Bath Street Window

A Grade B Listed building, situated in in the Conservation Area of Portobello, Edinburgh, the initial brief was for an extension. It quickly became clear however that an extension would do more harm than good, darkening the interior and limiting access to the garden. Instead we proposed to simplify the plan and create a new glazed corner to re-orientate the kitchen to the garden and the South and bring natural light into the house.

Working with the award winning structural engineers TALL we inserted a tiny 80mm steel post and a hidden steel beam with the stone cut with a lip over the steel edge and frameless glazing set flush to the walls and floor.

The glazing was carefully detailed to pick up existing joint lines in the stugged ashlar stone walls and set flush to the stone to accentuate the beauty and texture of the stonework. The glass also has a significant practical benefit of increasing the kitchen floor area by around 15%.

The existing garden access was removed and replaced with a small utility / drying space. All the walls were lined, insulated and draft proofed to current building regulation standards.

This small scale intervention has turned a cold, dark kitchen into a central living space which the client claims has transformed their lives; all on a budget of £23,370