Connected Warmth – CosyCo by Drawing Room Architecture and Brave New Eco

Designed around the concept of connection, CosyCo embraces both opportunities for coming together and moments of separation. Drawing Room Architecture and Brave New Eco extend the legacy of the original home through an inspired and open approach, which is brought to life through a shared warmth in materiality and texture.

Layering warmth and creating a welcoming series of spaces at the forefront of the home introduces visitors to the spirit of CosyCo. Although a residence already exists on site, the owners desired a dwelling that allowed for a better sense of togetherness as well as one that could represent their values. Despite its clear internal separation – a feature of the era in which it was built – the red-brick, Californian-inspired bungalow offered a grounded, solid base from which to craft a more responsive place for connection. Home to a growing young family, the residence features an instilled robustness among the added warmth, ensuring a sense of familiarity to be felt throughout. Through new architectural and interior design elements, texture and tactility become the new focus of the home.

Home to a growing young family, the residence features an instilled robustness among the added warmth, ensuring a sense of familiarity to be felt throughout.

The original residence remains at the front of the site, with the new addition nestled into the rear. Creating a more direct visual link to the landscape and bringing a natural connection in from beyond the bounded walls was also important. Through aligning functions and appropriate overhanging features, natural light illuminates the newly formed home throughout the day and across the seasons, allowing the owners to rely less on an artificial energy supply. Combined with a series of other energy-saving gestures put in place, a new level of environmental consciousness is woven into the expanded residence.

Unlike some other houses and additions that are re-sculpted through a contemporary lens, the owners wanted to avoid creating a vast, open living area. Instead, they wanted to carry a similar intimate feeling already present within the original home into the new yet combine this with an approach that allowed for socialising. By ensuring visual links between the spaces remains, a multi-functional approach enhances the feeling of connectedness with considered privacy. Drawing from the red brick of the original, an earth-toned palette is combined with timber as the new addition wraps its way around the new landscape.

Drawing from the red brick of the original, an earth-toned palette is combined with timber as the new addition wraps its way around the new landscape.

Defined by the many cosy moments created throughout, CosyCo remains true to its name. By focusing on how one feels within, as well as favouring a rich palette over an overbearing scale, Drawing Room Architecture and Brave New Eco ensure a continued relevance is created through select open spaces that reflect how the owners want to engage with their home.