Value Added

4SA's clients and their immediate neighbour agreed to build a joint rear extension, sharing a single party wall on the boundary line rather than constructing two separate walls side by side. The arrangement gave both households more usable internal floor area and additional ceiling height at the boundary that neither could have secured alone, an approach 4SA later extended to the loft. 4SA secured a side return extension 1.5m taller standard permitted development limits by walking the neighbours through the proposals so questions could be raised and resolved early. 4SA delivered the full architectural service, RIBA Stages 1 to 7, including the design and detailing of all interior finishes, joinery, lighting and fixtures. The custom ash cabinetry, the deep window seat that doubles as bench seating for children's birthday parties, the island with toddler-height bookshelves, and the concealed projector were all designed and specified in-house.

Sustainability

4SA approached the project through a fabric-first lens, limiting the extent of rooflight and glazing to the darker windowless area of the plan to avoid heat loss in winter and solar gain during the hot summer months. Material reuse was also held as a design priority. Salvaged London Stock brick from the demolished side wall was reused for garden hard landscaping and retaining walls, keeping hundred year old bricks on site. Original floorboards lifted during demolition were reworked into the step treads and risers that drop down into the new kitchen extension, a perfect match to the retained boards of the original part of the house, elegantly tying the new architecture into the old. FSC-certified structural timber rafters were left exposed, lightly sanded and white-washed, removing the need for plasterboard ceilings or additional finishes.

Heritage Approach

Wherever possible historic features in the existing house were retained and enhanced. The historic staircase, beyond structural repair, was rebuilt; but the original handrail was re-instated and only part sanded back to reveal the layers of paint underneath, left as a palimpsest of the house's history. Plaster was removed from the chimney breast to leave the original brick exposed adding texture and interest in existing rooms and an original gas light was rewired for electric use rather than replaced.

Testimonial

"4SA gave us a kitchen that works four different ways across a day. It is a play space for our daughter in the morning, a working kitchen at lunchtime, and a proper dining room in the evening once the clutter disappears behind the folding doors and the deep window ledge becomes bench seating. The hidden projector turns it into a cinema on Friday nights. What we did not expect was how much of the value came from what 4SA did before we ever picked up a hammer: the conversation with our neighbour that turned two separate extensions into a shared build, and the extra ceiling height at the boundary that neither of us could have won on our own. That is the part we would not have known to ask for."