Chiswick House
The original ground floor plan is wide and generous to the street. The internal rooms however, overlooking the garden, are dark, narrow and set at different levels. To the rear of the house is a small garden, accessible from either a series of steep steps dropping from the living room or the alleyway.
The design proposal creates a single room on the ground floor that extends from under the existing house and opens to the garden and the sky. The drama of the space is increased by removing both the existing internal structural walls and part of the existing raised timber ground floor to the rear part of the living room. Across this new lowered level a stone surface is laid, which extends into the garden. This intervention dramatically increases both the height of the living room and the horizontal extent of the floor surface as interior and exterior spaces are linked together by a common surface.
A glazed garden room projects beyond the existing living room and encloses part of the new stone surface. The ceiling of the garden room is maintained at the same level as part of the existing lowered ceiling creating continuity between the old and new structures. Compositionally the garden room roof is held away from the main building with a glazed slot allowing sunlight to penetrate deep into the plan to animate and illuminate the interior.
