Auchingane,

Edinburgh

Following a recommendation from a former client the owners of this two-storey 1980s developer house got in touch to discuss a south-facing extension at the rear of their house to improve the connection to the garden and take advantage of the views towards the nearby Pentland Hills.

As with a number of our projects a pre-works airtightness test was carried out to give us a benchmark against which to set the post-works target. The ‘Q50’ result from this was around 15m3/hr/m2, and we set the post-works target (for the extension only) at 1m3/hr/2.

The resulting extension, which replaced a draughty conservatory and improves the flow around the house,  is deliberately quite different from the existing house, both in form and materials.

A monopitch roof rises up over the new kitchen and dining area to capture the view to the Pentlands through a strip of clerestorey glazing and allow winter sun to reach far back into the house, while a small flat-roofed section creates a snug - a key component of the clients’ brief.

Externally vertical, open-jointed Scottish larch cladding (cut to the same module width as the soldier course of brick on the house) creates a simple, homogenous block, with black aluminium cladding wrapping around the clerestory glazing and tilted roof.

The post-works airtightness test achieved its 1m3/hr/m2 target - a first for contractor Stockbridge Home Solutions.