As a recent MacEwean Award Commended project, the RIBA Hampshire Branch have invited us to host a tour of St Margaret’s Church for local members. We are thrilled to have this opportunity, to showcase how we have transformed the once condemned building though a minimal refurbishment and ‘meanwhile approach’, transforming it for the local community.
Do please come and join us, the event is free although we would encourage everyone who can to make a donation to the church’s fund. Pre booking your tickets is essential, get your here.
Date & Time: Tuesday 26th April 2022
1800 – 2000
Location: St Margaret’s Community Church
Highland Road, Southsea, Portsmouth, PO4 9DD
We were delighted to be invited by Reading University Architecture Society to deliver a lecture in their 2022 lecture series titled ” REFORMATION REQUIRES” which we gave last night; after so long presenting lectures across zoom it was a delight to be back talking to a real audience.
For the lecture I focused on our most recent community and public realm work, to highlight how architecture can be a vehicle for positive social change. This is an area which all of us at Studio BAD are really passionate about, in many ways it is a key pillar of the company and the reason I set up the business as I wanted to focus on this area of work.
We strongly believe in re-using what is existing, creatively engaging architecture to re-imagine the potential of a building, or a site, to make it fit the current needs. For example, St Margaret’s Church building had been condemned and likely set for demolition, through our work we have delivered a vibrant space for the whole community which is activated throughout the day and week with much needed services, such as a food bank, café, child’s play area and bicycle workshop. We touched the building lightly, only making physically alterations where vitally needed, such as the flooring where we replaced the wooden floor (which we sold, to help fund the works) and replaced with poured concrete, to work with the newly installed, zoned underfloor heating.
Architecture in the 21st century does not have to be just about a physical building, I believe many projects need architecture in a different which is not necessarily just about the bricks and mortar buildings. We have recently been working on projects that focus on reactivating the traditional high street; with these projects we interrogate how we can change the dynamic of the streets to create vibrant and engaging spaces. In Bedford Place, in Southampton, our project was a result of the community needs in the wake of covid, answering how to activate and reanimate the area to create opportunities off the back of temporary road closures. It has been a real pleasure to see the success of the scheme, now nearly two years later much of the scheme is still in place and the local council are looking to make it permanent. We are currently looking at similar reactivation projects in Gosport, Eastleigh and other areas of Southampton.
We truly believe Architecture can creatively problem solve many of the issues we are currently facing; without ego architecture can be immensely powerful, helping to reactive our cities, reduce waste, reduce carbon and deliver richer, long lasting and interesting projects.
Our St Margaret’s Church re-imagination project has been shortlisted in this year’s RIBA MacEwean Award, we are so thrilled to have this project recognised in such a prestigious award. From the extensive long-list of projects we are so delighted to have been amongst the 12 that have been handpicked to go into the final round of this year’s awards.
The project has been applauded for giving the condemned church a new lease of life, with a focus on supporting the needs of the local community and creating a new focus for the Portsea area of Portsmouth, all achieved on a shoestring budget.
‘It is a real mixed-use community asset for everyone, not just those who happen to be people of faith’
The awards were established to celebrating architecture for common good, where built projects have had a really positive affect on wider society. Named after Anni and Malcolm MacEwen, he was a former editor of the RIBA Journal and she was a successful urban planner who pioneered a conservation- based approach to regeneration in town and country.
The full details of shortlisted projects can be read here here, the winner will be announced next month, fingers crossed!
We have finally submitted planning for the most difficult clients, ourselves! Since moving to our family house on Hill Lane in Southampton, I have been looking at the potential idea of redeveloping the corner of the plot and creating a contemporary ‘Skinny House’.
The site is currently an overgrown patch of scrubland with unsightly garages on it, underused by us and an ideal brownfield redevelopment site. Our proposal provides a three bedroom house with secret roof terrace and courtyard garden, carefully positioned on the site to minimise disruption to adjacent buildings.
Studio B.A.D are passionate about designing sustainable, housing solutions, the redevelopment of city center brownfield sites, like this proposal, feels like a perfect solution to the housing shortage.
We are thrilled to have submitted planning for the Coxford Road housing scheme in Southampton. Working in collaboration with our clients, Darcy Construction, we have delivered a proposal for a much needed major housing scheme for the Maybush district of the city.
Our designs aim high, to deliver quality accommodation for 21st century living. The proposal offers 15 units, comprising of 1 and 2 bedroom apartments, most with dual aspect and a private, south facing balcony. The apartments comprise of two red brick blocks, overlooking a central courtyard for all communal use.
The site is currently occupied by a redundant public house, which has been closed for 15 years and is now a magnet for anti-social behaviour. The redevelopment of this site would improve the local condition, and offer much needed housing in this prime location near the General Hospital.
We were delighted to have worked with the National Centre for Joint International Research of Low Carbon Green Buildings at Chongqing University, one of the leading higher education schools in China. The university gave us a brief to look into a feasibility design for a new ‘Lab House’ for Huzhou, a city located on by Lake Tai (the third largest freshwater lake in China) and just over 90 miles to the west of Shanghai.
The brief was to create a British style contemporary house, that delivers a low carbon sustainable dwelling, responding to the major challenge of our age, the climate change emergency. Each of the design concepts have unique ways in which to meet these criteria.
We presented three initial ideas, taken the traditional idea of a British dwelling and used these as drivers for concepts, putting great importance on the quality of space and light within. The three concepts include a Courtyard House, a Gable House and a Great Hall House. Each design idea delivers a piece of 21st contemporary architecture with British styling, delivered suitable for the existing context.
The designs are fundamentally low energy, low carbon, sustainable solution for the site condition. We have employed fabric first solutions to the designs, including naturally insulating materials, concrete floors to act as a heat sink, height levels of insulation and U values, cross ventilation, solar shading, designed for solar gain and draught lobbies. Adding technology to enhance the design, such as rainwater storage and attenuation, bio mass, ground source heat pump.
The Courtyard; inspired by the classical country house with walled kitchen garden. The home wraps around this internal sheltered courtyard space, offering a source of fresh air to allow for natural cross ventilation, the layout is optimized for shading and solar gains to give passive internal courtyard allows for cross ventilation, a secluded and sheltered courtyard.
The Gable House; taking the architectural lines from English residential architecture with a classic gabled roof. The design idea adds a glazed living space, with ‘slides’ out from the gabled volume. In concept the single storey glazed addition offers spaces for a green roof on top, the gabled roof gives space for maximum insulation levels and
Great Hall House; taking design cues from the large formal stately homes with a generous multi-function hall at the center of the dwelling with all functions branching off. Our concept uses this layout principle, with a large, double height space at the heart of the building which encourages natural ventilation throughout.
