CORSTORPHINE HILL  HOUSE

Location: Corstorphine, Edinburgh

Client: Private Client

Programme: Completed 2006

The Client required external space for their two young children; yet they also wanted to replicate the distant views and almost year-round sunlight of their top floor city centre flat. A small house was purchased, reconfigured and extended in order to integrate the living spaces with the garden, which is used as an outdoor room.

The key design feature is the distinctive triangular rear extension which allows evening light to reach a sheltered deck in the heart of the plan. This shape also creates a dynamic glazed window seat adjacent to an integrated kitchen and dining space. Christened ‘The Ship’ by the children, it is one of their favourite spaces. On the upper floor, this triangular form produces a dramatic Study with views of the distant Pentland Hills.

The house transforms from the public street frontage to the private rear garden, looking tasteful but not unusual from the street and increasing in drama to the rear. Many of the original features of the house have been kept, including the existing doors and skirtings, augmented by modern interventions of extensive glazing, timber panelling and brightly coloured walls.

Views are carefully controlled, and together with the use of mirrored glass, create an impression of spaciousness far beyond the physical size of the property.