Recency Villa Site Update

This month has seen the construction start in earnest on our Regency Villa project, located in central Southampton, Hampshire. At this early stage, the focus is on carefully stripping back the modern alterations; carefully removing incongruous additions, taking internal stud partitions out, and clearing out the poorly built extension, to reveal the bones of the original period property.

This four-storey listed townhouse, originally built circa 1835, has lost much of its former grandeur over the years, something we are aiming to restore through this deep renovation and reimagining. Most recently, the property had been converted into a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO), which obscured much of the original character and has compromised the proportions of its rooms.

We’re thoroughly enjoying site visits at this point in the project. It’s exciting to see what the talented team at Tuakana is uncovering, such as original floorboards that had been covered over, and concealed, fireplaces. With the modern partitions removed, we can now fully appreciate the true dimensions of each room. Standing in these newly opened spaces and witnessing the natural light interact with the architecture is genuinely inspiring.

Our design vision is to return the house to a single-family dwelling, one that celebrates its period features while introducing a contemporary glass extension to the rear. The result will be a comfortable, elegant home that brings together the history of the home with the comforts of modern living.

Get in touch if you have a project you would like to discuss with the design team.

New Forest House site progress

Last week we went to site to see the fantastic progress on our deep retrofit project, reimagining the existing Brockenhurst House dwelling in the heart of the New Forest National Park.

Our work has reimagined the distinctive 1970’s chalet house, adding an extension to reconfiguring the property alongside a full thermal upgrade to the property. The contractor has nearly finished on the main construction to a very high standard, leaving the smaller finishing touches to be completed by the owners. We are really looking forward to seeing this project complete very soon.

Site visits are really important for us in the design journey, they give us an opportunity to check in with the contractor and owner to help with any design issues that may have arisen, to ensure the finished project reflects the original design intention and is finished with the attention to detail our clients expect.

Site progress

It is so rewarding when you head to site and see such progress has been made, at Cullverland Farm and Holly Cottage it was amazing to see how far they have come, the construction team have definitely made the most of the long, dry days to race ahead with the build.

Cullverland Farm, in Berkshire, is now practically completed. Externally all the vertical cladding has been installed which gives the feeling that the build is finished, although there is still more to complete internally and the landscaping needs some attention too! The two storey extension looks fabulous, one of our favorite moments in the building is the private terrace, just off the master bedroom, which offers stunning views out across the surrounding countryside – it is good to see some chairs have already made their way onto it so the owners can already take advantage of the views.

The external work on Holly Cottage is nearing completion, with some work still to be done on the roof and cladding. Despite the work that still needs to be done, you can get a real sense of the contemporary extension which looks amazing and will deliver the much needed space the family need. This project has been slightly delicate onsite, due to the nature of altering a Grade II Listed home set within the South Downs National Park.