Year: 2006
Contract value: £750,000

The client’s decision to instead replace the existing garages with an independent building which nevertheless works partially for Klippan House created a rather different challenge.

The new design, located in the same position as the design for the independent house, was to be an ancillary accommodation for the main house, albeit with a separate, self-contained flat.

Thus the new proposal became a two storey building, lower than the adjoining properties, and well set back from the listed building. Its design, with pitched roof and brown timber covering most of the elevations as well as the roof and with the introduction of copper to the front elevation and sections of the back elevation, ensure it blends into the natural garden landscape with other traditional garden structures as well as the surrounding red brick buildings. Cedar was specified as a cladding material in order to provide a dialogue between the new building and the very beautiful tall cedar tree to the rear which hovers over the new building. The pitched roof arrangement nods to the ancillary garage/garden structures, whilst the asymmetric design seeks to avoids a poor pastiche of the buildings in the immediate context. The use of differing planes on the elevations brings visual interest without appearing fussy.

The new building incorporates in the basement a swimming pool, gym and sauna which are connected to the main house via an underground tunnel. The ground floor provides the entrance going up to the flat on the first floor as well as three garages.
The first floor provides an independent flat with two bedrooms.