ROAR Architects adds oak-framed extension to heritage-listed London home

Local studio ROAR Architects has extended a Victorian house in southeast London with grass-topped and oak-framed living spaces that overlook a large garden.

Named Newton Park Place, the home occupies a Grade II-listed former gardener's cottage, located in the Chislehurst Conservation Area in Bromley.

While alternations made to the home in 2007 were designed to be in keeping with its traditional Victorian architecture, ROAR Architects was tasked with creating a "purposefully different" extension that would reconnect it with its garden.

This was made apparent both in its material palette of oak and glass and also its layout, which eschews the typical open-plan design of extensions in favour of two separate rooms for the kitchen diner and living area.

"We designed the new extension to be purposefully different from the Grade II-listed gardeners cottage, as supported by Bromley's conservation officer, and the dining area was set back to respect original footprint and historic plan form," ROAR Architects director Craig Rosenblatt told Dezeen.

"Rather than the typical 'super room' open-plan layout, our client asked for separate spaces," he continued. "The ground floor is designed as four separate spaces all connected by timber doors. Each room feels appropriate to the scale of the old gardener's cottage."

Creating two new axes from the existing snug and study at the front of Newton Park Place, each of the new rooms is designed to have a subtly different relationship to the garden, which was designed by landscape architect Lilly Gomm.

In the living area, a four-metre-wide glazed bi-fold window above a built-in bench allows the space to open out to the external patio.

The kitchen also features full-height glazing, while the adjacent "dining nook" is more intimate, with a single large window and a skylight between wooden beams above.

These spaces are all framed by the oak structure, made in collaboration with joiner Tim Gaudin, which extends outwards to become a small pergola alongside the living space.

Crowning the extension is a green roof that has been planted with wildflowers to appear as an extension of the garden when viewed from the main bedroom above.

The exposed oak structure and large window frames are the main features on the interiors, which have been kept otherwise minimal to "ensure warm oak and garden became the focal points", according to Rosenblatt.

"Oak and a green roof was selected from the first concept design images for its sustainable qualities and to purposefully contrast with the existing red brickwork and tiles," he explained.

Alongside the kitchen island, a spiral staircase leads down to a small naturally ventilated wine cellar.

London-based ROAR Architects was founded by Rosenblatt and Shaun O'Brien in 2017. Previous projects by the studio include the conversion of an end-of-terrace in Kentish Town into two colourful duplexes.

The photography is by Chris Wharton. 

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