Side return extension - Leyton
Brief: Side Return Extension - Eco Build
Budget: Undisclosed
Scope: Householder Planning Application, Building Regulations & Construction Information
The owners of this house are a family of five that are struggling to cope with their fragmented kitchen and dining space. The kitchen in its current state of repair and arrangement was not fit for purpose and the dining space was in a state of flux with exposed pipes from the loft conversion process, rising damp & tired flooring. The poor connection to the garden also means that it was an underused space which didn’t interact with the internal spaces. The clients wanted to open up, extend and modernise the spaces and improve the connection to the garden all with a focus on making the house as environmentally friendly as possible.
The design is a true side return which doesn’t extend past the rear line of the property. The choice was kept to retain garden access which we always deem a good decision because it is rare in London. The design maintains a courtyard to bring light into the rear of the plan of the main body of the house. A utility room replaces the current WC which moves underneath the stairs. Once the dividing wall has been removed from the rear room and the side return element added it created a large room for a combined kitchen and dining room with a full wall of storage.
The side return element will be clad on the rear elevation with a contemporary Scottish Larch cladding and the flank elevation clad with bricks reclaimed from the demolition on the walls of the ground floor and internal chimney breast. Both of these decisions were based on embodied carbon savings.
Existing Plan
We have produced a set of construction information for this project which will ensure that the aspired detailing is achieved. The elements that we jointly decided required this were; the exposed oak rafters & skylights in the side return element, the oak lining to the external windows and doors & the external larch cladding.
The flank wall has been carefully designed to remove the typical inner skin of blockwork and instead have a timber construction. This is turn means that the width of the concrete foundation below reduces. Concrete represent a large proportion of the embodied carbon in a build and by using a non standard wall construction we removed concrete from two area of the build. We also found suitable reusable insulation products that allowed us to remove the need for rigid PIR insulation - another unsustainable material.
Our scope included specifying the finishes including where they are sourced from. Both the internal Oak and external Scottish Larch will be sourced from within the UK. This will greatly reduce the embodied carbon when compared to European alternatives.
This project will start on site in April and we will remain involved throughout the build to ensure the project is built in accordance with the details we have prepare. We are very excited to see the finished product!
Proposed Plan
Our in house sustainability consultant completed a ‘Sustainability Assessment’ for the project which made recommendations for how the build efficiency could be improved from an embodied carbon perspective. This in part led the project scope to evolved over the course of the design process. The scope grew to include additional measures to increase the energy efficiency of the home including but not limited to; externally insulating the flank wall. replacing all of the windows in the house with triple glazed composite units, replastering the front and rear walls internally with thermal plaster and the installation of an air source heat pump. These measures were in part due to advice that we were able to provide.
The graphic to the right shows the summary page of the report we produces which illustrates what carbon savings could be made from the build alone if all of the advice was taken. It is important to remember that the continued savings through using the home after the build will surpass these figures.
