A Veranda Glass Room With a Floating Roof

The client wanted a seamless transition between their traditional stone house and the garden, without the new structure detracting from the old one. That set the whole approach: the smallest structural footprint we could engineer, and frameless glass that leaves the original stone visible from both inside and out.

Anchoring to historic masonry needed care. A specialised structural wall profile fixes the roof frame into the mortar courses rather than the stone blocks themselves, with weather-proof structural silicone closing the gap between straight aluminium and an irregular stone face. Frameless multi-track sliding doors with slimline interlocks form the walls, floor tracks are recessed flush into the substructure so there is no trip threshold, and marble paving runs straight out from the room into the terrace. Rainwater is collected inside the front support pillars, so there are no external downpipes to break the lines.

The lighting was designed into the structure rather than added to it. Roof spars were precision-milled during fabrication to accept flush-recessed LED channels, cabling runs through the hollow cores of the spars, and high-density strips behind frosted anti-glare diffusers give a continuous wash rather than visible spots. The LEDs are tuneable from warm amber to neutral white to suit the tone of the stone.

Comfort comes from two directions: a low-profile hydronic matrix under the marble, and high-level infrared radiant strips anchored along the rear stone wall. Those, plus the zip-guided fabric blinds in the roof fascia, run from a smart hub controlled by remote or phone.

Everything was pre-assembled, pre-wired and tested off site, which brought the on-site programme down to five working days. In summer the panels stack away and it becomes an open pavilion under a floating roof. In winter they lock shut and it becomes a warm viewing gallery.