Robert & Catherine live in a lovely end-terrace house – late Victorian / early Edwardian, with main rooms having high ceilings. The house also has a pleasant rear garden, often used by the family. However, a stumbling block to this was that it also had a double garage between the garden and the house, and a tiny, freezing, daylight-starved kitchen with little-used utility spaces between the garage and the more pleasant parts of the house.
What was needed was to replace the garage with a new space between the garden and the house, opening out the kitchen into new living space and bringing light indoors. This was tricky though; sunlight through most of the day came at an oblique angle, meaning the most straightforward approach (a new living space opening off the kitchen with a lean-to roof roughly replicating what had been above the garage) didn’t bring in as much light as was wanted.
![](https://c3527590.myzen.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Internal_05A-1024x768.jpg)
So – using 3D CAD software and visualisation app Artlantis – options were explored. What emerged was a complex butterfly roof – slashed at an angle – to put roof glazing where it would catch sunshine and brighten the new space and newly-opened-out kitchen.
The project is currently on site with Vine House Construction and nearing completion, so no completed images to date, but here’s a photomontage for now…
![](https://c3527590.myzen.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Paste-Up-VP-Rear-1-1024x576.jpg)
…and an update, as it’s now finished. The geometry of the space works well – even in the gloom of an overcast day the roof glazing brings light into the newly opened-out kitchen and garden room, while doing so discreetly – you don’t actually see the glazing until you’re beneath it.
![](https://constructiveindividuals.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/IMG_20200303_151724-1024x768.jpg)
Extending sideways also means the room has views of garden on three sides, making the outside spaces much more part of everyday life.
![](https://constructiveindividuals.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/IMG_20200303_151815-800x1024.jpg)