The Hideaway by Alter & Company

The brief called for new side extension to provide Large kitchen & living space with existing kitchen within the building becoming a separate Dining room and ground floor shower room

Surrounded on all sides, due to the low nature of boundary fence lines ‘Hideaway’s’ garden has uninterrupted light for 70% of the day. This makes this garden of high value to the current owners' love and appreciation of gardening. The design makes a hidden contemporary gable box-windowed extension with skin that extends these two simple forms - coherent materials detailed to accord with a subtle and familiar piece of architecture. 

Brief

A New side extension to provide Large kitchen & living space with existing kitchen within the building becoming a separate Dining room and ground floor shower room. 

• Redesign the hallway & staircase to give a more efficient use of space above and below. 
• Create more open views and better connection with the extensive garden space around the property. 
• Allow as much light as possible into the new rooms.

Key Challenges

• Creating a highly bespoke and contemporary extension to a relatively new property in a conservation area 
• Working in a tight end of mews property 
• Construction during a pandemic 
• Retaining high quality details on a tight budget 
• Developing bespoke window & blind solutions to such expansive glazing

About the Clients

• John works as Chief Executive of a Community sector charity and Steve is a Public Speaking Coach and past journalist for the BBC for 15 years. 
• They met in 2002 in East London, Shoreditch where they both lived before deciding to move to Brighton. They were looking for a property with outside space and after spending a weekend here and getting the ‘right vibe’, they decided Brighton was the place to settle. They started renting The Hideaway as a brand new cottage and the landlord decided to sell, they then bought it in 2004 after a year of living in it.