Pend wraps extension to historic Scottish home in fluted pink-toned stonework

Scottish architecture studio Pend has updated a heritage-listed Georgian farmhouse in East Lothian, adding an extension clad in fluted, blush-toned blocks of precast stone.

Named Whitberry, the Grade B-listed building had been subject to piecemeal additions over the years, which led to the home having a "cellular" interior layout that lacked a strong connection to its large rear garden.

Edinburgh-based Pend was tasked with extending the home with a larger kitchen, which was housed in a minimal, contemporary extension that reinstates a connection to this garden through a full-height, glazed corner and sliding doors.

Taking cues from the existing home's pink-painted frontage, as well as the reddish tones of the East Lothian sandstone used for its rear elevation, the studio finished the extension with blush-toned precast stone and details in red metalwork.

"We were conscious of the various historic additions that the property had undergone since its conception, and we were keen to use this new extension to stabilise the visual appearance of the rear elevation," Ben McFarlane, associate at Pend, told Dezeen.

"Whilst the materiality of the extension took inspiration from the existing house, the form was more suggestive of the walled garden."

"A low, linear extension with a strong horizontal datum reflected the perimeter walls and allowed the kitchen extension to sit comfortably as a transitional space which belonged both to the house and to the garden," he added.

Moving the kitchen from a previously dark area in the centre of the home into the new skylit extension allowed for the interiors to be reconfigured into three main sections.

In the centre of the plan, the living room, dining room and kitchen now form an axis that visually and spatially connect the front and rear of the home, where this route opens onto a garden patio.

To the east, service spaces including a laundry and utility sit alongside a separate annexe, which the clients use as a holiday rental. To the west are the home's more private spaces, such as a formal drawing room and bedrooms.

Continuing the building's history of additions over the years, McFarlane describes the rear extension as "something contextually sympathetic yet distinctive." The studio topped it with a concrete fascia coloured to match the mortar of the existing walls.

In a new seating nook tucked alongside the kitchen, the exposed sandstone walls of the home are framed by a corner of full-height glazing and a thin, red-painted steel column.

"We took time to study the property and were inspired by the different forms of masonry which were present," McFarlane said.

"Local red-coloured sandstone had been used in various bonds and with differing finishes, each reflecting the skills and technologies available at the time of their construction and together creating a materially-rich patchwork to the garden," he added.

Based in Leith, Edinburgh, Pend was founded in 2021 by Jamie Anderson with a focus on residential projects.

Elsewhere in Scotland, architecture studio Loader Monteith recently renovated an 18th-century cottage in Perthshire to be a "safe haven" for a resident living with Alzheimer's disease, and Archer + Braun added a "modernist extension" to a listed home in Edinburgh.

The photography is by Lorenzo Zandri.

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