HIGH POINT
iving in it verything worked out well, to ndrew Mulroy’s credit. t’s a very liveable space, and we use every room in the house.”
From a design point of view, the creation of this new basement led to the idea of the atrium. t can be diffi cult to add a basement that isn’t dark and uninviting, and even harder to make the space feel like an integral part of the home. This double-height atrium solves those problems. The question of light is addressed by the clever alignment of an internal window between the atrium and the kitchen (the neighbouring room on the ground fl oor, with large roofl ights in the rear extension. “The alignment of the internal window with
the roofl ights means that natural light can fi lter down into the basement and, amazingly, you can stand in the basement and have a view of the sky,” says Tom. To improve the light and fl ow’, ames and Rachel removed previous ill-thought-out extensions, which contained a poky kitchen and garden room. They replaced these rooms with a single, open-plan extension that is a kitchen, dining room and living room for the family. outh-facing skylights fl ood the space with light, and glazed doors connect the living space to the garden. Mulroy rchitects specifi ed a mixture of construction methods across the new levels. Where the extension sits over the basement, there is precast concrete beam and block. The remainder of the ground fl oor extension is a reinforced concrete slab, which offers good strength, stability and an even surface. Above this, the new walls and roof include a few steel beams to create the open spans. However, the rest of the extension is built using a
“We were working out how we wanted the building to look: utilitarian or stand out. We chose to stand out”
200mm deep softwood timber frame with Rockwool insulation. “The timber frame offers more design
fl exibility a high-performing thermal envelope, reduced embodied carbon and embeds our studio ethos of creating socially sustainable architecture into the very fabric of the building,” says Tom Harris. There are other sustainable design features in the building, including a wildfl ower green roof on the extension, which provides lovely views from the upper fl oors, as well as fantastic insulation. “It was a planner-imposed condition, recalls ames. But we thought it was a great idea.” lsewhere, ames and achel chose to insulate
(internally) the outside walls of this original Victorian building. They also upgraded the roof, and installed underfl oor heating. The couple also opted for an MVHR (mechanical ventilation and heat recovery) system in the basement, which ensures fresh, fi ltered air without heat
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