The Sunday Times - UK (2022-05-22)

pump because the ground

floor in the original house

wasn’t insulated, so the ASHP

wouldn’t have worked

efficiently. Instead they got an

electric boiler — there is no gas

in the village — and use an off-

peak tariff tied to a renewable

energy source.

Bell thinks adapting existing

housing stock could do

wonders in reducing our

collective carbon footprints.

And that means opening our

minds to other kinds of

architecture than Georgian

rectories. He is baffled by

people who only want to live

in a period house yet insist on

having the latest iPhone

technology. When he told

family and friends he was

buying a 1960s house he had

some strange reactions, but he

enjoys challenging

preconceptions. “It’s a Tardis

house, it’s quite unassuming

from the kerb, but when you

walk through the door it’s a

transformation... [Sixties

architecture] might not be

what we aspire to, but with a

bit of creativity it could be the

house you need. Don’t judge a

book by its cover.”

freehausdesign.com

Area that has been

extended/rebuilt

BEFORE

Total space

430 sq ft

AFTER

Total space

861 sq ft

GROUND FLOOR CHANGES

The Sunday Times May 22, 2022 11

galley kitchen and large
lavatory on the ground floor,
and three bedrooms and a
small bathroom upstairs.
After the extension, the
house is 1,400 sq ft, including
a 581 sq ft open-plan living
space that features a kitchen/
diner, children’s play area and
sitting room, all zoned by
furniture. They avoided bifold
doors — Bell finds them clunky
and awkward — but to
maximise Cotswolds views
put in a fixed picture window
by Maxlight and a glass
pivot door.
Painting the walls dark
green also helped bring the
scenery inside. “By doing that
your eye is drawn to the
window and the light beyond.
Painting the room dark is like
when you go to the cinema,
you dim the lights, you see the
film on the screen and not the
noise around you.”
The downstairs loo was
made smaller to incorporate a
utility room. “Maybe we’re sad
people but it has made such a
difference. I didn’t want
laundry scattered around my
house, tidying it up when
people come over. Likewise
the new boot room: it has a
concrete floor where the dog
comes in and we’re not
worried about mess. You take
your coats off there, wellies,
school bags, logs, fishing rods,
you name it, it all comes
through there.”
His daughters, Isla, seven,
and Ada, five, asked for two
things: a swing, which he hung
from their bedroom ceiling,
and a timber slide, which is
built into the stairs. Doesn’t it
make the staircase cramped?
“The staircase is 900mm
wide, the slide is 500mm
wide, but you still walk down
the centre of the stair holding
on to the balustrade, you
don’t walk down that bit down
the side.”
Upstairs they transformed

the third bedroom into a

master suite where Bell sits in

a window seat and looks at the

valley over a cup of tea. He has

also planted a wildflower

meadow on the roof of the

extension below, to make up

for loss of biodiversity caused

by the build.

To reduce the carbon

footprint, and speed up the

project, the extension was

manufactured off-site in

Yorkshire by SIP Build UK,

delivered to the site on a lorry

and erected within a week.

The structural insulated

panels are 142mm thick and

Bell bolstered that with

another 50mm of rockwool

insulation. They laid concrete

floors with underfloor heating

in the extension, but didn’t

install an air-source heat

It’s a Tardis house —

quite unassuming

from the kerb, but

when you walk

through the door

it’s a transformation

From left: the

1968 ex-council

house, before

and after the

extension;

owners Tom

and Sophie Bell

with their

children, Isla and

Ada; they

installed a

picture window

to maximise

views

ADRIAN SHERRATT FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES; NICHOLAS WORLEY