London studio 6a Architects has renovated a seaside house in Devon, England, transforming its old dark rooms into bright, tactile living spaces.
Coastal House was shortlisted for the RIBA House of the Year award in 2018, after 6a Architects completely transformed its interior.

The project saw the studio completely strip the building bare and entirely redesign its floor plan. The new layout features grand double-height rooms organised around the old chimney stacks.
However externally the building was kept very traditional, in an effort to retain its original form and character. The walls were reclad the house in Cornish slate, and the only hint of change is provided by a new oak veranda.

"Maintaining the character of the relatively modest exterior was an important part of the brief, whilst inside, a complete reconfiguration of the internal volumes," explained the design team. "New timber stairs and balconies wind around the old chimney cores to create double-height rooms and triple-height, top-lit hallways, which afford visual and physical connections between the internal spaces, as well as connections between the interior of the house and the landscape," they added.

The house originally had four chimney cores, but 6a Architects removed one of them. It was this that made it possible to open up the plan.
Another change made by in the renovation was the lowering of the ground floor, which was originally raised on a plinth in the basement.
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