St Luke’s submitted for planning

We have recently submitted our plans for St Luke’s Church in for planning. The reimagination plans of the church, is designed to help continue the community support work that the church already undertakes, will add a café and garden.

The Reverend Annie McCabe commented that they plans will ‘improve the visual appeal of the building to be inviting and accessible’. The plans will convert the existing church hall into a café, with a new porch structure added. The existing car park will be redeveloped as a flexible, community garden space.

The designs for the church will help to expand the community outreach projects the church is already involved in. Three years ago, the church launched a shared working space, coffee bar, meeting space with high-speed wifi, this redevelopment scheme looks to continue the positive progression of the work already started.

It was fabulous to see these redevelopment plans featuring in The News, the local newspaper for Portsmouth, with such positive community comments about the scheme. We hope to have a positive response from the council by the end of February 2023.

Marley interview, AJ Award

I was recently interviewed by Marley, the UK’s leading roofing product company, about our success at the Architects Journal Small Project Award which they sponsor. The St Margaret’s Church project won the Sustainability prize at this year’s award, which was a huge honour for the myself and the collaborative team.

The award ties in succinctly with the founding ethos I had when setting up Studio BAD, we are interested in two things, one is social architecture and the social impact of architecture. The other is our passion for the reuse and reimagination of existing buildings. I always had a crazy idea that as architects, we could run sustainable businesses by doing pieces of work that question whether you actually have to build anything at all. The success of St Margaret’s Church has demonstrated that my crazy idea is possible!

At this project we only touched the church lightly, yet have achieved a huge transformation for the building and the community that use it. I think it was brave for AJ to give the award to a project that isn’t glamorous architecture. This award is important for all of the Studio BAD team, and is equally important to our client.

 

The full article can be found here.

Architects Journal Sustainability Webinar

We were delighted to have taken part in the recent webinar with Architects Journal, discussing sustainability in small projects, hosted by their sustainability editor Hattie Hartman. It was a really interesting conversation which looked at the approach to sustainability in two very different projects, if you missed the seminar you can catch up with a recording here.  

We presented and discussed our St Margaret’s Church project, a large community hub redevelopment which won this year’s AJ Small Projects Sustainability Award. We were joined by Summer Islam from Material Cultures, who discussed their small Block House project which focused on experimental materials, and which had also been shortlisted in this year’s sustainability awards.

It is increasingly important to shine a light on projects that lead the way in sustainability, which is something that we all understand to be important within the build industry but unfortunately it is not always imbedded in design. During the seminar we discuss and explore ideas of retrofitting, collaboration and innovative use of materials.

The seminar concluded with some interested questions from the audience, including what the process was for focusing on the heating of the church, why we choose to use concrete within a historic building, how the church is now use by the community and what we would have done differently.

A really interesting conversation you do not want to miss!

Parklets installed in Eastleigh

Last year we worked with Eastleigh Borough Council on a feasibility study of the town centre, the council were looking at ways to invigorate the space through permanent and semi-permanent interventions which have now started to be installed across the town.

One of our key design ideas was the installation of Parklet structures. These modular seating units are designed to soften the retail street, with planting and a place for people to stop and sit. The seating encourages people to dwell and engage with the surroundings, helping to positively support the local retail and restaurant outlets by creating vibrant social gathering points.

The modular units include tiered planting and bench seating, constructed from corten steel with a wooden bench seat. The design is inspired by Eastleigh’s industrial heritage as a train hub, with the modular units taking design cues railway design.

Professional photos will be taken soon, these are quick snaps on my phone – apologise for the quality!

Studio BAD collaboration

A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of working with Katie from KLC Studio to have some professional photos taken of the team in our studio, for an upcoming brochure we are currently working on. Now this might not seem newsworthy to many of you, but a few important things struck me.

Firstly, the simple task of trying to get a date that everyone was available for the photoshoot was impossible! In the end we had to settle on a date when the majority could join us, which really highlighted to me how much the Studio BAD team has grown.

We have come a long way from me working on my own in my home office, and Studio BAD has become far richer from it! I am so proud of the collective of collaborators who are involved with Studio BAD. Every member of our team brings their professional (& personal) expertise, skills and experience to the team, helping to produce interesting ideas and design solutions. As we always shape our team around each project’s needs, we are able to be nimble and flexible to offer the best solutions for our clients, it also ensures that no two project teams are the same and no two projects are the same.

Secondly, we could host the photoshoot in our own studio space! Earlier this year we opened our first Studio BAD studio in central Southampton, which was a huge step for us but has been so rewarding.

We now have the physical space to get together, facilitate workshops and hold design crit, which has been tricky to do in the past when we had to rely on online meetings or hiring space. Having a ‘home’ that reflects the company, where people can find us and drop in is really gratifying and hugely beneficial to the whole team. Whilst I love technology as a way of keeping in touch, nothing quite beats sitting down over a coffee to talk through and solve a tricky design issue.

And finally, the simple fact that we are putting together a brochure for the company is brilliantly amazing to me. Initially we had started looking at putting a simple gatefold leaflet together, but once we started looking at the wide variety of projects that we wanted to include it quickly became obvious that this was not going to work.

The process of putting together the brochure has been another enjoyable collective endeavour. From the consideration over the design, to discussing the projects to include and the conversations over the copy text; we have worked in an open and honest way, to deliver the best outcome (which we hope to be able to publish very soon.)

It is incredible how this simple task has highlighted so much positive change in the company, but I wanted to share this as I know how important it is to occasionally take a moment and appreciate how far we have come.

 

 

 

 

Site progress

It is so rewarding when you head to site and see such progress has been made, at Cullverland Farm and Holly Cottage it was amazing to see how far they have come, the construction team have definitely made the most of the long, dry days to race ahead with the build.

Cullverland Farm, in Berkshire, is now practically completed. Externally all the vertical cladding has been installed which gives the feeling that the build is finished, although there is still more to complete internally and the landscaping needs some attention too! The two storey extension looks fabulous, one of our favorite moments in the building is the private terrace, just off the master bedroom, which offers stunning views out across the surrounding countryside – it is good to see some chairs have already made their way onto it so the owners can already take advantage of the views.

The external work on Holly Cottage is nearing completion, with some work still to be done on the roof and cladding. Despite the work that still needs to be done, you can get a real sense of the contemporary extension which looks amazing and will deliver the much needed space the family need. This project has been slightly delicate onsite, due to the nature of altering a Grade II Listed home set within the South Downs National Park.