Like many Edinburgh properties, our project in Morningside started out as a Victorian terraced house, but was sub-divided into two apartments decades ago. Our clients had raised a family in their garden flat, but with their children now grown they had more time to attend to long-standing niggles, not least a conservatory near the end of its natural life.
This glazed lean-to addition had forced workarounds over the years: the door to the small kitchen spur at the back of the flat had long since been blocked off and co-opted as a wall for storage, while the internal dining room ironically received very little light from the conservatory’s glass double doors. As a result, this middle room was not particularly inviting.
The owners’ brief was clear: brighter, more comfortable rooms that would suit this new phase of their life; all we had to do was puzzle out the right moves. Our space was constrained outside as well as in: in common with many 19th century terraced houses the property didn’t have back garden access, so all crew and materials would need to enter through the front door. However constraints can be liberating. We knew we needed to improve the flow through to the garden as well as to the kitchen and dining room, but with several other back yards abutting theirs the key would be to use glazing judiciously – serving up slices of sky rather than neighbours’ washing. High level windows would in turn free up wall space for an extended kitchen and storage, and help deliver light to that dark dining room.
Working with contractor GJE Joinery we demolished the old conservatory and external stairs and also took down a section of the original kitchen wall, so that we could install a peninsula facing onto the new range. Designed to give views of garden and chef (but NOT the sink), this turned the old narrow kitchen into a much more comfortable cooking and entertaining space, flowing through to the dining room through an oversized internal window and floor to ceiling opening. If you were being particularly technical you might say the symmetrically chamfered walls at the end of the dining room lead the eye through the glazing to the garden beyond. But it’s quicker to just say it looks great!
AGORA’s favourite features:
Design: The 6m2 of glass! High level clerestory windows combine with the roof light to create a luminous but private space, and the Crittall style window between the kitchen and the dining room has turned a problem into a feature. All external glass has low U-Values (in layman’s terms meaning it offers excellent thermal performance) with low maintenance aluminium frames, in stark contrast to the old draughty conservatory. The clients’ neutral colour palette also really puts that light centre stage, and provides a wonderful warm backdrop for their wooden furniture.
Practical: The successful partitioning of the clients’ water supply from the flat upstairs, a problem that was discovered after we’d broken ground. Though frustrating, after liaison with the supplier we managed to secure the separation of the supply at the street juncture. This then permitted the replacement of old lead pipes and improvements to heating and water systems.
