Darren has been invited to take part in the RIBA Hampshire 2026 Lecture ‘Lightning Talks’ alongside five other Hampshire based practices. During the event, each speaker will be giving a short and concise talk explaining how small moves have generated big impact in their projects.
Alongside Darren will be architects from;
Anthony Munden Architects
Hamilton Architects
Keith Evans Architects
Deniz Beck Architects
Giles Architects
You can book your ticket by visiting eventbrite site here.
In this months roundup, we’re pleased to share highlights from Darren’s recent talk at the RIBA conference, the opening of our Winchester art installation, and the exciting news of our award win for Brockenhurst House.
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Darren was invited to present at this years RIBA Guerrilla Tactics conference themed “The DNA of Practice: Shaping Identity Beyond the Portfolio,” explored what defines a practice’s true identity beyond its built work.
His talk was titled, “Making Meaning: Communicating Practice Values with Clarity and Confidence”, reflecting on his own experiences as founder of Studio BAD nearly seven years ago, and the importance of establishing and staying true to a set of guiding principles that underpin every aspect of our work. You can read more about the event here.
We are absolutely thrilled to have won the ‘Best Architect for an Extension Project’ at this year’s Build It Awards for our Brockenhurst House project. The design has taken a tired 1970’s chalet home set within the New Forest National Park, and transformed it into a stunning, contemporary home to perfectly suit the clients’ needs.
The brief had been to extend and reimagine the property, to deliver a low energy home that could support the owners evolving needs, while remaining true to principles of beauty, sustainability, and architectural integrity, elevating everyday living while responding to change. You can read more details about the project here.
We were delighted to attend the official opening of Allegra Ambition Installation this month, a project that delivers a free-to-use outdoor fitness space and sculptural seating area beside the Winchester Sports Centre at Garrison Ground, Hampshire. Our design was selected as the winner of the public art competition for the charity, Allegra’s Ambition.
Lucy Whittome, Trustee of Allegra’s Ambition, stated about the design:
“We have tried to create something truly special here. It is a place that welcomes people and children of all ages to gather, sit, play, and exercise, with a focus on calisthenics.”
It was great to see such positive progress at The Granary, our heritage project in the New Forest National Park. The project is so close to completion, we cannot wait to share some professional photos with you soon.
The project has thoughtfully designed a scheme which converts and infills an existing open carport space on the ground floor aspect of the building, providing an additional bedroom on the first floor and extending the living accommodation on the ground floor.
Although The Granary is not a listed building independently, it sits within a curtilage of a listed building, and is of heritage interest due to it being well-preserved example of common agricultural architecture from the period. Due to this this unique heritage of the building, we approached the design sensitively, in order to retain the character of the ancillary buildings, both in terms of individual value and the setting of the listed building.
The construction of Courtyard House has come on impressively since we were last onsite to visit. In the past three weeks the house build has progressed from just the finished concrete slab, to now having all the external and internal walls in place, and with most of the roof installed.
The house is being built using Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) a high performing composite building system which can be used as an alternative to traditional building methods. One of the key benefits of using this system is the speed of construction onsite, as they are made offsite to exact measurements, which means the time needed onsite is vastly reduced, on average down by 55% from traditional construction methods.
You can really start to see our initial concept designs starting to take shape on site, check out the comparision photos and you can find more project details here.
We are absolutely delighted to have secured full planning permission for our Coxford Road housing development, which was approved unanimously at planning committee.
The scheme will transform the existing brownfield site, to deliver much needed city centre housing for the Maybush district of Southampton. The development will deliver 15 high-quality apartments (comprising of two bedroom and one-bedroom units) arranged around a south facing communal courtyard, designed to foster a sense of community and maximise natural light.
Read more about the project here.
This month has seen the construction start in earnest on our Regency Villa project, located in central Southampton, Hampshire. At this early stage, the focus is on carefully stripping back the modern alterations; carefully removing incongruous additions, taking internal stud partitions out, and clearing out the poorly built extension, to reveal the bones of the original period property.
This four-storey listed townhouse, originally built circa 1835, has lost much of its former grandeur over the years, something we are aiming to restore through this deep renovation and reimagining. Most recently, the property had been converted into a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO), which obscured much of the original character and has compromised the proportions of its rooms.
We’re thoroughly enjoying site visits at this point in the project. It’s exciting to see what the talented team at Tuakana is uncovering, such as original floorboards that had been covered over, and concealed, fireplaces. With the modern partitions removed, we can now fully appreciate the true dimensions of each room. Standing in these newly opened spaces and witnessing the natural light interact with the architecture is genuinely inspiring.
Our design vision is to return the house to a single-family dwelling, one that celebrates its period features while introducing a contemporary glass extension to the rear. The result will be a comfortable, elegant home that brings together the history of the home with the comforts of modern living.
Get in touch if you have a project you would like to discuss with the design team.