Transforming a 1920s arts and crafts house, Cambridge, UK
Join architect Oli in Cambridge for a tour of a 1928 arts and crafts home with a rare gambrel roof reimagined through a bold rear and side extension while preserving the character that made it special.
What began as a tired period property with failing 1970s and ’80s additions has become one of our most ambitious transformations yet. Homeowner Andreas worked closely with the design team, bringing his own carpentry skills and New Zealand influences to the project. The result is a home that blends historic charm with contemporary geometry, sustainable materials, and clever family-focused design.
In this video:
🙌 A rare gambrel roof preserved and celebrated
☀️ Rear and side extensions creating light-filled, functional spaces
🔨 Striking brise soleil feature crafted from thermally modified English ash
🚶 Glass linkway connecting heritage brick to new builds
🌳 Sustainable ash cladding milled in Essex from storm-felled trees
🏊 Indoor pool and garden-focused living spaces
🔎Insights from the homeowners on collaboration and vision
Along the way, we take in the charm of Cambridge — its leafy streets, historic architecture, and vibrant community — celebrating the best of UK towns and the people who make them unique.
Whether you’re into architecture, home renovation ideas, or just love seeing how old and new can work together, this tour is for you.
#Cambridge #HouseTour #UKHomes #Architecture #HomeRenovation #ModernExtension #ArtsAndCraftsHouse #SustainableDesign
It’s 30 degrees out, I’m absolutely roasting. I’ve got a pint. We’re in Cambridge. Home of the bikes. Home of all the punters. Home of Anglia Ruskin University. We’re here to go see some beautiful architecture. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Let’s wind it back a sec. I promise I’m not getting drunk on the job. I’m Oli, an architect born and bred in the northeast. Give me a great design, a decent local and a high street with a bit of history. I’m happy. After years of designing homes, there’s one thing I want to unpack. What goes into making a house your own? So, Resi said “Go on then”. Out of office on, across the UK I go. Meeting the people who’ve taken unfamiliar walls and turned them into something that finally feels like home. Turns out, it always starts with A change of plans. I hopped on the early morning train to Cambridge. It was already roasting out so we decided to walk. Lush greenery, bikes, super old buildings, bikes, rivers, bikes. Cambridge hates to see you on foot. It wasn’t long until amongst the trees we found Andreas and Sam’s place. Built by the University of Cambridge in 1928 for staff housing, now home to Andreas’s family. From Aotearoa, New Zealand, a passionate builder and carpenter. So at the start of all this, what they were working with was an impressive, gambrel, arts and crafts home with two shitty extensions built either side of it, done in the late 70s. It started off with pretty much the house that you can see there, the extension on that side and the extension on that side. And in the winter, in this extension here, we had 14 radiators and it couldn’t keep the room warm in the winter. Wow. So we knew that we had to get rid of these extensions. So secretly, they wanted to demo the whole thing and start from scratch. But that’s something that becomes a lot more difficult with the council. So the new challenge becomes if they have to keep the existing structure, how can they pair it with such an ambitious, modern design? It was really challenging to make a house with a gambrel roof sexy. The design was shaped by a carefully chosen material palette and a consistent use of geometry. The crisp dark lines of galvanized steel were set against the warm, natural tones of thermally modified English ash. These forms echo and build upon each other, from the angles of the extension to the triangular roof lights and the intricate brise soleil, providing dynamic shading and light patterns. Even the carefully sequenced roof lights allow for light to pour in an interesting way. It’s nature giving us a light show. It was the area of the house that planning was particularly concerned about, where we gnawed off part of the original building to insert this angled structure here. I was very keen on having this triangular skylight, sort of again having a conversation with all the other triangles in the building. The conversation with the light continues through to the light well. The bridge is a part of the old structure to the brand spanking new side extension. I really like the idea of seeing the continuation of what was outside coming in. It’s quite a nice clash as well between the kind of like modern feature of the window frames against that original brick material. The other feature here is this screen, which mimics the size and the cladding nature of the wood on the rest of the house. We wanted some privacy because obviously it’s a very visible view straight out to the street or straight into the house. Yeah, so I built this screen. And now you can walk privately at night without the street getting too much of a view of you in the underpants. The light well leads into a master bedroom accompanied by a huge walk-in wardrobe and en suite, and you might not have guessed it, but an indoor swimming pool, home to more modified ash and even more challenges from the council. You can see it in the shot up there. There’s a big ash tree and yes, all of this area here, including the garage, that had to be specifically designed on little piles with a lot of thought to not destroying the root structure of that tree. The house itself really benefits from all of these protected trees around them. I mean, that is the focus of the house. Everything looks out on this greenery and that’s the way we wanted it. The design is all about embracing the outdoors. It’s not just about enjoying a nice view. No, not talking about me. It’s about blurring the boundaries between inside and out. The expansive glass walls in the living room feature an embedded track that allows for space to effortlessly open up, supported by subtly integrated cylindrical pillars, a big old tongue twister and a great spot to enjoy a cuppa. Or in the study slash yoga room on the first floor side extension, once you’ve aligned your chakras, you enter your shavasana, you can sit back, enjoy the trees swaying through the wrap over window, or you can step out into the balcony framed by more sharp geometry to enjoy the gorgeous view. Guys, still not me. The inside of their home feels like a landscape in itself, a bespoke design in Andreas’ vision right from when you enter. On the bottom here, the first two steps are a single unit, which I actually built. We’re very proud of this. Rather than have the single spine coming down the middle of the staircase, we had it offset to the side, which creates quite a lot more architectural interest. So, yeah, so we’ve got in place stairs, floating stairs and a single spine, stairs all on the one staircase. So quite a challenge. Once the shoes are off and Netflix is on, sit yourself down in front of the TV cabinet that was handcrafted by Andreas himself in sound absorbing American walnut panelling. There are other details in this room that work together to mitigate the echo of such a big space, such as the felt lampshades above the dining table, which is backed by a wall of sound absorbing sea grass. These materials repeat to connect the space throughout. You can see the American walnut highlights. I would call it a sort of triangular teardrop. It’s lovely having something which is not rectangular in a space like this with the rounded edges, which soften all the hard corners. What that shape does as well is it kind of navigates the person entering the space through this way by having it at an angle that sort of opens up. The rounded island makes for a smooth dart to the fridge whilst keeping one eye on the telly and the other one grabbing your cheese and crackers from the cold larder, a feature retained from the old days before we had fridges. I think that’s a really important feature to mention, the cold larder and the fact that to achieve that, although there are internal walls, they also have to be externally insulated so that the cold from the cold larder doesn’t bridge across to the main living space. Contrasting to outside, on the inside, there are only hints of where the old and new meet. You can sense it as the space shrinks inside the original snug, where the scale juxtaposes the new living space. Do you mind if I? And then… Yeah. It’s beautiful being able to look out from there as well. I couldn’t resist leaving Cambridge without needing to see a few more bikes. One bike here. Got another bike. We have our third bike. We have the rest of them. Some punters. Punters? Punting hell. Couple more punters? I find out what’s on tap at their locals. Roaming around, I thought about the connection between the city and Sam and Andreas’. Cambridge is a place where history is cherished, but progress is embraced. I think we’ve created a home that takes the 1928 property and used thoughtful design that didn’t just solve problems, but bond the two. Making the unsexy gamble roof, dare we say, quite sexy after all. I don’t trust those swans are gonna play nicely. They’re gonna tear me apart.
1 Comment
Love this! Great watch