Steam bent timber extension

This house in Pollokshaws Road is an Edwardian semi-detached house with grey sandstone construction with a pitched slate roof.

The rear garden is North facing and relatively small so the key issue for the brief was where to extend without using up the garden. To the side was a wide 3.5m driveway which offered the opportunity to get South light, view so the street and connect to the rear garden.

The proposal relocates the kitchen into a single storey extension to the side of the existing house. This aims to resolve the main deficiencies of the existing kitchen plan’s configuration with an open plan kitchen / dining area. This creates a fluent circulation and benefits from having an improved relation with the garden. The existing kitchen space functions as a separate utility/laundry area with a small shower room.

The existing house was distinguished by its curved corners at the front as so it seemed that the obvious solution was to repeat this detail in the new extension.

Konishi Gaffney acted as sub-contractor for the steam bent cladding, as the main contractor couldn’t find a contractor able to do the steam bending affordably. We researched and experimented with various species of timber including larch, cedar, chestnut and selected oak as the cladding material. Oak was found to be suitable for external use and best suited the tight steam bent radius (1.5m).

The Oak was locally grown and sourced from the Association of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers.

Aluminium framed doors and cladding panels visually separate the timber curved extension from the existing stone house.