Guildford

This project was for the sensitive contemporary extension to a Grade II listed house in Guildford, providing a new kitchen, living and dining space, as well as a basement swimming pool which opens out onto the garden due to the natural level changes of the site. The brief was to refurbish the existing house, while adding these additional amenities and improving the building’s connection to the garden.

The proposal created a new block on the side of the existing house, distinctly different from the main property with a much more open glass frontage to connect with the views across the grounds. This allowed the existing building to remain unaltered by these additions, preserving and celebrating the building’s historic character and setting. The main house itself could therefore be left structurally unaltered, with changes focussed on upgrades to the lighting and heating, as well as updating the existing bathrooms, improving the layouts, and adding a polished walnut floor throughout to provide a continuity with the new extension.

The extension reads as a contemporary volume that respects the proportions and rhythm of the host building while making a clear but sympathetic distinction between old and new. The pool wing is conceived as a low, horizontal pavilion tucked into the garden, with a glass-fronted façade that frames the landscape and brings controlled natural light into the pool hall. Internally, the extension uses a limited, tactile palette of walnut timber flooring, stone and plaster. The overall gesture is one of understated refinement — the new extension is subservient in massing but provides a strikingly simple addition which gives an entirely different character to that of the existing building, allowing a more open connection with the garden and grounds beyond.

From the earliest design stages, the project followed a conservation-led process: an historic-interest appraisal, careful recording of existing fabric, and an iterative dialogue with Guildford Borough Council’s conservation officer. The approach was bold but sympathetic.

The pool pavilion is integrated into the garden, nestled into the slope of the site providing a balance of seclusion and outlook from the pool, while also creating minimal visual intrusion. New hard landscaping helps to integrate the old with the new and a tiered stone terrace is designed to create a connection between the differing site levels.

The project required detailed Listed Building Consent and planning submission drawings, and we were responsible for the tender and project management of the works on site. The project required close co-ordination with various consultants including structural, building services and pool specialists.