Bohemia House

Reconfiguration and extension to bungalow

Bohemia provided a unique opportunity to strip a bungalow bare, rationalise the footprint and form, and extend deep into the garden to produce a unique single-level home that dissolves the thresholds to nature and invites it into the home.

To each side a pitched volume tapers to follow the site boundary, opening a wedge between and inviting light and views to the core of the building.

The kitchen is the core, the centre piece of a home, each space grows from here, and each offers a different light and a different aspect. But all function around the kitchen, and the kitchen ties them all together.

The size, height, pitch, orientation and distance between each are designed to avoid shade, allowing the winter sunlight to flood the courtyard and the last of the evening sun to squeeze between them into the garden, to block the adjacent neighbours and to control views down the garden. Punctured by large panels of glazing, positioned to inform internal function and maximise connection to the outside, the design provides privacy without the need for blinds.

Each mass is vaulted internally providing a contrasting volume to each room. Despite the open plan arrangement, the seamless polished floor and the lack of doors, the separation in intimacy and function of each space is informed by user perception. This experience is enhanced through lighting details, feature walls, and the slices of natural light penetrating roof lights and glazing of altered orientation and scale.

Despite the apparently simple tonal palette, every detail involved a complex procedure to produce what appears as an effortless solution. Without downlights, methods to deliver the light had to be developed; floating ceilings, vertical rebates and recessed skirtings all provide niches for lighting to be concealed. There are hidden doors and storage within iroko joinery, plywood endgrain fabricated to seamless wardrobes and vanity units, with bespoke steel frames to support, span and frame screens, mirrors and joinery. Every element of this home has been considered, drawn and beautifully crafted.