RX Architects extends its timber Druim house with garden dining room
RX Architects has extended its Druim house in Winchelsea, East Sussex, with a glass-walled dining room that opens straight onto the garden.
The new addition sticks close to the existing house. It uses the same dark timber cladding and low profile, according to Dezeen, which first reported the completion.
Druim is a two-storey house on the Rye Nature Reserve on England's south-east coast. The Rye-based practice, which works mainly on residential projects, first completed it in 2020.
That first project was a rescue job. The site came with a half-built structure, and the architects altered and finished it rather than starting from scratch. The house sits on a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a protected area for wildlife, and is surrounded by shingle landscape, as noted by ArchitectureToday and ArchDaily.
The new work centres on food and family life. The extension holds an expanded dining area wrapped in full-height glazing, with sliding doors that open onto a patio and garden. To the east, it links directly to the existing kitchen.
Inside, the room is organised around a solid wood table. A large skylight brings in daylight from above, and a central log burner provides heat. A large window seat is tucked into the glazed, garden-facing corner.
Look up and the roof tells the story. Deep soffits, the undersides of the roof overhangs, are clad in narrow timber planks. That lining runs from outside to inside and forms the ceiling of the new rooms.
The project also reworks how people move through the house. There is a new boot room, a hard-wearing entry for coats and muddy shoes, and an entrance hall. Both give direct access to the staircase. Before, the stairs were reached only from the living room.
To the west of the entrance, a glazed linking corridor replaces a paved path to the home's annexe. It keeps the route dry in bad weather.
What makes this stand out for anyone who lives there is simple. More seats at the table. Doors that slide away in summer. A warm corner by the fire in winter.
