Monkey Roost, Wandlebury Woods - NRAP Architects

Photography Matthew Smith

The original L-shaped house, with distinctive mono pitch roof, wraps around a small front garden lending both privacy and tranquility by a cluster of mature apple trees.

Backing onto Greenbelt, just a mile from Wandlebury Woods, Monkey Roost in Stapleford is a charming 1970’s home which has recently been extended and completed by NRAP Architects.

This combination of modesty and natural beauty extends to the interior, the defining feature of which is a generous double-height space in which the timber roof structure is on full view.  The latter takes on a sculptural quality and contributes to a simple but affecting palette of clear-varnished timber and white-painted brick.    

Inspired by this visible structure, the two-storey extension (aligned with the existing mono pitch roof) is predominantly of timber frame construction.  It includes a first floor living room, over which Douglas Fir joists, notched into a Douglas Fir ring beam (running around the entire perimeter of the room) which is exposed to great effect. 

A predominantly glazed, double-height entrance hall links the old and the new.  This includes a staircase that not only serves the first floor of the extension, but provides connection at first floor level to the existing mezzanine study and stores, previously accessed only by ladder.  The extension is designed to add amenity discreetly. 

Providing a generous kitchen-come-dining room on the ground floor, and living room on the first floor, the 90 square metre extension offers highly usable spaces for a family, which connect physically with the garden and visually with the views of gently rolling farmland stretching to the north and east beyond.