Nestled in the leafy village of Crawfordsburn, Northern ireland. The existing Arts and Crafts Style house was one of a number of homes designed by Florence Fulton Hobson, the first Female Architect in Ireland. The house had been lived in by our client and his family for a number of generations set in its own grounds surrounded by leafy mature trees and manicured gardens. The existing home had been extended poorly with a single storey garage, there was an impractical small kitchen, poor utility and damp garage which had been damaged by a nearby conifer tree.

Our brief was to provide a contemporary spacious kitchen / living / dining space and master bedroom suite in contrast to the smaller existing accommodation. Our solution included extending the footprint of the demolished garage perpendcular to the house, and designing a contrasting contemporary two storey extension subservient to the original house.

The extension is orientated towards the existing private garden with K/L/D accessing a paved terrace via a large opening bifold door. At First floor the Master Bedroom suite looks out onto the same space and has a large glazed wall providing unfettered views to the trees at the boundary. It was crucial that the new extension remained subservient to the original house and so the roof is designed as a mansard to have a minimum impact and provide a single storey feel to the driveway leading around the corner to the front of the original house, there it slots neatly under the eaves of the existing house. The new extension uses the existing stair to traverse from ground to first floor thereby ensuring future occupiers maintain use of the existing home and its luxurious timber panelled décor.