Extension layout opinions: 1940's London bungalow

[RoVoFob]

I moved into my new place three weeks ago and am considering how to extend. The house is a two-bed semi-detached 1940s bungalow with a 5m-wide side plot (4m for extension plus 1m for side access). That means a single-storey flat-roofed extension of about 10m x 4m, plus knocking down the conservatory and the back of the lounge (a previous extension) and rebuilding both properly. The attached house has an extension of this size, so planning should hopefully be somewhat straightforward...

You can see the current layout and dimensions below, plus the space to the side for the new extension marked on the left. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on different ways to use the space. My essentials are:

• An extra bedroom with ensuite shower room
• An open-plan kitchen/dining/living space, plus a separate living room
• Additional storage space

Nice to haves:

• A separate study (if there's a way to have one without detracting from the rest of the house)
• Maximising access to the garden (bottom of the image)
• Bright rooms (the rear garden (bottom of the image) is south east facing)

I'm open to practical and zany ideas, so please fire away!

I have two layouts in mind, but fascinated to hear other people's views ahead of talking to architects. Thanks!

[EDIT: The top of the image is the front of the house, the right-hand side is connected to the attached bungalow, the bottom is the rear, which opens into the garden and the left-hand side is where the new extension will be, leaving a 1m-wide path to the garden.]

Edited by RoVoFob on Thursday 4th December 19:32

Edited by RoVoFob on Saturday 6th December 09:38

[gangzoom]

That's a big extension which I suspect is robbing light to a large part of central rooms. It'll be worth asking the architect to think about how you bring light to the rooms in the centre of the bungalow. The reason we went up for our bungalow extension rather than out was because how dark parts of the house was already due to previous extensions.

This picture shows the difference well, the left side of the picture was essentially how dark the central area bungalow was before we did the extension, extended rooms essentially made the middle of the bungalow feel like a cave. But it's not an easy challenge to overcome, we had to put in massive amounts of glazing and skylights to change the situation, so no cheap and even than there is a dark corner of the bungalow as you can see in the photo.

However the extra natural light we now get in nearly every part of the bungalow is well worth it, even in dark, cold winter days the bungalow feels much brighter and comfortable as a home compared to before when some parts often felt like a remote dark corridor somewhere distant.

Edited by gangzoom on Saturday 6th December 07:14

[gangzoom]

RoVoFob said:

.....

• Maximising access to the garden (bottom of the image)
• Bright rooms (the rear garden (bottom of the image) is south east facing)

I'm open to practical and zany ideas, so please fire away!

We asked our architect the same thing and ended up doing something unthinkable for most people, as REDUCED the actual foot print of the down stairs by about 3sq meter!!! But we went up instead to create headroom and bring in light rather than add rooms. The old kitchen was actually very nice, but now feels totally different despite the footprint been identical. The corridor next to the kitchen is like a totally different house even though the physical sq meter space is actually SMALLER!!!

We've been in for 2 years now so next year will get some colour/wall paper back on the walls. As a family home our architect did an amazing job with our brief, which was more light and get better views of the garden. Just be warned glazing and height = £££££££, however whats money for if you don't use it .

[RoVoFob]

gangzoom said:

That's a big extension which I suspect is robbing light to a large part of central rooms. It'll be worth asking the architect to think about how you bring light to the rooms in the centre of the bungalow. The reason we went up for our bungalow extension rather than out was because how dark parts of the house was already due to previous extensions.

This picture shows the difference well, the left side of the picture was essentially how dark the central area bungalow was before we did the extension, extended rooms essentially made the middle of the bungalow feel like a cave. But it's not an easy challenge to overcome, we had to put in massive amounts of glazing and skylights to change the situation, so no cheap and even than there is a dark corner of the bungalow as you can see in the photo.

However the extra natural light we now get in nearly every part of the bungalow is well worth it, even in dark, cold winter days the bungalow feels much brighter and comfortable as a home compared to before when some parts often felt like a remote dark corridor somewhere distant.

Edited by gangzoom on Saturday 6th December 07:14

It is a big extension. There aren’t too many windows on the side to be extended; only the bathroom window, kitchen side window and a third of the conservatory. Should be able to keep windows on that side - albeit a metre away from the fence and add velux windows in the ceiling/lanterns/other glazing, which should hopefully keep it bright. Expect the extension roof will be flat/only slightly angled to avoid the expense of having to change the existing roof profile (as the roof needs replacing pronto, before the extension work and don’t want to do some of it twice.

This is the agent’s floor plan. Ignore the dimensions as not all of them are accurate, but it may give you a better feel for the existing space/windows. The bathroom also has a big window, which isn’t shown in the floor plan.

[RoVoFob]

gangzoom said:

RoVoFob said:

.....

• Maximising access to the garden (bottom of the image)
• Bright rooms (the rear garden (bottom of the image) is south east facing)

I'm open to practical and zany ideas, so please fire away!

We asked our architect the same thing and ended up doing something unthinkable for most people, as REDUCED the actual foot print of the down stairs by about 3sq meter!!! But we went up instead to create headroom and bring in light rather than add rooms. The old kitchen was actually very nice, but now feels totally different despite the footprint been identical. The corridor next to the kitchen is like a totally different house even though the physical sq meter space is actually SMALLER!!!

We've been in for 2 years now so next year will get some colour/wall paper back on the walls. As a family home our architect did an amazing job with our brief, which was more light and get better views of the garden. Just be warned glazing and height = £££££££, however whats money for if you don't use it .

Interesting. I definitely need to increase the footprint here, but I agree the value of the space in a house isn’t just down to size. I’ve been thinking about what could be done height-wise or at least roof glass wise, too, but the extension will be a metre from the boundary of four or so houses, whose gardens back onto to my plot, which might limit things - although mine is single-storey and most of the surrounding houses are two-storeys high and have loft conversions…

[gangzoom]

^We've had lots of people come to our house and complement us on the end product. But what I tell them is the same everytime, it's nothing we done. The design is from the architect and the builders excuted the design.

At your stage engaging a good architect with a vision is key, we honestly had no idea what to do, all the design was straight from the architect after we gave him essentially the same brief as you on light and views. But just be mindful architecture more often than not = cost, however I would argue given we spend more time in our homes than anywhere else, it's money well spent.

[RoVoFob]

gangzoom said:

^We've had lots of people come to our house and complement us on the end product. But what I tell them is the same everytime, it's nothing we done. The design is from the architect and the builders excuted the design.

At your stage engaging a good architect with a vision is key, we honestly had no idea what to do, all the design was straight from the architect after we gave him essentially the same brief as you on light and views. But just be mindful architecture more often than not = cost, however I would argue given we spend more time in our homes than anywhere else, it's money well spent.

Well, knowing what you want is the first step in getting a good end product. You’ve got a lot more height than I’d probably be able to use, but intelligent glazing and thinking about the roof profile/how it links to the existing house, may mostly address that.

One of the architects I want to talk to developed this place, which includes two single-storey properties that are full of light and height. Don’t like the external design so much, but the layouts, light and use of space are great and I’m sure the same approach could get a livable, stylish and efficient use of space in my place: https://youtu.be/zX-e5eEzAWQ?si=hdQL_9-5UVdm60_X

[gangzoom]

RoVoFob said:

One of the architects I want to talk to developed this place, which includes two single-storey properties that are full of light and height. Don t like the external design so much, but the layouts, light and use of space are great and I m sure the same approach could get a livable, stylish and efficient use of space in my place: https://youtu.be/zX-e5eEzAWQ?si=hdQL_9-5UVdm60_X

It'll be good to see what the architects come up with.