House, Thorpewood Road, Forest Hill, London

The full remodel and extension of a large family house in Forest Hill. The extension involved the removal of the entire rear and side return wall.

We used an innovative structural design approach to supporting the main house above the projecting ground floor corner extension as an alternative to a traditional box beam solution.

We developed a simple 'Meccano kit' of small structural elements, bolted together on site to form a supporting framework, with every individual piece of steel being hand-liftable. This avoided the need for heavy steelwork and associated awkward cranage and lifting operations, reducing cost. The small, closely spaced beams acted as temporary support for the existing brickwork during demolition removing the need for temporary works propping and 'needling' stages.

The structural layout has been revealed by the architects to interesting effect via the window arrangements around thin columns and the coffered ceiling profile around the small beams at ground floor ceiling level.

Architect: Prewett Bizley