02. DETAIL FOCUS - Taking inspiration from the home + the surrounding area

What makes a project unique and personal? For me it is context. It needs to be more than the setting - inspiration needs to come also from the local materials, the culture; but it is also the smaller details that can make a home personal to it's owners.

Looking back at past projects I explore context, inspiration and materials bespoke to a range of homes, from large to compact, urban to rural.

Contemporary flint life time home, Surrey..

Sophie Bates 031 combined sketch banner new build house surrey flint slate axo.jpgDesigning a home for Pat and Rose in their eighties within the grounds of a grade II listed home needed to relate to the local materials and feel secure.  In Tadworth, Surrey flint has been used for centuries to homes.  Combining the tactile quality and undulating colours with slate to the roof and contemporary dark grey cladding to add interest to the design.    The challenge with this project was to ensure that the design was in keeping with the grade II listed home and adjacent barn.  By including two smaller pitched roof forms joined by a central entrance the new home's mass appears reduced, nestled into the corner of the plot with it's form echoing the surrounding buildings on a in whose gardens the new home would be situated.

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A rear extension to a Richmond Victorian townhouse noted as a building of townscape merit located in a conservation area posed different challenges. Material and design needed a light touch, a contemporary extension that complemented the elegant Victorian home. Stone detailing was inspired by slim render bands over the Victorian windows, sloping sides to the rooflight were inspired by the original bay window flares to give views and reflect light. I worked closely with the structural engineer to achieve the slim stone band above the glazing.

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Natalia and Asad fell in love with their Arts and Crafts home in West Byfleet for its period features, symmetry, proportions and geometry. In designing a rear extension and loft space for this home I am using contemporary zinc cladding and crisp detailing and borrowed the geometry for a new arch from the original Arts and Crafts building.

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By looking closely at the detail - how materials join and connect, how a small detail of the project brief can be realised, I can make the design personal to its owner and ensure it feels part of the area in which it is located.