Ground floor flat, side and rear extension

Extending a ground floor flat is a different discipline from extending a house, and this scheme on Rollscourt Avenue is the clearest example of it in our portfolio.

The existing kitchen and living area was dark and cut off from the rest of the flat. The design extends into the side return and the garden to create a single bright space for cooking, dining and sitting, while keeping the two-bedroom layout entirely intact — because on a flat, bedrooms are the value and losing one to gain a kitchen is a bad trade.

The courtyard is the whole point

Building across the back of a flat is straightforward until you notice what it does to the bedroom behind. We incorporated a small courtyard specifically so the second bedroom kept a practical escape route.

This catches people out constantly. Wrapping new accommodation around an existing bedroom can leave that room without an acceptable means of escape, and it is the sort of thing that surfaces at building control after the drawings are approved and the money is committed. Designing a light well or courtyard in from the beginning costs a small amount of floor area. Discovering the problem later costs a redesign.

Large glazed doors and rooflights then do the work of bringing daylight into the new living space, which on a ground floor flat with buildings on both sides is a genuine constraint rather than a styling preference.