New direction

When the owners of a 1930s detached house needed more light and space, the solution was an extension with a perpendicular placement

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Loretta Marsh and David White are used to the construction process-they built their own home in Derbyshire before moving to the village of Dore in Sheffield 10 years ago. A few years after moving, however, they decided the house was too small for them so the hunt was on for a bigger place. 'When we found a 1930s detached house we liked, we could have gone down the demolition route but we thought there was something wasteful about knocking down a perfectly good house to build another in its place, so we decided to renovate and extend instead,' says Loretta.

Chris Brightman of Brightman Clarke Architects came recommended and proved invaluable. 'We chose Chris before we even chose the house,' says Loretta. 'From the start he was very responsive, full of good ideas and quick to turn things around - he just gets it. My husband David would play around with ideas on Google Sketchup and Chris could immediately tell him what worked and what didn't, because he had a feel for what we wanted.'

MAIN BENEFITS

Unsurprisingly, Loretta and David's primary requirements from their new extension were more light and space, and having built their previous house the pair had firm ideas about what they wanted - but they needed Chris to help them achieve that. 'The key was getting to know Loretta and David, how they saw themselves using the space and what was important to them,' says Chris. 'This, considered alongside the site orientation and context, helped determine the proposed layout. We did explore the possibility of building upwards instead of outwards, but with the exception of two bedrooms built over the garage - which we demolished and rebuilt - the build took place mainly at ground-floor level.'