DesignBuyBuild_16_2015

“Our design was driven by the desire to treat the parent
building and historic fabric with respect, without
subjugating the new pavilion to its aesthetic. The
prominence and integrity of the principal bay is being
restored by cutting back the later additions which
compromised the original massing of the house.
Finkernagel Ross Architects tend to develop designs using a
range of media, as part of the process of considering the brief,
as well as the spatial and technical issues, aesthetics. These
processes are almost always based on scaled representations
to assist architectural ‘thinking’, usually completed by the
time tender documents are sent to the builders who will then
interpret the production information and realise the designs.
There is always a dichotomy between designer and builder,
between representation of a design and its physical embodiment
in the resulting built form.
The new pavilion creates a counterpoint to the original
fabric in terms of materials and detailing and is attached to
the house by frameless glass to articulate their relationship.
The detailing of the extension is designed, again contrary to
the gravitas of its context, to dematerialise it with a floating
brise-soleil seemingly carved from a solid block of marble.
Internally a new space is carved out of the existing fabric
not by demolition of existing walls but by creating an
introverted, fully timber-panelled enclosure that regularises
the current awkward proportions. This transitional space
between the existing rooms of the house and the new
kitchen pavilion takes its inspiration from Sir John Soane’s
breakfast room.”
— Catherine Finkernagel
Catherine Finkernagel adds: “With this project, we are
departing from the traditional processes of design, procurement
and construction, breaching the customary boundaries between
them. The design process, whilst in many ways no different
from any other project, has involved a full scale, 1:1 mockup
section of the most critical part of the construction of the
extension.”
The project demonstrates the practice’s appreciation of cultural
heritage and tradition, and the considered approach taken
when introducing contemporary additions. The new pavilion
at Wedderburn Road is conceived as a ‘contrapuntal’ gesture
– the design celebrates the parent building and yet provides
a confident, unapologetically new, addition to the overall
ensemble.
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