Emil Eve Architects were commissioned to build an extension to a rural farmhouse in the village of Farley in Wiltshire, United Kingdom. The new volume echoes the form of an existing auxiliary extension to create a double-pitched internal space opening onto a kitchen garden.

The clients had recently purchased the large farmhouse in rural Wiltshire. They loved parts of the house, but had a feeling of being disconnected, both from the external landscape and also between key internal spaces.

The architects thought that the approach to the house felt somewhat blank, and how a dark pocket of unused space at the heart of the house was creating convoluted routes and connections through the ground floor.

The old stable wing was separating the main house from the garden, both visually and physically but the room itself had great proportions, with its pitched roof and promising openings.

Enamoured with the colours and textures of the historic tiles and brickwork across the house and outbuildings, they were keen to respond to these.

With a tight budget, they looked at how to connect the house to a new kitchen garden, settling on inserting a new volume into the disused space.

This insertion mirrored the stable building in proportion and profile, creating a double pitched roof and internal volume.

Openings were defined to catch the sun as it moved through the day, bringing light into previously dark spaces. Simultaneously, internal routes were created that dramatically improved the flow through the ground floor of the house, reconnecting internal spaces and the garden.

The new extension was clad in handmade arrowhead clay tiles with crisp detailing to complement the existing material palette, while establishing the volume as a contemporary addition.

They looked extensively at the local vernacular of hung tiles and settled on an arrowhead tile as the cladding to the new extension.

The patchwork of colours and shape complement the original style, but distinctly frame the extension as a contemporary insertion.

The earthy palette is also brought inside with the extensive terracotta floor and suspended light fittings.

Internally the space is wrapped in painted timber paneling. Slimline black steel framed doors and windows have been inserted into existing and new openings to match new powder coated copings and cills.

Which defines a datum for openings and joinery and tethers old and new together.