Like many projects, this one started with an unloved conservatory - in this case, two rickety and leaky conservatories tacked together to form an alternately hot and freezing annexe at the rear of my clients' period home in the Tranent conservation area. The inhospitable space formed a barrier both between the house and its secluded walled town garden, and between its different parts, separating the existing living room and kitchen and fragmenting family life for my clients and their three growing teenage boys.

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My clients' brief was straightforward: get rid of the conservatory, and replace it with something new to connect the house back together, make the most of the south-facing garden aspect, and give everyone a bit more breathing space. The context was a little more challenging: the site is near-landlocked in the town's historic core, with conservation area status raising the bar for design. A long history of mining in the area meant geotechnical sensitivities including managing risks from mining gases.

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My design adds a new and unmistakably modern element to the surrounding patchwork townscape, with a distinctive metal-clad extension tucked in the 'L' of the existing house, its dark grey colour contrasting smartly with the white harl and red pantiles characteristic of the town's oldest properties. Extensive glazing including bifolding doors allows direct connection to the garden, allowing family life to spill outside, while enlarged openings to the living room and kitchen at each end create a new flow of separate but interlinked living spaces to bring the whole family together with plenty of room for all. Elsewhere in the existing house, a new kitchen and breakfast bar turn the focus towards the new space, while an upgraded utility room and reconfigured pantry help keep on top of family life. As a further bonus, the old dining room has become a larger bedroom for the oldest son, moving him out of the eaves upstairs - more headroom all round, ready for the next stage of family life.