Lift & Shift House

A remodelling of a large typical late C20 detached developer house on a corner site located in the Hertfordshire Green Belt. The clients sought to redefine the house, to take into account the views into the garden and ‘bring the outside in’.

The original internal layout was reconfigured, with the existing retained first floor structure propped above a new steel frame, permitting a new open plan with atria connecting the front and back of the house. This new wide central hub cuts through from the new entrance facade to a new rear facade, providing panoramic framed views of the open countryside, with a new vertical circulation and an undercover courtyard in between. The geometry of the central axis extends beyond the hanging facade of the new rear extension to form a pond and opens to a new garden beyond. The new facade to the rear is characterised by two new living spaces that straddle a courtyard with its hanging bronze facade forming a series of new floating frames to the garden. The two new facades to the front and rear are peeled way from the existing structure and are separated by both structural glass or neutral grey rendered surfaces to clarify and emphasise these new shifted elements. The refurbishment of the house included a new layout throughout to both levels with new bathrooms, kitchen, utility spaces and a study, with new fixtures and fitted furniture designed throughout.