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Architects: Studio 163
- Area: 250 m²
- Year: 2024
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Photographs:Lorenzo Zandri
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Manufacturers: Coalbrook, Corston, Luminex, Lusso Stone, Mandarin Stone
Text description provided by the architects. This deep retrofit of a house on the North Norfolk coast reconfigures a building once used as the village butcher's shop. A + S came to us with the need to heavily modernize a holiday home they had on the North Norfolk coast. Upon visiting the house, it was immediately obvious it was a locally important place, rooted in its immediate context with views of the staithe and its tidal, marshy landscape. The house had its own story to tell, a butcher shop back in its day, and was physically combined with its adjoining terrace into what is today known as Prospect House. The brief was a deep retrofit, the kind where almost everything but the shell of the building was broken down and put back together in a different way. One which suited a large family with different friends and family visiting at different times of the year. A dormitory room for the kids, a clearer circulation route through the building but mainly reorienting the house north - where the coast lies and the best views are enjoyed.
Upon arriving at the house for the first time, the room facing the sea had windows at knee height and it was almost impossible to locate yourself in what is such a wild and ever-changing landscape. The Brancaster marshes are a special place, where mussels and oysters are found in the creeks and channels and enjoyed in restaurants all over the county. The main aim of the project was to open views but in a careful way that is not over-indulgent given the prevalence of large coastal properties nearby. We are proud that with a combined three years of design and construction work, the house almost looks unchanged externally. Physically and environmentally though, the house is completely modernized, using an air-source heat pump to fuel the house along with a deep retrofit and internal insulation throughout the existing house.
We worked in great detail for around three years to develop the design, work through a design that was palatable to the local Conservation Officer, and then design every room individually with a full interior design package as well as key finishes such as lighting within our scope. We coordinated information with electrical, plumbing, joiners, carpenters, decorators, plasterers, and the main contractor, King & Company.
The clients allowed us the freedom to express ourselves as designers while keeping the essence of the existing house. From the outside, aside from the new two-storey gable end it would be hard to tell anyone had been there on site for a year and a half. The end result is, we hope, a calming space that has the feature room of the mezzanine, a social space, and a contemplative space with an obvious visual connection to the building's landscape. Other rooms have their restrained and 'minimal' aesthetic yet certain rooms such as the bathrooms have more scope to express themselves as design exercises and where high-quality materials are allowed to take center stage.
