings research group, his heritage statement was warmly received by the conservation officer and the finished house carries his care for it. a zinc-clad family room beside a new kitchen, joined to the house by a glazed link, gathers the living spaces at the heart of the home, and a new ground-floor room works as an office or guest bedroom.
every old house has been changed before.
the house has been adapted again and again over 300 years. our extension is simply the latest chapter, designed so that each earlier phase can still be read, and so the new work is clearly of its own time.
03
nine metres of garden
a nine-metre sweep of glazing opens the family space to the garden, filling it with daylight. underfloor heating keeps it comfortable all year, while carefully matched brickwork and zinc cladding tie old and new together.
02
history repeating
plans from 1937 show the dining room once opened onto a glass extension. our design reinstates that connection with new doors, and removes a 1920s partition to return the living room to its original size, so the changes restore as much as they add.
01
a deliberate gap
the glazed link is set back from the face of the house and separates the new extension from the old, so very little historic fabric is disturbed. the original flemish bond brickwork is kept and now seen from inside, becoming part of the new family space.
