The design for the new workshop and manufacturing facility for AR-18 development aims to enhance the visual and environmental quality of the area while addressing practical concerns related to landscape integration. One of the design objectives is to utilise the gap in the street frontage to create new and longer sightlines from Station Road to the Canal and Bucks Hill beyond. This strategic positioning allows for a visual corridor that enhances the spatial experience for pedestrians and residents. By framing these views, the development connects the urban environment with the natural landscape, fostering a sense of openness and continuity. This visual connection improves the aesthetic quality of the area and promotes a stronger relationship between the built environment and the surrounding natural features.

Acoustic and Visual Attenuation
The new building is designed to serve a dual purpose of providing both visual and acoustic attenuation against the M25 Gade Valley Viaduct. This is achieved through the building’s green roof massing and materiality, selected to absorb noise, thus creating a quieter and more comfortable environment for the residents.

Street Alignment
Maintaining the perpendicularity of the building line with the street scene while stepping back to follow the curve of the road is a critical design objective. This approach ensures that the new development respects the existing urban fabric and aligns with the established pattern of the street. By doing so, the building integrates seamlessly with its context, avoiding any disruptive visual impact. The stepping back of the building line as the road curves provides a dynamic façade, creating a rhythm that enhances the streetscape. This thoughtful alignment not only reinforces the coherence of the urban form but also contributes to the overall aesthetic appeal of the area.

Topographic Integration
Setting the building into the hill to keep it lower than the adjacent houses is a deliberate design strategy aimed at maintaining a harmonious relationship with the surrounding topography. This approach ensures that the new development does not dominate the skyline but instead sits comfortably within the landscape. The inclusion of a planted roof and new screening trees further enhances this integration, ensuring that the predominantly green aspect of the area is preserved. When viewed from the Grand Union Canal towpath towards Longspring Wood and Bedmond, the development maintains a natural, unobtrusive appearance, blending seamlessly with the existing vegetation and topography.

Habitat Preservation
A crucial aspect of the design is the preservation of a twenty-metre deep safeguarded area free from development along the Mill Stream. This buffer zone is intended to enhance the habitat quality of the river’s edge, providing a valuable ecological corridor. By protecting this area from development, the design promotes biodiversity and supports the health of the river ecosystem. This safeguarded zone not only benefits the local wildlife but also enriches the environmental quality for the community, offering opportunities for passive recreation and nature appreciation.

The design for the new development at Station Road is guided by a comprehensive set of objectives that prioritize visual enhancement, noise attenuation, contextual alignment, topographic sensitivity, and habitat preservation. By addressing these key areas, the development aims to create a harmonious and sustainable addition to the urban fabric that respects both the built and natural environments. Through thoughtful design strategies, the project seeks to improve the quality of life for residents and enhance the overall character of the area, ensuring a balanced and integrated approach to urban development

Oxford Canal, Rugby UK, Client: J Marine Ltd

Civil and Structural Engineers: Infrastructure Design Studio

Landscape Architects: Adams Habermehl, Planning Consultant: PJP

Planning Consented 2015- Phase one Complete 2019

Opened in 2019 to a design we developed with the client over a ten year period. The project regenerates a rundown and neglected landscape into a high quality eco-tourism marina set in parkland and natural wildlife habitats. The marina layout takes the form of a ‘clover leaf’ with a small Central Pool at its heart. This Central Pool will act as a formal water piazza for the public buildings and as a focus for the canal entrance to the marina. Three marina pools in natural form provide secure moorings for 550 boats. Approximately half (18ha) of the site is public parkland & wildlife habitats contributing to local biodiversity action plans, amenity for the local community and a setting for the marina. Buildings have been designed to achieve high energy efficiency standards and the use of renewables, such as solar and biomass, combined with ground source heat pumps is anticipated to enable the facility to be operationally carbon neutral. The slender arched bridges around the central pool were designed to reference the nearby Three Junction Bridges and have become a local landmark for canal boaters and ramblers.

The project falls within two planning authorities, Rugby and Daventry and required a full Environmental Impact Assessment. The following two phases are expected to be constructed by 2027.

New boat maintenance facilities for our Dunchurch Pools project. The boatyard and wharf will provide facilities for shotblasting and refinishing of narrowboats.

Skideklsky Building

Brighton College Independent School, East Sussex, UK

Structural Engineer: David Dexter Associates

Services Engineer: Atelier 10

Cost Consultants: Gleeds

RIBA Downland Prize 2012

RIBA South East Client of the Year Award 2012

As the first of nine new buildings proposed on our development masterplan for Brighton College Independent School, the Skidelsky building provides new classrooms, a laboratory and common rooms.

The new building, won in competition, replaced an existing building on the tight site and provides three times the floor area of the previous building.

The school has developed as a series of houses built in different periods and the Skidelsky building draws reference from the characteristics of these houses (pitched roof, chimney) to allow the gradual intensification of the school to remain in context.

The building is made from dark, almost black, bricks in reference to the black flint of the surrounding buildings and is naturally ventilated through large Douglas Fir hinged panelling which characterise the facade. These panels, in conjunction with the chimney on the southern facade, provide light and air and provide balconies on summer days. Large fixed windows take advantage of the views to the school grounds beyond.

Photos Killian O’Sullivan Kirkland Fraser Moor

Denton Island Youth Centre

Sussex Community Development Association (SCDA)

Newhaven, East Sussex

Structural Engineer: HT Partnership

Services Engineer: Crofton Design

Cost Consultant: Faithhorn Farrell Timms

The proposal is for a new detached youth centre and a reorganisation of the external works and entrance to the SCDA premises. The overall concept is to make a new pavilion type building to house the functions and use this new building to improve and consolidate the external courtyard and entrance to the SCDA.

The positioning of the new youth centre aims to create a legible entrance space for the SCDA. It is arranged on the end of the axis to the external courtyard and performs the dual function of providing a ‘gateway’ building and a termination to the axis of the courtyard. In this way it also controls the views from the courtyard space and makes vistas of interest.

The new youth centre will be visible, clear and provide a sense of pride for those using it. The roof is asymmetrical from the approach view, marks the building within the site and provides as a signpost for the SCDA.

The internal layout of the plan allows the building to have a variety of spaces to serve the youth services. A large open plan kitchen and sitting space uses the full height of the pyramidal roof and provides a light and accessible space for group activity. The large sliding windows are arranged to correspond to three distinct external break out spaces, each with its own identity and sense of enclosure. The southern part of the building houses WCs and smaller rooms for meetings and one to one discussion.

Daylighting is key to ensure a comfortable and welcoming atmosphere internally. The views over the car park and industrial buildings is controlled by placement of the garden spaces and the garden fencing forming the perimeter. Natural light is increased through the use of a large centrally placed skylight.

Security is an important factor, the building aims to create a sense of openness whilst also fostering a secure environment. The external spaces have large ‘barn doors’ which hinge open to provide further ways of delineating the external spaces, shading, security and privacy.

The construction cladding is simple timber rectangular sections and the rhythm of the uprights gives the facade a depth and contrast. This construction technique is continued on to the fence surrounding the building giving the building its own context and blurring the lines between internal and external enclosure. The dark stained wood is intended to be a strong background to the planting that is proposed for the garden courtyard spaces.

SCDA works across East Sussex developing community based initiatives aimed at addressing the needs of those most vulnerable in the community ensuring that user and local community involvement to identify gaps in services and development of new projects to meet community needs.

KFM

Chidham, Chichester

Planning Approval granted June 2021

The client’s aim is to provide a range of water sports and related educational activities in a Christian environment. The new facilities aim to; Incorporate the existing facilities, in a more efficient and attractive manner. Provide additional spaces for meeting & accommodation. Look to possible future needs and allow for flexibility to adapt when necessary. Develop a welcome to the site that is clear and inviting. Allow for improved safeguarding of the guests. Use renewable energy sources where possible. Provide a distinctive yet in-keeping elevation appropriate for the AONB. Consider the option of storing powerboats within a structure. Mitigate risk of flooding when it occurs. Allow for improved car parking options.

To maximise that operational space, the new building is located in a corner of the site using the existing footprint and providing the least intrusion on the required open space. The building is two storey and compact in arrangement – formed by two ‘sheds’ linked together which reduces any visual intrusion and ensures that the screening is provided by hedging to the west and north.

The main external walling element will be a dark stained vertical boarding. Windows are kept to a minimum, dark grey powder coated aluminium frames built into the brickwork and timber areas of cladding. Brickwork at low level is dark engineering brick to respond to the flood conditions and to harmonise with the dark grey/ black pallet of materials used on the upper façades and roofing.

The roof overhangs the facade to provide shelter to both the walling and to the areas around the building where the users can shelter from rain. The roof covering will be made from fibre slate to achieve the low pitch of the roof and ensure the weather tightness of the roof in this exposed location. Where required in small areas flashings and rainwater goods will be natural pre-weathered zinc - a more environmentally benign material than lead.

External landscape surfaces will be water permeable stabilised gravel with areas of paving in more highly trafficked zones

Mavis Enderby, Lincolnshire

Community Building

Landscape – The Landscape Agency

As part of a larger development creating a village hall is seen as an opportunity to have a building at the heart of the village and to be the focus for the amenity of the local area.

The hall is situated on a jettied platform on the new landscaped pond. The building is simple, a square in plan and as open and flexible to allow for a wide variety of uses. The building is designed to be made from cross laminated timber from renewable sources and has large glazed openings facing on the pond. The eventual uses of this building can be decided by the local community. It could house a kitchen and servery to allow the building to be used as a cafe and village shop.

The form of the building aims to take on the English vernacular type of the covered market place, a colonnaded space which is typically open with overhanging eaves allowing the space to be used in all weather. The jettied deck can be used for sitting out and community uses. The proposal has a large terrace at first floor level to provide further gathering space and a vantage point to enjoy the amenity of the pond.

2016 Competition entry for Wakeford Hall Ideas Competition that asked the Architectural Association community to contribute to the development of Hooke Park by inviting original design ideas and for housing lectures, studio teaching and research in the woods. Wakeford Hall was to form the core academic and administrative centre for Hooke Park, accommodating new lecture hall, library, and office space. Our proposal looked at a dowel laminated timber (DLT) building of greenwood jettied out to reduce the footprint. The entire structure and fitting out cement free. Screw piles and lime stabilised gravel ring beam.

Phoenix Building, Moray Scotland Project 2013

Environmental Consultant David Strong Consulting

The Findhorn Ecovillage is a synthesis of some of the very best of current thinking on sustainable human settlements. It is a constantly evolving model used as learning environment by a number of university and school groups as well as by professional organisations and municipalities worldwide. Findhorn Ecovillage was designated a UN-Habitat Best Practice.

The foundation asked us to design a building to create the entry to the site and serve as the focal point for the community and contain the village shop, café and post office. Our proposal aimed to recognise the importance of the entry to the ecopark and anchors the end of the ‘Runway’ which is the main artery of the development. The building is square, set on angle to precisely align with South and to push a corner towards the entrance giving welcoming routes to both the east and west.

The project aimed to answer key questions set by the brief;

Can a very simple building give the three key elements required from the project?. An efficient and welcoming shop , and café with views. A beacon marking the entrance to Findhorn

The design focused around designing a very economic plan form and putting the architectural and crafty efforts into making an interesting attractive detailed first floor floating canopy, visible from the road and framing views across the landscape in all directions. The simple lower floor elegantly detailed and extremely efficient for both construction and for the function of the shop. Big shop windows with seasonal displays curated by artists. The roof was intended to be a community build project using local materials and skills. Keeping it flat would make it easier for many more levels of community involvement in the construction- and constructed in smaller units and hoisted into place. From above the roof is green with a sedum and wildflower mix of maintenance free planting, giving back nearly as much green habitat as it takes from the ground. Inside the café dappled light from overhead and long panoramic views give the impression of being under a tree canopy. By night, the canopy hovers like a lantern marking the entrance to Findhorn.

RIBA Competition

Structural Engineer – David Dexter and Associates

Our proposal for the National Wildflower Centre was shortlisted to one of six entries from 144 entries in an open RIBA competition. The design aims to be made from the site itself. The domes are constructed from predominantly site materials to minimise costs and to promote a healthy building which reduces environmental impacts and stimulates the local economy through the self build potential. The design is a series of intersecting domes using unfired clay timbre) vaulting, the forms recall plant forms and natural geometries.

Timbrel vaulting is proposed as an intensive site labour serving as an educational project for training. Localising labour use also has the added benefit of spending a greater amount of the construction budget within the local economy.

On top of the structural surface we propose a super-insulation over a waterproof membrane. The insulation is rendered and finished with a semi-glazed ceramic tile. The tiles themselves are irregular and traditionally fixed (set in grout) This technique provides a cost effective and low technology method of cladding the complex forms.

The ceramic tiling is a craquelature pattern, which does not rely on custom made tiles or shapes and if damaged can be simply repaired by hand. It is extremely hard wearing and attractive, it is also easily repairable by anyone with tiling skills.

A competition entry for Grizdale Arts new garden shed and storage facility. This proposal aimed to follow Venturi’s ‘Duck and Decorated Shed’ text;

The “duck” represents a large part of modernist architecture, which was expressive in form and volume. In contrast, the “decorated shed” relies on imagery and sign. Virtually all architecture before the Modern Movement used decoration to convey meaning, often profound but sometimes simply perfunctory, such as the signage on medieval shop fronts. Only Modernist architecture eschewed such ornament, relying only on corporeal or structural elements to convey meaning. As such, argued the authors, Modern buildings became mute and vacuous, especially when built for corporate or government clients. R. Venturi 1972

This translated into our observation that design is, in our experience, often a struggle between form and expression. Particularly in the case of utilitarian and buildings that need to function. Issues of proportion, scale and aesthetic do not easily overlap with the needs of buildings. The repeated compromises to retain an aesthetic during the process of making an economic, highly functional, building sting. So we proposed a return to the ‘Decorated Shed’ of Venturi’s observation.

Where the functions can function and the aesthetic is simply perfunctory.

1. Make a simple shed to whatever is the best size and height from timber structure insulated if necessary with wool, breather membrane external cladding either locally sourced or timber strip. Foundations on screw piles with an insulated raised timber floor over- Jib doors to suit opening requirements.

2. Construct the non essential items either simultaneously or after as labour and budget allow. This proposal has two thin stairways with lookout points and one or two elaborate doors. These objects may be built with more precision than the shed.

3. Add the stairs and door openings. The stairs function as points to look out over the paddies. The lookout point(s) incorporate some devices for augmenting the views both acoustically and visually (eg kaleidoscopes, telescopes, sound amplifying trumpets. These items can be designed as separate projects that can include the wider arts community.

We didn’t win, but received a very nice note from Adam Sutherland who is director of Grizdale Arts thanking us and gently letting us know that we had overthought it all.

Trenchard Museum, RAF Halton, Wendover , Buckinghamshire

Project 2016

Engineers- David Dexter & Associates

Planning Consultant Richard Turnbull

Feasibility study for an RAF museum in Hertfordshire. The RAF Halton site , which, since WWI, has been the technical training facility for the Royal Air Force. Housing at its peak 2100 personnel from all three armed services, foreign military, contractors and civilians RAF aviation engineers. The site has a grass airfield, used mainly by gliders, light aircraft, microlights and the RAF hot air balloon. The airfield is the home of the Royal Air Force Gliding & Soaring Association, Chilterns Gliding Centre, The Halton Aero Club and the RAF Halton Microlight Club.

The site is in the process of being decommissioned and sold off for a major housing development. We were approached by the Trenchard Museum currently on the site to assist them in making grant bids for the relocation of the museum to the existing RAF chapel and proposing a larger additional space to house their collection of aircraft and mechanical artifacts. The Trenchard collection celebrates the history of RAF Halton, the origins of which go back to 1913 when the Royal Flying Corps were given permission by the then owner Alfred de Rothschild to use his estate at Halton for practicing manoeuvres. There are important exhibits recounting the major contribution of Lord Trenchard to the founding and development of the RAF, some of which were originally housed in a small museum in his name at RAF Upavon. The museum also records the background to apprentice training at the Halton camp through examples of the tools, work and test pieces completed by apprentices, and the exploits of some of those who were trained there. The museum has several complete aircraft, many models of aircraft, a number of aero engines, weapons and other equipment on display. There are a large number of photographs, a mock up of barrack rooms, and the uniforms worn by those stationed at Halton Camp over the years. Aside from artefacts relating to engineering, there is also memorabilia relating to a wide range of other training, including catering, nursing and dentistry.

The proposal extends the existing church to make a new entrance and to provide increased exhibition and workshop space where the volunteers are rebuilding WW1 training planes. The remainder of the existing church is insulated and re-clad to conserve energy use. The new structure is designed with cross laminated and glulam timber structure to provide a sustainable building associate itself with the craft and materials being restored by the aviation engineers within.

WIP

Tring School Masterplan, Hertfordshire

Schools Consultant - SAVIAC

Won in an invited competition we were asked to put together a development programme giving the school an opportunity to expand its range of teaching and improve the thermal and environmental performance of the school campus. The existing school buildings, although beset by many shortcomings, are generally well cared for. However, many areas of the building fabric are at the end of their useful life and there are many parts of the school which suffer from unsuitable teaching and learning spaces, insufficient accommodation, and poor adjacencies. The extent of single storey buildings spread out around the site suggests that these problems could be resolved, the quality of internal and external spaces and school organisation could work better if selected accommodation could be replaced and intensified with new two or three storey buildings on a reduced footprint. This Masterplan provides a planned and phased route to improvement of the whole school environment designed to enhance the delivery of the curriculum, reduce energy and maintenance costs, improve the working environment of pupils and staff and strengthen connections with the local community. Along with the options for improving the buildings on the site the need to improve the quality of the external spaces is incorporated into the individual phased works as an integral aspect of site development. The unplanned narrow routes and disjointed spaces between existing buildings are gradually transformed into a series of courtyards providing a variety of types of informal play and social space, noisy or contemplative, which could be sequentially improved with more fixtures, planting and soft landscape as funds permit. The development masterplan was part of the documentation that won the school’s bid to be part of the Government’s Priority Schools Building Programme. Kirkland Fraser Moor & SAVIAC

Kings College School, Wimbledon

Structure – David Dexter & Associates

As part of an invited competition, we were asked to make proposals for a new teaching block in the school campus. The school, founded in 1829, is on the edge of Wimbledon Common and has a building stock of late Victorian gothic revival buildings. One of the great opportunities with the site is the possibility of reconciling the circulation in the existing adjoining buildings. The existing labs had been developed over several phases resulting in various level changes. We introduced the possibility of a long atrium space connecting the new and old buildings thereby resolving many of the conditions within the existing buildings. We envision lightweight balcony access which would remove the need for the through traffic currently from room to room in the existing labs. The length of the atrium allowed a ramped approach to make the split levels of the existing labs accessible. A platform lift at the intersection of these levels would make the entire wing, including the newer southern end wheelchair accessible. The placing of the main new block along the western side of the campus creates a more collegiate, courtyarded character to the existing external spaces. Kirkland Fraser Moor

Buttermarket

The regeneration of the Buttermarket needs to attempt to reconcile the need for a modern, contemporary attraction with the aesthetic requirements of an historic setting. In this sense the meaning of contemporary can be extended to include aesthetic values which can evoke history yet be contemporary in their technological and material proposals. poorest an entirely new roof which exceeds the scale of the existing roof.

Keeping in mind that nothing is without influence we have adopted a common language of English vaulting and adapted it to local idioms and stylistic grammar. Within this challenge of adapting an architectural vocabulary of the past we aim to give it a constructional feasibility and a precise organisational credibility. The vaults are set to be high and airy, the antithesis of the existing arrangement. The spans are kept small to allow the tracery of the vaulting to be constructed entirely of timber and to add to the sense of scale of the roof. The slender columns which line the space give scale to the floor and begin to define zones where the market stalls can be arranged and rearranged. By continuing the column elements through the space the scale of the roof becomes tangible. The roof also become tactile as the same material in the lofty heights of the structure arrives down to the floor in the form of slender fluted columns.

On either side of the main circulation the wooden columns rise to the ceiling while the bracing between them is built into the curved vaulting at a smaller scale. This system becomes an 'operative opposite' which is inspired by masonry flying buttresses. The arches work in tension and compression binding the structure together balancing the outward thrust of the walls. The high vault leads the eye up to a mass of intermingling tracery like a canopy of trees.

The mercantile basis of the Buttermarket becomes translated onto layered motifs to give a tactile beauty. The techniques to create the meaningful complexity are contemporary techniques of computer controlled.  These techniques allow economical manufacturing and an adaptable surface which can be designed to create shifting patterns of light and shadow which overlay an asymmetry to the space.

A Covered Street

Confusing circulation can drastically alter the perception of spice and the value of the floor area.

We propose a simple rationalisation of the Buttermarket which converts the space into a piece of the street pattern of the town. The arrangement has one aisle of circulation (largely centrally placed) and deep stalls are placed either side facing this central street. In this way the building forms an important cut through between the main square and Maylord Street, increasing footfall and offering a new arcade to shop in shelter.

The majority of the stalls spaces are arranged on the ground foor. The basement is refurbished, but not extended as the costs of excavationand disruption are not considered viable against the benefit of having additional space below ground. A mezzanine level can be introduced which increase the over-all public space in the Buttennarket, The uses on the mezzanine can be cafes bars and restaurants, linked to the activity in the retail stalls below. Offices and service spaces are kept in the Guildhall building with the floors being opened up to give efficient open plan space and increase the usability. of the floors. The public and staff vertical circulation within the space is arranged onto the face of the Guildhall building in a grand stair.

The clock newer frontage to the main square is untouched with the exception of a new set of timber doors and timber arch lining the entrance. To Maylord Steet the new high arched vaulting is visible above the existing parapet level. This elevates the appearance of the Buttermarket within the town and announces the activities to Maylord Street and Widemarch Street.

2012 Sculpture Proposal for RAF Halton, Hertfordshire

Lifebelt Project, Dacorum, Hertfordshire 2011

The most sustainable cultures are those that are most primitive. It is modern global culture that consumes and damages most. Sustainable cultures are local cultures that have little dependency on the environment outside their own territory.

Lifebelt is a research project intended to review and adapt our approach to a number of aspects of modern life. Our towns and cities in the UK are surrounded by land which as been designated as greenbelt. The purpose of the greenbelt is to protect over-expansion and to maintain the amenity of accessible countryside.

The land is, on the whole, under used and almost always undervalued.

Lifebelt proposes an alternative strategy. Food and water, energy, transport and waste can all be handled locally. By adapting the greenbelt to deal with the inputs and outputs of towns the benefits are exponential. Such a strategy has a profoundly positive impact upon local economics and social well being. The same issues which work to escalate consumption can be employed in the favour of local systems.

Reduced food miles means, local employment, less packaging, less waste, reduced transport emissions, less traffic, clearer roads etc.

Lifebelt research will aim to propose real viable strategies for adapting small and medium sized towns towards self-sufficiency in both goods and services and food, energy and waste.