Mayfield farm

Mayfield Farmhouse is a listed farm dating back to c1640 when it was a ‘U’ shaped layout with 3 pitched gables roofs from front to back. The south garden elevation was originally the front of the house was altered c1760 so that the gables became a single hipped roof with the three gables remaining at the back. The house was extended in the 1990s with two-storey side extension which created an unbalanced elevation.

Our design removes the 1990s extension and replaces it with a new extension that enhances the original house by visually separating its form from the main house. This is done by turning the new twin gable roofs through 90 degrees, setting the new gable ridge heights below the existing ridge and setting the new extension back from the main house elevations at the front and back. This form ensures that the new extension is completely subservient to the original house.

We have retained a direct design connection with the main house by introducing two new gables on the new extension that face east so that when approaching the house by the existing garage, the gables form a seamless visual landscape around the south east, east and north east corners. We have referenced Edwin Lutyens’ house Tigbourne Court in Surrey as an example of how gable roofs set at right angles to each other create an aesthetically coherent, multi-directional form. The new extension is set back behind a new garden wall that extends to the existing garden gate entrance. The existing outbuildings will be replaced with the garden wall that will create a clear and uncluttered approach to the main house.

Planning and Listed Building Consent was granted July 2020.

The design and detailing of the new two-storey extension will be entirely contemporary, although the size and proportions of the first floor windows will match the existing. The first floor extension will be supported on a new brick pier so that it has its own structural coherence, visible as part of the garden elevation. The remainder of the new kitchen/family room will be fully glazed with minimally framed full-height glazing to contrast with the brickwork of the original house and to afford maximum views out. The proposals enhance the original house and its setting and create a sustainable new extension that possesses a design integrity of its own, working seamlessly with the existing house.

As part of the building work it is proposed to correct details such as changing the timber tile battens of the corners of the original house with butt tiling as would have been original. The rainwater pipes on the front elevation will also be replaced with cast iron pipes neatly placed in straight vertical lines either side of the main entrance.