In 2017, we won an invited competition to extend an existing house and design another family house within the grounds of a private residence. The clients are a retired Iranian couple who had raised their family in the current house. The quiet suburban cul-de-sac in Surrey had a mature garden with beautiful tall Scots Pine and Cedar trees. They wanted to create an additional house for their daughter and her family.

Following a protracted planning application, the Council decided that it would not allow a second house within the grounds but would allow an extension to the existing house. They were concerned about overdevelopment and held conservative views on the form and appearance of the design. And so, we created two houses set around a new courtyard amongst the Scots Pines that mimicked the form of the existing house, which would be demolished with the existing garage to make room for the two wings of the courtyard house. The planners wanted a single-family house but as there are no rules on how many bedrooms or kitchens a house can have, we created an 8-bedroom house, with large reception rooms around the communal courtyard. The enfilade of rooms is connected by a central entrance hall at the ground that becomes the communal entrance to both houses.

The flatness of the external elevations and the thickness of the wall are articulated with timber linings to simple metal windows. The dark brown brick façades are simply detailed and sit above a subterranean in-situ concrete basement that announces itself to the front elevation on slender columns. A concrete staircase connects the basement to the entrance hall and metal framed windows sit to the outside line of the façades allowing a flatness to the wall that is only broken by the articulation of the portico to the front elevation. The pitched roofs are discretely obscured by a parapet that houses the concealed gutter allowing views within the garden to feel at a lower height and the building to settle into the existing landscape.

Each house has a shared material palette of Iranian Travertine at the ground with Walnut linings to doors and windows and varies in the internal layouts and configuration of the hallway, staircase and rooms. Two very different interiors differentiate the character of each house. The retired couple wanted more open plan living on the ground floor that could be adapted with concealed sliding partitions. A formal hallway with a cantilevered travertine staircase and metal balustrade leads up to a separate office, bedrooms and bathrooms. The landings are all naturally lit and offer views of the garden and surrounding treetops.

The daughter’s house has a visually lighter staircase of folded painted steel with walnut inlaid treads that mediates between the ground floor and the second-floor mezzanine which was created within the roof space. The four bedrooms and bathrooms all respond to a growing family and can be adapted with joinery and fittings as the children grow.

The central courtyard offers a place for the extended family to congregate and eat. The travertine for the project was imported from Iran including bush-hammered and honed stone that lines the courtyard. Although the garden will take time to settle and mature there is harmony between the materiality of the buildings and walls and its context.