Grove Hill Road, East Dulwich

Project

28 Oct

A full refurbishment of a terraced house in Southeast London for which a rear and roof extension was designed and constructed.

Stephen Kavanagh Architects visualised an open kitchen space with exposed masonry and large rooflights to provide light. A key aspiration was for a rear facade formed from brick arches. Graphic Structures provided structural design.

Constructed from stacked masonry, the tall, thin arches required a minimalist structural frame to provide the lateral resistance to wind loading on the doors. We achieved this by providing two discrete T-shaped steel columns spanning from floor to roof level, allowing space for the cavity insulation and providing a guiderail for the arch masonry construction.

A full width rooflight behind the rear façade prevented load transfer back into the first floor, as such, steel angles were introduced to transfer loads into the block and masonry side walls of the kitchen extension. A careful arrangement of walls ties and masonry reinforcement allowed for the sides walls to be mobilised to provide sufficient restraint without additional steel structure.

As all original walls were removed from the kitchen area and the arches provided at the rear, we introduced a box frame to provide lateral restraint to the new extension, hiding this within the side walls and new ceiling.

Ground works were complicated by the requirement to drop the ground floor levels to provide insulation build up and achieve the desired head height in the kitchen. We designed new retaining walls along the boundary line and underpinned part of the other boundary.

In addition to the new kitchen extension, a new second floor office was constructed with exposed rafters. We also future-proofed the design for the construction of a main loft extension, which will be completed at a later date.

Completed 2022

Image Credit: Edmund Sumner