seerely lacked natural light. The house was also very cold, with no insulation and single glazed windows.


Despite these issues, its layout and shape was just right for Ben and family. The project also represented the perfect opportunity to showcase how a typical London terrace could be updated into a sustainable refurbishment, on a budget.


BRIEF & PLANNING


Ben saw it as crucial to consider both embodied energy and energy in use from the outset. In terms of the interior, the brief was to create a family-orientated, relaxing space featuring natural colours and rich material tetures.  wanted it to feel like coming home to a calming sanctuary, he says. As the rear extension and loft conversion could be completed under permitted development rights, the process of achieving planning was fairly straightforward. The construction phase was where things got a little bumpy. With work commencing during the various lockdowns, most of the neighbours were working from home while the noisy building works took place which ineitably led to tensions. Ben eplains how some neighbours een took to filming the workers and posting footage on Twitter and tagging the police, in a misguided attempt to find wrongdoing. Dealing with neighbours’ complaints was a widespread problem for self-builders during the pandemic, despite construction work being allowed to


26 www.sbhonline.co.uk


LIGHT & HEAT The project added a four metre extension to the rear of the house, creating space for a bright dining room with a large triple-glazed circular rooight. To combat the lack of natural light on the


ground oor, some of the partition walls were completely remoed, enabling light to ow through the rooms and resulting in a brighter, open plan space.


ull height glazing at the back proides a connection to the outside while offering views out to the somewhat jungle-like garden. The extension is contemporary in its design, but its exterior harmonises with the existing structure; the grey render is the same as that used over much of the rest of the home’s exterior. Built using a ‘super insulated’ SIPs panel system including 172 mm of high performance insulation, the extension makes a large contribution to the project’s sustainability credentials. Upstairs, a full-width rear dormer, replacing the original roof timbers, creates space for a TV


mar/apr 2023


continue during the lockdown, Ben remarks. lso, due to lockdown supply issues, seeral of the products he specified, such as the roof slates, couldnt be sourced. We originally wanted to use diamond-shaped roof slates for the loft conversion, however only the regular rectangular slates were aailable. On top of this, the family were living in a one-bedroom at during this phase, which was challenging at times says Ben.


LOW POINT


Realising how much work still needed to be completed after moving in day


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