NORTHERN LIGHT Inspired by Scandinavian chalets, the house features an asymmetrical pitched slate roof, and a combination of slate, render and timber cladding


“W


e were actually living in New York wen we first started our sel build project,” says Paul Berry,


who moved from the UK to America with his wife, Pernilla, when she was offered a job there. The couple and their two boys (now aged 14 and 18) bought a rambling old colonial house to renovate in the States, and owned a single- storey bungalow back in Surrey, which they rented out. “We’ve had experience of extending and


renovating several homes,” says Paul, “so when we decided to return to the UK for our sons’ education, the idea of redeveloping the old bungalow was appealing.” Pernilla is Swedish, and the couple were keen to engage an architect who could deliver a design which would embrace Scandinavian values and architectural cues. At this stage, they were considering adding another storey to the existing bungalow, and contacted Concept Eight Architects in January 2020 while they were still living in New York.


“I used Google and the RIBA website to find an arcitect sas aul. t was dificult working from abroad, but after researching fie potential practices we were ipressed  the contemporary designs on Concept Eight’s website. They’re a young, enthusiastic design team who understood exactly what we were looking for.”


Mufajel Chowdhury is the director and founding partner of the award-winning practice, which specialises in residential architecture of all scales. “We always advise our clients not to rush the design stage,” he explains. “Investing time


60 www.sbhonline.co.uk


leads to fewer changes during the build, and a much smoother process, with more control from a budget perspective.” aul ew oer ro erica seeral ties to meet with Mufajel prior to the family returning to the UK in the summer of 2020, and the practice produced various potential designs. Some proposed radical odifications to te ungalow and others involved knocking it down and building a replacement house from scratch. “We had quite an extensive wish list, which would ae een dificult to eet  sipl modifying the existing bungalow, and renovating would also have meant paying VAT,” says Paul. “In the end, we concluded that we needed to knock it down and rebuild to get what we really wanted.” Various iterations followed, resulting in the final design or a detaced  2


four-bedroom


house over two storeys. “We sent our architect a few pictures for inspiration: chalet-style Scandinavian houses with wood cladding, high ceilings, and plenty of glass,” recalls Paul, who also requested a central, glazed atrium, and a grand entrance with a feature staircase. “I’d slept in a cramped box-room in my teens, and wanted our boys to have large, apartment-style bedrooms, so Mufajel designed raised mezzanine sleeping platforms with steep staircases to free up the space below as study and lounge areas.” The planners had requested that the new house should stand on the same front and rear boundary lines as the original bungalow, and although the couple had envisaged building further back into the garden, they decided not


STAIRCASE FEATURE Supplied by the builder, the timber and glass feature staircase is visible throughout the ground oor spaces and is lit ro aoe  tree rooigts


LOW POINT


“The sheer number of decisions that needed to be made towards the end of the project”


HIGH POINT


“Specifying everything for the way we wanted to live”


jul/aug 2024


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