Set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the Kent Downs, the complete refurbishment and extension of Grade II* listed 16th century house and the conversion of associated Grade II listed barns and outbuildings, to provide a new family home.
The original buildings are a combination of load bearing brick and original oak timber framing. The existing buildings had experienced significant historical movements, which required well considered repairs, sympathetic to historic existing constructions. This included the underpinning of foundations; varying brick repairs, including crack stitching using helical stainless steel reinforcing ties with concrete bonders across some of the more severe areas of cracking; and the repair, strengthening or replacement to defective areas of the oak framing.
The main Hall House has been extended to include a new rear extension with partial basement. To facilitate the construction of the new basement, the external wall to the house was first underpinned to allow an open-cut excavation for the formation of the basement’s insitu reinforced concrete walls and slab. Above the basement, and extending out to form a new living space a series of simple steel portal frames with timber stud walls and roof joists form an open volume for a barrel vaulted ceiling.
The repair and conversion of the barns and outbuildings required structural solutions to help enable the resolution of damp and their thermal performance. Coordinated with rationalisation of floor levels, the underpinning of walls allowed the ground floor slabs to be lowered to incorporate new insulation and waterproofing, while also helping to address historic and on-going movements.
A new surface and foul water drainage system was designed to serve the sloping site. Surface water is discharged into to a new 5000m2 lake, which also contains a water-source heat pump that helps heat the main house and a new swimming pool. The foul drainage is directed through new waste water treatment plants with the remaining run-off into a nearby existing watercourse.
Wholesale external landscaping of the site included the repair and strengthening of free standing brick walls, including to the original walled garden, new retaining structures, and new pool house with part basement.
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During the construction works to the main house and outbuildings, a separate project involved a new changing, kitchen and dining space at the edge of the new lake. The timber framed building sits neatly on the embankment wall of the lake with a cantilevering deck extending over the water’s edge. Sliding glazed doors meet on the corner of the building, with the roof structure cantilevering over |
