The Ryde – Deep Retrofit of a family home

This deep retrofit and extension to a detached home in Hatfield reframes our client’s family home for the next phase of their life.

We spent time talking with the owners about how they use their house now, and how they see that changing in the future. They were keen to extend their ground floor space, replacing their conservatory with a thermally controlled space that will be warm all year round. They wanted to bring more natural light into their home and increase their connection with their garden. At first floor level, we will upgrade their front dormer, and extend the rear dormer to include a Juliet balcony. A newfront facing roof light will bring more light into the bedrooms.

Warm and Comfortable

We’re taking a fabric-first approach to improving the performance of the whole house. This includes insulating the exterior walls, floors, and roofs, improving airtightness, and upgrading windows and doors. These measures are designed to future-proof the house for generations to come, ensuring greater energy efficiency and sustainability as well as creating a more comfortable and healthy home.

“As we venture into the complex world of deep retrofit,  they have been on hand to provide advice and relevant contacts, making the whole process easier to understand, more straightforward and simply more manageable.”

Linda and Neil

To support the low energy running of their home, our designs have included renewable technologies, including an airsource heat pump for heating, and solar panels to the rear roof to generate electricity for the home.

Mid century modern

The house is close to The Ryde, a listed 1960s cohousing development by PRP Architects (see our blog about cohousing). The residential architecture of the area has clearly been influenced by these homes, and both we and our clients were inspired by their functional mid-century architecture, and practical timber and brick materials.

Natural Materials

The extension will be built using timber structure and clad in timber. The timber will age beautifully over time, fading to a warm silvery grey.  The  interior finishes will use natural materials that evoke the architecture of the area, and reflect our clients own joinery skills.

A single storey outbuilding uses the same timber building system and cladding as the main house, connecting the two across the garden.