A Crafted Extrusion – Brighton Garden House by Wellard Architects

Continuing a focus on craft, Brighton Garden House extends the relevance of its Edwardian-era origins to one of calm and simplified contemporary life. Wellard Architects draws on the existing proportions of the home to extend in a controlled and rhythmic manner, to openly embrace the rear landscape space.

Within its Brighton milieu, the original home stands appropriately generous and grand, responding as an extension to its foundations and formal symmetry. Maintaining a purposeful engagement with the streetscape, the new effort sits behind the original façade, with key heritage detailing retained and celebrated. The new then sits sensitively to the rear, opening to create connections between inside and out – with visual and ventilated access – immersing the home in amongst its gardens. Wellard Architects draws on principles of simplicity and restraint to conjure a new volume that sensitively engages with its surrounds, poised timelessly in place.

Through large and generous openings, glazed apertures provide visual connections between the inside and out and ensure a feeling of enclosure.

As a collaboration between builder Locbuild and landscaping by Renata Fairhall Garden Designs, Brighton Garden House draws attention to the relationship between the built and the natural. Through large and generous openings, glazed apertures provide visual connections between the inside and out and ensure a feeling of enclosure. The encasing garden not only provides a welcomed buffer between the home and the neighbouring properties, but it reinforces a feeling of disconnect and protection within the site boundary. Linking the original heritage home is a large, timber floored corridor that extends into the new structure and binds the two eras together. This spine centres the home and allows the various ancillary spaces to direct flow and movement throughout the house, with key visual links outwards to various landscaped settings.

A key feature of the home is its ability to embrace natural light, existing almost like a living element within the structure. The new rear volume enables a more connected and fluid living to transpire, reflecting a modern-day condition whilst providing a balance to the more formal and divided planning of the original home. Whilst the older detailing is retained, the new pavilion also gives similar attention to the handmade, as craft is expressed through concealment and the absence of ornateness. The sharp crispness of the new form sits as an evolved iteration of the former, while reaching out further and deeper into the site. A neutral palette of soft and subtle finishes ensures a continued endurance, referencing a time-worn approach over a response to trends.

The new rear volume enables a more connected and fluid living to transpire, reflecting a modern-day condition whilst providing a balance to the more formal and divided planning of the original home.

By deepening the form of the home into the site, Brighton Garden House sits immersed in place, as Wellard Architects emphasises an enduring ambiance of refinement and longevity.