We were delighted to work with our client to fully renovate and remodel an existing detached dwelling that had fallen into disrepair and to transform it into a modern and spacious family home. Our Client was working in the creative industry and looking to establish a solid work base from home. Our initial brief was to deliver a flexible style of open plan living with a studio space that could be fully integrated into the house. The aim was to create a modern, uncluttered environment to combine work life as well as home life (in essence blurring the lines between the two), plus acting as a base for their children to return back to from University. “Like most people we want to maximise the value of what we spend - ie. to a large extent ‘working with what we’ve got’ but enhancing the stature of the property by putting the budget into a clever and clean design and build, using strong, robust materials rather than an elaborate overly designed scheme.” Client brief. Working closely with the Client, we were able to generate a series of design options to allow informed decisions to be made when considering which elements of the property to retain or demolish, including the areas with the potential to extend. In essence the ground floor / gable structure of the property was largely retained, with a new upper brickwork cavity wall and roof structure being provided in order to completely transform the house. This transformation allowed the house to adopt a more contemporary vernacular, into which large areas of glazing were introduced to flood the building with light and to enhance the open-plan experience at ground floor. At first floor level, whilst being constrained to the footprint of the exiting building, the clever use of strategically placed roof lights and vaulted ceilings provided an enhanced sense of space.