Embracing Mid-Century Modern: A Sensitive Extension

By Penny Dixon 18 July 2023

Our sensitive extension of a classic mid-century modern estate house celebrates the innovations in design and materials characteristic of the period.

Glendale is a house typical of the 1960’s, mid-century design.  It’s simple form and pared-back detailing are a direct result of the innovations and design rationale developed in this period. 

Several social factors influenced the way houses were designed and built during the period after the end of the second world war right up to the 1980’s.  Post-war Britain had a vast shortage of housing; the government needed to replace homes lost to bombing, and also to continue the slum clearance that had started before the war. This sparked a huge and rapid house building programme during a period of chronic shortages of materials and skills.  As a result architects worked hard to rationalise plans, simplify details, and reduce materials use.  Not only did designers have to be innovative and efficient, but also it gave them a chance to explore new ideas for living.

Many of the housing developments of this period aimed to address issues related to overcrowding and poor living conditions in urban areas.  By demolishing older, substandard housing and replacing it with modern, purpose-built developments, the projects sought to improve the overall urban environment, including access to amenities, transportation, and services, and to provide improved facilities such as indoor plumbing, central heating, and better ventilation, contributing to a higher standard of living for residents.

By the 1960’s housing design had fully embraced modernist architectural principles, characterised by clean lines, simplicity, and functionalism; and aiming to create efficient and practical living spaces that responded to the needs of the residents. This modernist approach often resulted in open-plan layouts, large windows for natural light, and a sense of spaciousness, features much  sought after today.

The architectural experimentation of the era produced a range of innovative housing designs, exploring new construction techniques, materials, and structural systems aimed at streamlining construction processes, reducing materials and costs; and meeting the increasing demand for homes.

The materials shortage gave rise to the archetypal load bearing brick cross wall we see in Glendale.  Two load bearing masonry end walls with a short return of masonry give lateral support, with steel or timber trusses between the end walls to support the joists and infill timber framing.  The masonry cavity walls consisted of, for the first time, concrete “breeze” blocks, and often sand-lime bricks which reduced the need for clay.  The insulated stud infill walls were then clad with panels of timber boards or hanging tiles emphasising the modern, horizontal look of the homes. Shallow pitched roofs helped to economise on tiles. The construction methods enabled large windows flooding the interior with light.

Our extension was designed to complement the original form of the house, preserving the purity of the form rather than introducing extra elements and unnecessary junctions.  In addition, by maintaining the single volume, rather than stepping back the walls and roof, we reduce the opportunity of failures at junctions that could lead to water ingress, gaps in insulation, and thermal bridging.  In the spirit of the original design, economies in construction materials and time have been introduced.

The addition of an extra, flexible, living space at ground floor provides a room that can be used in multiple ways – as a home office, playroom, or in the future as a ground floor bedroom for an elderly parent.   The upper floor extension transforms the current 4.5 sqm fourth bedroom into a second bathroom  and provides bigger bedrooms for children to grow and study, and stay as adults if needed.

The result is a clean, simple, economic design, true to the original design intent of the late 1960’s dwelling.

1960’s housing is often underappreciated, cited as being bland and lacking in “period features”, but it is worth acknowledging that many well-executed examples of 1960s housing continue to provide comfortable, functional, and aesthetically pleasing homes for residents today. Understandably some of these innovative projects faced problems with maintenance and condensation; and time has exposed these design flaws, but with some care and thought these homes can be updated, extended and thermally upgraded while upholding the original design intent. 

It is saddening for those of us who are fans to see so many of these original and creative gems changed beyond recognition in the name of an “upgrade”.  So often the results are out of context, out of scale and at odds with the intent of the original design.  The same white render over brick walls, and dark grey replacement window frames are often used, forming the identikit and unimaginative “contemporary upgrades” we have commonly seen during the last 15 years and, as social commentator Bill Bryson describes in his book The Road to Little Dribbling, “in a style that might be called Russian Gangster”.  It would be nice to think that more of these pioneering homes could be celebrated for what they are – light, bright, forward thinking designs capable of accompanying us in to the future.