Thank you
Thank you for your interest in the Rooflight Company.
Would you like to download a brochure?
Press Releases
Sunny Side Up
Grange Street Mews
When award-winning architects Briffa Phillips set out to create a spacious feel to the conversion of a constricted warren of commercial properties into seven highly attractive mews houses, specialist manufacturer the Rooflight Company was able to shed some light on the problem. Combining an innovative, ‘upside down’ construction with the architecturally-designed Conservation Rooflight® and Replica Rooflight®, architect Matt Briffa has provided Grange Street Mews with a bright, airy feel to the living environment – without compromising the look of the original Victorian exterior.
As well as considering conservation issues, the team had to maximise the amount of natural light that would be brought into the dwellings, overlooked as they are by neighbouring buildings, especially on the southeast elevation. “A workshop and houses overshadowing the southeast elevation block out a great deal of daylight to the ground floor, so some lateral thinking was required,” says Matt. “One action we took was to ‘invert’ the construction of four of the houses so that the bedrooms were on the ground floor and the living rooms and kitchens were on the first floor. Having conducted a series of light studies we determined that larger rooflights were required on the steeper northeast elevations, while the southeast elevation benefits from the use of standard sized products.” By offering the largest size range of rooflights in the country, the Rooflight Company were able to supply rooflights that ideally met the defined light levels.
Matt continues: “Planning negotiations – turned out to be fairly straightforward, as both the conservation officers and I were keen that the project use the Conservation model from the Rooflight Company. Its slim profile, authentic period appearance and high-quality, energy-efficient design made it the best – indeed the only suitable – option in this particular case. Having incorporated products from the company on a number of other developments, I was more than happy to do so again.”
An accurate reproduction of a Victorian model meeting modern standards of insulation, weather tightness and safety, the Conservation Rooflight® was specifically designed by architect Peter King to meet the need for a product appropriate for use in historic applications. It is considered by architects, conservation officers, the National Trust and English Heritage to be the most suitable rooflight for buildings in a traditional context.
Both the Conservation Rooflight® and the Replica Rooflight® feature on the twin roofs. The northwest sides of the roofs feature the larger, Studio-Designer Range Conservation Rooflights® measuring 1.45 x 0.54 mm, joined together in groups of two and three. Placed adjacently, they form six or nine low profile panes that flood any available daylight into the living space below. As the southeast side sees more sun, standard-sized Replica Rooflights® measuring 0.9 x 0.5 mm were used in smaller numbers. Matt Briffa summarised “Our experience on this development and others has shown that meeting planning requirements in a conservation area needn’t be problematic – in fact, it can be quite an enlightening experience.”
The Rooflight Company manufactures a wide range of rooflights, as well as bespoke designs to suit any environment. For more information please visit the website: www.therooflightcompany.co.uk.
For further information please contact:
Kylie Keevil Tel: 0207 853 2231 |
or |
Neil Liddell Tel: +44 (0)1993 833108 |
