This unique contemporary extension was designed by Mike Lapworth working with Martin Holland to suit the client brief providing a large living room & library at raised ground floor level and bedroom accommodation at lower ground floor level overlooking a woodland style Japanese garden.
The bespoke contemporary design replaced an existing 1920s outbuilding, service yard and garage which were built on the site of the original Regency coach house and service yard. Both of these previous buildings had failed because of significant subsidence caused by the two Storey buildings being built on very deep fill.
The main Listed house was originally designed and built to be part of a large Regency Crescent overlooking a landscaped area. The Crescent was never completed due to lack of demand for new houses in Regency Leamington Spa and this was the final house built in the row. The Extension design therefore had to respond to three different character aspects with its fourth side directly connecting to the ground floor and basement floor areas of the existing house. As the original Crescent design was never completed, the rear service road became the main access to the house which has a plain facade and an entrance at ground floor level and adjacent to this Is a short driveway and garage. The side elevation of the building is next to a public park and from both this and the front elevation the new extension presents a single storey. The rear garden elevation which would have been the front elevation of the original house has two 2 storey bow bay windows and a garden/basement level. On this facade the new extension was built over 2 storeys – the garden level /basement and ground floor/ entrance level.
To respond to these different aspects the street elevation is plain painted brick to match the house, the side elevation is in stone and looks like as a stone boundary wall and the rear garden elevation is in clad in render and glass in response to the existing rendered elevations and curved bays of the original house and its neighbours. A Zinc covered roof has a dynamic shape which is curved in two directions and reflected internally supported over large spaces by a shaped laminated timber structure.
The unusual bespoke designed 3000 ft² extension offered an unusual design solution which met the owners brief. Mike Lapworth and Martin Holland won a Leamington Society award for the extension in 2014.
Photographs by Alison Lapworth with kind permission of the owner
An outstanding contemporary extension and alterations to a 4 storey Victorian house designed to future proof the house for its residents
Large Two Storey Extension to add a Wing to the house, reorganise the former Service Block to create a large kitchen/dining/ family room, a new entrance hall and install new large country house staircase
Design led addition to the property in a Conservation Area to provide a gym/leisure complex, indoor pool and contemporary orangery
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With over 60 years’ combined experience in architecture in the UK, Europe, Los Angeles, Dubai and the Caribbean, Mike Lapworth Architects are able to handle many kinds of projects in the built environment.
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