The Saddlery is a listed south London house that nods to its previous and appears to the long run

The Saddlery is a undertaking enriching a Grade II-listed late Georgian home in Blackheath Village in south London. Structure observe Studio Octopi was referred to as upon to create a single-storey, full-width rear extension to a household house – a seemingly easy transient to which the architects responded with aptitude and creativeness, crafting a inexperienced, metal-clad quantity on the property’s backyard facet. On the similar time, they composed a dramatic, gallery-like inside behind it, revealing each up to date parts and the historic house’s interval textures.

The Saddlery: bridging previous and new

Initially in-built 1808 and enviably dealing with the inexperienced expanses of Blackheath, the unique home was of modest – but balanced – proportions and, occupied sooner or later by a grasp farrier, had change into generally known as the ‘saddlery’ for the reason that 1840s.

It was at the moment that an alleyway subsequent to the residence was infilled so as to add to its dimension, taking it from a three-bay to an asymmetrical four-bay home. Within the years to return, the property underwent additional adjustments, together with injury brought about in the course of the Blitz and alterations to its doorways and structural buttresses. 

Inheriting the house, the present shopper approached Studio Octopi with a fee for further area for entertaining – a flagship room that may change into each a showpiece and the dwelling, beating coronary heart of the house for receiving visitors and household. 

Whereas the architects’ transient was to deal with the brand new parts solely, it was essential to handle the construction as an entire of their answer and quantity composition. ‘There are not any alterations to the basement, raised floor or higher flooring. Important to the design answer was the necessity to rationalise the degrees, restore the rear elevation and make sense of the 4 doorways from the home into the backyard,’ the staff write.

Working with heritage and planning constraints to sculpt their quantity, the architects added a wise, inexperienced metal cladding, ‘chosen as a counterpoint to the pink brick of the unique home’. This additionally now supplies a secondary entrance to the home.

Inside, a glass staircase connects the extension with the present, raised floor ground stage. Spherical, function openings on the ceiling assist bathe the inside in pure gentle, on the similar time including drama to the area. 

Trendy materiality can also be expressed via the granite step and load-bearing granite lintels on the extension’s enlarged openings. 

octopi.co.uk