Wraparound extensions

CREATE GENEROUS ADDITIONAL SPACE FOR YOUR HOME WITH A REAR AND SIDE COMBO BUILD

- SARAH WARWICK

While many people choose between adding a rear or side extension to their home, a wraparound extension is an alternative and a neat combination of the two.

This type of addition is designed to fit around the outside of a property, forming an L shape. Hugging the building on two sides, it can boost space and transform an old-fashioned layout into one that's better suited to the way we live in our homes today. It can make use of redundant outdoor space at the side of a house, as well as some of the area at the rear, and a good design will increase the size of a home without compromising the garden.

'Wraparound extensions often feature on city houses,' says Ben Ridley, founder of Architecture for London. 'This is because our traditional urban terraces and semidetached homes frequently have a side return - a strip of hard-surfaced garden to the side and rear of the property that is often unused. Its main original purpose is to allow daylight deep into the plan, typically into the rear reception rooms of a house. A wraparound extension often widens the rear kitchen by making use of this side return space.' What's more, says James Bernard, architect and director of Plus Rooms, 'a wraparound design can easily add 15 to 60 square metres of extra space'.

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