How Do You Add Space Without Losing Character?

The clients at Greenways needed more space, but they were rightly protective of what they already had. The existing house had a strong character, a distinctive material palette and a genuine relationship with the beautiful garden that surrounded it. The challenge was not simply to add rooms, but to add them in a way that felt considered and connected: new space that belonged, rather than an afterthought bolted on.
The brief called for a generous open kitchen and dining area, space for everyday living and working from home, and a strong connection to the garden and patio beyond. The architecture needed to honour the local aesthetic, complement the existing building, and deliver something that felt purposeful and special in its own right, not merely functional.

A Glass Link, Black Timber and a Corten Canopy

Simon Mack Architecture's response was to treat the connection between old and new as an architectural moment in itself. A frameless glass link joins the extension to the main house - a bright, transparent threshold that signals the transition from existing to new, creating a genuine sense of arrival at something different and considered. Rather than concealing the join, the design celebrates it.
The extension is clad in vertical black timber, which speaks directly to the horizontal black timber cladding of the existing building. The two sit in quiet dialogue: the same material language, the same palette, but expressed differently; vertical against horizontal, new against established. The contrast is deliberate and elegant, tying the composition together whilst giving the extension its own identity.
On the east-facing elevation, large sliding glass doors open the interior fully to the patio and garden beyond. Above them, a bespoke canopy of stepped metal trays finished in a Corten-style patina does the work that good architectural detail should always do: it solves several problems at once. It shades the glazing from summer sun, reducing solar gain and keeping the interior comfortable. It protects the threshold from rain, allowing the doors to remain open even in poor weather. And it adds a layer of material richness and warmth to the elevation, the warm rust tones of the Corten patina sitting beautifully against the deep black of the timber cladding.
The green roof above the extension insulates the structure, significantly reduces rainwater run-off, and creates valuable habitat for pollinating insects, a quiet but meaningful contribution to the ecology of the garden.

Light, Space and a Home Connected to Its Garden

Step through the glass link into the extension at Greenways and the quality of the space is immediately apparent. The new kitchen and dining area is large, light-filled and genuinely generous — a room designed for the way families actually live, with space to cook, eat, work and gather without any sense of compromise.
Bespoke joinery runs through the interior: a simple, well-considered desk area for working from home; built-in seating that makes the most of every corner; open shelving sized and detailed to display books and treasured objects with care. Everything has been thought through. Nothing feels arbitrary.
The sliding doors open the room entirely onto the patio and barbecue area beyond, so that on warm days the boundary between inside and outside disappears. The garden, long one of the home's great qualities, becomes part of the living space rather than something viewed through a window.
Greenways is a project that demonstrates what a single storey extension can be when it is designed with genuine care: not just additional square footage, but a considered piece of architecture that makes a home feel more complete, more connected and, above all, more itself.