Designing Timber issue 10 for online - Flipbook - Page 36
———— A STEP UP FOR HASTINGS HOUSE ————
he house on Millwood
Road had been
vacant for four or 昀椀ve
years. Built on a steep
hillside, it was gloomy and
beset with a lot of problems.
But Simon Basey, a property
developer with a family
connection to the Hastings
area, could see potential, and
bought it. Having been living
abroad, he had returned
to the UK during Covid,
and had been drawn back
to Hastings where he had
family connections.
“In the old living room,
they used to keep the net
curtains closed all the time,
mainly because the view
outside was so grim,” recalls
Hugh Strange, the project's
architect. “There were steep,
stepped areas with precarious
makeshift structures,
sca昀昀olding and sheds that
were dangerous.”
While the front of the house
looked out towards the town,
the back had a 1980s extension
which closed o昀昀 the house from
the garden. The steep garden
area behind the house had
promise for extensions to built but it would be quite a challenge.
T
Rethinking the 昀氀ow of
the existing house
↓
A timber extension
to the existing house
allowed the di昀昀erent
living area spaces to
become much more
INSPIRATION
INSPIRATION
accessible.
In transforming the property,
Hugh opted to leave the
front part of the house alone
more or less. It was wellproportioned: an entrance
hall, with two good-sized
DESIGNING TIMBER
36
NOV/DEC 2025
rooms o昀昀 it. But there was
previously no 昀氀ow to the
arrangement of the house
and its outbuildings.
“We demolished the
makeshift structures, and we
built a new gallery structure,
seating area and a study that
changes the way that the
outside space is experienced.
We opened up the rear, made
connections, and it now feels
like there's light coming into
the back of the house.”
Opening an existing wall
allowed passage from the
dining room to the kitchen;
while the new gallery space
enables people to thread their
way from inside to out and
back in again. The house has
been given a new coherence.
