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.

First phase of Gosport complete

Phase One of our Gosport regeneration work has been completed, reimagining and activating the city centre through incremental and meanwhile design solutions. A key aspect of the plan was to install large scale art murals at key points across the town, to highlight and celebrate the heritage of Gosport and injecting bright, bold colours into the street scene.

One key area of town we looked to reactivate was the waterfront area, which hold such potential as a destination for Gosport. We selected a dated, uninspiring public convenience block to be the location for a new piece of public art, celebrating the maritime history. Working with a talented graphic designer, Nathan Evans, we created a unique graphic mural to wrap around the entire structure, visually lifting the dated building and injecting a sense of fun to the street scene. The artwork uses subtle, abstract graphics to commemorate the industrial maritime heritage, using bold blues and aquamarine tones inspired by the sea and air.

Already a local favourite, in a few well considered images this work brilliantly captures the story and rich maritime heritage of Gosport.’ Peter Fellows, Project Manager – Gosport High Street Heritage Action Zone.

Other work completed includes a large, abstract mural installed in the centre of the High Street, designed collaboratively with Amber Ryan coming up with the concept designs and Amanda Moore refining and delivering the project. The vivid design was inspired by the iconic ‘Dazzle’ camouflage used on navy ships during WWI and WWII, the designs consist of a complex patten of geometric shapes in contrasting colours, which have been reinterpreted and applied to a rundown, post war commercial block located at the cross section of the street, visually lifting the appearance of the structure at this main artery of town.

We look forward to seeing the additional aspects of the design come to completion onsite in following months.

Reading School of Architecture, End of Year Show

Reading School of Architecture, End of Year Show

Last week ‘Collaborations’ opened; the Reading School of Architectural at Reading University end of year show for students both in BSc Architecture and the Masters of Architecture course.

The exhibition is really worth a visit and I am enormously proud of the high level of work the students deliver, particularly considering the challenges they have faced over the past few years. The exhibition this year has especially felt like a moment to celebrate, as this was the first physical show we have been able to put on for two years.

For me personally the end of year show is such a rewarding moment, to see how far the students I have taught and mentored have come, and what outstanding work they can create. As I have been teaching at Reading for five years, I have worked with the vast majority of those exhibiting at some stage in their studies. As I have discussed before, in a previously Why Teaching Matters blog post teaching is something that is so important to me and moments like this really do make it all worthwhile.

The exhibition runs until the 18th June, between 10am – 4pm at The Old Library L46, London Road Campus, University of Reading, RG1 5AQ

MESH Energy Panel Discussion

Challenges to retrofitting the UK housing stock

I was invited to join the panel of experts for the recent MESH Energy discussion, looking at the challenges we are all facing when retrofitting the UK housing stock. The aim of the session was to understand how we could adapt the current housing stock in the UK, to tackle the fuel crisis and to reach the critical net-zero targets.

There were some interesting questions, including: What role do you think architects have when it comes to retrofitting the UK housing stock in light of the fuel crisis? Can you explain the difficulties when considering embodied carbon in retrofitting of buildings? We know retrofitting can provide an influx of new jobs, but how can we bridge the skill gap? If you were in change of the political retrofit, what would you priorities?

I was joined by three brilliant experts, each at the forefront of their specific area of the sustainable sector, so it was a great discussion to have with some interesting input from each person.

  • Graham Hendra, an independent heat pump consultant with over a decade in the renewables sector specialising in air to water heat pumps.
  • Jenny Wallace, Operations Director at MESH Energy, with over a decade of practical experience in the energy industry consultancy.
  • Graham Lock, founder of Low Carbon Homes a nationwide independent retrofit network.

The discussion was hosted on MESHWorks, the free community hub that brings together sustainably conscious members across the design, architecture, built environment. If this is an area of interest to you it is well worth looking into, details can be found here. 

MESH Energy are independent building performance consultants who I have had the pleasure of working with them on multiple projects, most recently when looking at sustainable energy solutions for St Margaret’s Church refurbishment. It was a privilege to be asked to be part of this event, as it is such an important topic and so central to Studio BAD’s company ethos of reuse.

The watch can be viewed here. 

RIBA St Margaret’s Church Tour & Talk

RIBA St Margaret’s Church Tour & Talk

Last week we hosted a RIBA talk at St Margaret’s Church, the free event gave anyone, and everyone an opportunity to visit the church and ask the design team questions regarding this brilliant scheme. Luckily someone had the foresight to record our talk and Q&A session, well worth a watch if you were not able to join us.

We were joined by the wonderful Andrew Malbon, a key member of the church team and also a fellow architect. He gives a great introduction to the project, offering an insight into the project from the church perspective – ‘Keep the thing the thing – no matter how gorgeous and lovely the (architecture is), and it is, it is here to support the people who come in the building.’

Andrew was also able to share some figures which highlight the positive impact the scheme has had on the local community. The food bank, for example, fed about 100 people a week throughout the pandemic, totally around 10,000 meals provided which could not have been done without the physical space of the church. The children’s soft play now hosts around 50 children visiting per week (not including those who use it over the weekend during services), it has become a safe and inexpensive space for families (not just from the congregation) to come together and use.

 

From the Q&A session, one question that really stood out for us was:

‘What has come out of this which wasn’t planned – any unintended happy accidents?’

Andrew explains how the project has expanded across the building; people no longer just congregate in the center of the church but have grown into all corners of the building. He explains how at the first wedding in the refurbished church there was an amazing, fluid use of space, which was amazing to see how the church could be utalised in such a way.

Darren explains how this project has taught Studio BAD the importance of starting each project without any preconceived ideas. Since the success of St Margaret’s, they have been asked to recreate the scheme elsewhere, however it is important not to just copy but to see the needs for each community and shape the project that way.

The future of a church is not just about Sunday, it is about community and what the physical building can offer.

 

The talk starts around 4 minutes into the video, Darren comes in around 22 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG07Y9BlReI

 

Site updates

Site updates

Over the last few months there has been a huge progress on site for our two residential projects currently in the construction phase. We haven’t been very vocal about the projects, the process on site is something we are used to and often take for granted, but it is sometimes good to take a moment to pause, and appreciate how far we have come with the schemes.

In Berkshire Cullverland Farm is looking fantastic. The two storey contemporary extension is making great progress, the fitting of the exterior cladding is nearly concluded, totally altering the appearance of the structure and taking the structure from looking very much like ‘work in progress’ and transforming it to look a finished home (although there is still plenty to do!). Once completed the dark, larch cladding will bring the home into dialogue with the rural, agricultural surroundings and help to blend the new addition into the site.

At Holly Cottage, a Grade II Listed home set in the South Downs National Park, the contemporary extension is starting to come out of the ground. Due to the historic nature of this type of building there have been slight complications along the way, which is to be expected when altering old properties and something we had been anticipating to work around.