The ‘middle room problem’ is an issue we often face in residential reconfigurations and extensions. How can you make a space bigger without making another space more enclosed and darker? We started this project with the aim that the middle room should be no darker by the end of the project.

This project explores one potential solution, retaining the original view from the middle room through the new side extension with a continuous wrap-around glazed element. Folding from the base of the garden, across the roof of the side return, to the top of the original middle room window, this spine of light allows the centre of the house is as brightly lit as before.

The material palette is simple, brick on the outside, framing bi-folding doors and wrapping around the frameless glazing, and ceramic tiles which run from inside to outside. The main indulgence is Welsh slate which forms the centrepiece of the space, forming a combined worktop and hearth back to the wood burning stove.