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A NEW EXTENSION BRINGS LIGHT AND SPACE DEEP INTO THIS GLASGOW HOME, HUGELY IMPROVING LIFE FOR ITS OWNERS

- Gillian Welsh

Making the most of what you’ve got is sage advice whether you’re talking about your life savings or your personal appearance. But it could be applied equally well to your home. Every house or flat has its good points and its drawbacks, and remedying the latter while retaining the former is very often a surer route to satisfaction than starting over in a new place.

That’s what has been done here, in a B-listed villa near Crookston in Glasgow’s south-western suburbs. As a handsome and substantial sandstone house, with a big sunny south-facing back garden, it had a lot going for it, but it was far from perfect. The kitchen and the dining room in particular were dated and gloomy, and there was no easy access to the garden.

The owner brought in architect George Buchanan to explore ways to fix the two main problems through the creation of an open-plan kitchen-diner with much better links – both visual and physical – to the exterior. Replacing the cramped old outshoot with a spacious new extension and opening up the roof above the existing dining area proved to be the most workable solution, as Buchanan explains: “It was critical to maximise the relationship with the garden and to ensure that the resultant spaces would be awash with natural light.

“Our designs involved adding a replacement extension with a pitched roof that replicates the general form of the house. But because the new element is 4m deep, we decided to put a roof light along the ridge as a way of ensuring that natural daylight reaches the entire floor plate.”