WIVENHOE

A new reading room and Winter Garden for a 1970s house in Wivenhoe, Essex.

This project demonstrates how small interventions can make a big difference. An underused room was reconnected to the main living space by making a new opening and inserting a glazed timber screen and sliding pocket door. A second glazed timber screen with a large top-hung glazed door opens into a new Winter Garden, created by re-glazing the roof to a covered passage between the main house and garage. Materials and colours were carefully chosen to complement the classic 1970s aesthetic of the house: red Sapele hardwood for the timber; simple black square format ceramic floor tiles; wood-float finished render in the Winter Garden. There is an enjoyable dialogue between the two glazed screens, and light now floods into the reading room.