This Clontarf semi-d shows how simple but considered design can reinvent a home
A growing family needed more space, so Architectural Farm responded with an extension that feels generous, yet extends less than three metres into the garden.
Home to a family of five, this semi-detached Clontarf home lacked day-to-day functionality, as well as needing an upgrade in terms of electrics and heating. “The house had previously been extended,” Shane Cotter of Architectural Farm explains, “but lacked a space that the whole family could enjoy together. It was short on bedrooms and space for an office. The house was also in need of an energy upgrade.”
The original house required renovation, including upgrading the heating, electrics, insulation, floors, roof, and glazing, while the existing rear and side extension were demolished. They were replaced with a two-storey extension designed to maximise the living space at ground floor, improve the bedrooms upstairs and create a new master bedroom and ensuite. In addition to this a new attic room and dormer were constructed, as well as a timber-clad bike shed in the front garden.
“The new west-facing extension begins as a single storey flat roof brick structure that sweeps up into a striking two-storey gable form containing a double height space drawing light into the kitchen from a roof light,” Shane explains.
“It also contains a generous master bedroom at first floor where you experience the full height of the gable roof, with exposed joists visible from the interior in both spaces. The depth of the brick façade provides some solar shading for the 3-panel sliding door that allows for a seamless connection between living space to the long and mature garden.”
This additional space has created room for a large, open plan kitchen and living area, with a sitting room and playroom to the front . Shane explains that while overall the home now feels generous, the footprint of the extension only comes three metres into the garden.
“This was to keep the garden as large as possible, and to try and use as much of the existing house as possible. The Clients were keen not to create space for the sake of it. As a result the design evolved from the inside to out.”
It was important to the owners that all the spaces feel connected. “While internally the new extension’s exposed joist act as continuous link through the spaces,” Shane says, “traveling from the ground floor to the first floor vaulted roof of the master bedroom, its joinery, colours and finishes ensure the seamless flow from old to new.”
A sense of connection is also achieved through the interior palette. A new concrete polished concrete floor runs throughout the ground floor, and warm, bright colours are used in every room. “The pink in the new family space softens the dark timber of the new kitchen which runs from old to new, while the new light blue storage wall in the hall is selected to be welcoming by brightening the entrance hall.”
It is this richness and texture that has been added that elevates this simple series of spaces, Shane explains.
“The timber front door, the blue ribbed storage wall , the exposed joist in the living spaces and master bedroom, the polished concrete and the rich timber of the kitchen make this design greater than the sum of its part, but for us the sawtooth brick detail of the rear extension is the standout detail. The Brick detailing is visually interesting, breaks up the mass of the rear facade and creates some beautiful shadows and depth in the evening light and is a credit to the skills of the main contractor.”
Photography: Ste Murray
Also Read
