New Plymouth House by Atelierworkshop
The façade of the house addition by Atelierworkshop.
The living area opens onto a deck that is protected on the north side by the extended edge of the façade.
The new mezzanine space is full of light.
The stairs leading to the new mezzanine floor.
The lit-up street-side entry door and hall.
Elevations.
Floor plan.
Cecile Bonnifait and William Giesen of Atelierworkshop were commissioned to design an addition and alteration to this New Plymouth cottage. Their client purchased the house, a modest railway cottage, from his neighbour. It had the usual plan – a central corridor with all of the bedrooms and living rooms running off it, with the kitchen and laundry at the back of the house. The brief was to create more space in the cottage and let more light in. First published in 2012.
Bonnifait and Giesen wanted to achieve this without compromising the cottage typology. The client, says Bonnifait, has a highly developed sense of aesthetic and a natural modesty that would need to be reflected within the project.
The changes they made to the plan were to push the west end of the house out by four metres, extending the existing ridge-line. The new space and façade created an opportunity to bring direct sunlight within and to use the cavity space that was already part of the roofline as a mezzanine floor.
Bonnifait and Giesen wanted the project to meet the brief without trampling all over the existing house. They knew that their client shared their priorities about exercising restraint in pushing the space out, having worked with him before on a number of commercial projects. “The approach is to do with understanding the typology of a cottage and try to find an extension that is not degenerating the cottage itself but extending it in a contemporary way,” says Bonnifait.
The façade of the pushed-out addition is clad in redwood, from the client’s own plantation. He was an earlier adopter of diversification in forestry and the opportunity to use a wood that would look great and have a natural link with the client couldn’t be missed.
The west façade takes into account the close proximity of neighbours, capturing views with long bands of glazing and louvres. The beach access that the site enjoys is only a minute away on foot, and glimpses of the sea can be seen from the house and decks without the need for a full second storey that would have required a new roofline, says Bonnifait. A large skylight and a mezzanine floor create sufficient additional light to the internal spaces.
On the street front, the addition is read as a slatted redwood pelmet that illuminates like a lantern at night, adding a contemporary touch to this otherwise original façade. This detail provides a hint of the more extensive work at the other end of the house.
This addition is a calm and clever response to the need for more space and light in the house, while highlighting the many charms of the cottage form.
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Note: These are stories from our archives and, since the time of writing, some details may have changed including names, personnel of specific firms, registration status, etc.
