Subtle grace

We speak to Rodrigo Moreno Masey about how he successfully renovated this lakeside family home on the edge of a forest in Berkshire, while also protecting the wildlife

- Ifeoluwa Adedeji

When architecture firm Moreno Masey was approached to modernise this home in a lakeside setting on the edge of a forest in Berkshire, the team quickly realised that there was more they could do to make the property work for the family.

“The five-bedroom house was relatively modern, constructed in the 1970s, but was traditional in style,” explains architect Rodrigo Moreno Masey. “It’s a French country chateau-style that looked well formed externally, but inside it was a little confused.”

The main problem was the layout of the ground floor, which hosted the kitchen, garden room and the utility area. The original kitchen was located in a narrow space between the hallway and garden, so in order to get through the house, you ‘stumbled’ through the kitchen. Instead, the owners wanted a space with a good connection to the outside, where they could host friends and have barbecues.

“This was the starting point to our brief; to create a really great kitchen family entertaining area and to reconfigure the support spaces; the pantry, utility and downstairs WC,” says Rodrigo.

The team also worked on the loft space to create a playroom and study, and added a small extension on the first floor, too.