Francesco Pierazzi Architects provides light-filled extension to Suncatcher home

London studio Francesco Pierazzi Architects has prolonged a suburban home in Croydon, including two volumes with carefully-positioned openings that observe the trail of the solar.

The minimalist extension, aptly named Suncatcher, was designed by Francesco Pierazzi Architects to wrap an present steep-roofed cottage owned by a household of 4 in Purley.

Alongside the western fringe of the house, a slender type creates a brand new entrance. It additionally homes ancillary features and has an inside window that helps draw mild into the prevailing constructing.

This facet extension leads into a brand new dwelling, eating and kitchen space inside the rear extension and creates a visible axis that connects the back and front of the dwelling.

A hid full-height door leads into the rear extension, which sits beneath two sections of the roof that slope in reverse instructions and are punctured by giant skylights and clerestory home windows.

“The challenge is break up into two separate sub-briefs and organised round two distinctive new buildings,” mentioned Francesco Pierazzi Architects.

“The facet extension is monolithic, completed in darkish painted render to harmonise with the sombre bricks, and accommodates ancillary features, [while] the again extension is conceived as a spatial solar and light-weight catcher,” it continued.

Inside, Suncatcher’s white interiors emphasise the angular ceilings and deep reveals of the black metal-framed home windows, whereas minimal wall and ceiling fittings emphasise the types of the extensions.

Within the dwelling space, a glazed nook incorporating sliding doorways opens out onto a south-facing patio, with a steady paved flooring creating continuity between inside and exterior.

This dwelling space steps up barely into the wood-floored kitchen that’s outlined by a black marble countertop and splashback. These are complemented by full-height black cabinets which can be tucked into the northern finish of the area beneath white pendant lights.

“The brand new constructing is articulated by ‘pulling’ and ‘stretching’ its edges to supply a dramatic, sculptural inside,” mentioned Francesco Pierazzi Architects.

Externally, Suncatcher’s rear extension has been clad with horizontally-laid boards of textured timber, making a pale distinction to the dark-rendered facet extension.

“The again extension is clad with three-dimensional textured timber boards to supply heavy shades and increase its sculptural properties, making a stronger relationship with the mature bushes on the finish of the again backyard,” described the studio.

Francesco Pierazzi Architects was based by architect Francesco Pierzazzi in London in 2014.

The studio’s earlier initiatives embody the refurbishment of a maisonette in west London, which contrasted the constructing’s present industrial character with minimal, trendy additions.

The images is by Lorenzo Zandri.