Office Alex Nicholls . renders : © Vu Doppia
The historic brick station masters cottage sits at the bottom of a heavily wooded valley adjacent to the now disused coal train tunnel. To extend the programme beyond the modest two bed cottage, the new extension sits to the rear of the site, maintaining the historic houses civic presence to the street and keeping intact the large front garden.
To the rear, the new volume extends out with its own presence and draws in visitors with a somewhat abstract circular oculus. A cantilevered roof articulates the new entrance vestibule which acts as a threshold between the old and the new. The new extension hosts the public spaces- living, kitchen, dining, office, whilst the historic cottage with its intimate proportions hosts the private sleeping areas, the bathroom and a fireside reading room. The roof planes relate to the existing historic cottage in a direct and unassuming manner whilst the steep site and budget required a restrained footprint, simple form and honest materials. Internally the space has large skylights opening to the north for filtered sunlight to filter to penetrate into the otherwise south facing extension. A long linear horizontal window then frames the overgrown view to rear whilst a second skylight is positioned above the double height living space providing a view to the tree canopy above.
A staircase volume divides the living, dining and kitchen spaces and leads up to a second bedroom or study which pokes out as a dormer into trees.
_
