Interactive floor plan: Heatherlands, UK

Wooden home with large windows on a hill near the woods

Beginning with a straightforward Arts and Crafts house from around 1912, Satellite Architects Limited have designed a faceted annex that contains a pool, double garage, new living room and master suite, all wrapped up within an angular, wood-clad façade

(Image credit: Oliver Perrott)

By Ellie Stathaki

last updated 15 August 2022

in Features

Extending houses might be architectural bread and butter, but for the best practices there's an awful lot of creative scope in making an existing structure bigger and better. Heatherlands is a good case in point. Beginning with a straightforward Arts and Crafts house from around 1912,

" target="_blank" >Satellite Architects Limited have designed a faceted annex that contains a pool, double garage, new living room and master suite, all wrapped up within an angular, wood-clad façade.

The site, on the Dorset Devon border in south-west England, is sweeping and steep, with plenty of private land, mature trees and distant views. The new extension steps down into the existing garden, its long sweep of roof dipping and twisting in order to preserve views from the original house. The old and new structures are joined lightly, with the newly created space between acting as a covered entrance way. Shingle cladding on the original house is mirrored by larch rain screens on the addition, tying the composition together. As well as a living room with generous views across the garden the annex includes a pool and gym area, the latter sunken down into the site. The three-level extension is topped by a new master suite, which is angled so as to have complete privacy from the rest of the house. Finally, well-placed windows look across to a restored Airstream trailer that acts as additional guest accommodation (an increasingly popular architectural device).

Satellite have ensured the extension is passively ventilated, with a solid core (housing the sauna and a wood burning fire) to store and circulate heat in the winter and plenty of openings in the monolithic façade to keep the interior cool in the summer months. While there's nothing modest about the generous increase in the original house's space and facilities, Satellite's skilful mix of modern forms, traditional materials and stealthy environmental measures are a fine advert for the gentle art of the extension.

Outdoor stairs leading up to wooden balcony — The site, on the Dorset Devon border in south-west England, is sweeping and steep, with plenty of private land, mature trees and distant views

Lit up windows at night — The new extension steps down into the existing garden, its long sweep of roof dipping and twisting in order to preserve views from the original house

Covered walkway around the back and down some stairs — The old and new structures are joined lightly, with the newly created space between acting as a covered entrance way. Shingle cladding on the original house is mirrored by larch rain screens on the addition, tying the composition together

Living room with large window — The living room has generous views across the garden

Indoor swimming pool — The annex also includes a pool and gym area...

Upwards shot of sky light — where roof lights allow the light to stream in

Indoor staircase — The extension has three floors and is topped by a new master suite

Second floor window seen from the outside — Well-placed windows look across to a restored Airstream trailer that acts as additional guest accommodation (an increasingly popular architectural device)

Outdoor staircase — The outside staircase that leads to the living room terrace

Close up of wood panels — Detail shot of the Larch rain-screen cladding of the extension

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Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).