It is arranged with a series of stores and supporting spaces clothing the existing WC and kitchen counter, separating them off from the main office volumes in white-painted studwork into which a shape has been intuitively cut to reveal the otherwise hidden studs within. This shape has become an emblematic form, a form that is the semiotic extension of our work and practice, the icon of personality we feel ourselves to be.

This contrasts with the bright yellow floor, edged in dark green, that brings positive vibes and vitality to all that use the space, setting a tone of happy endeavour to any creative venture that uses it.

To date, we have a number of small architectural practices working from here alongside an ESG consultancy and a project management company.

After a careful reading of this context, it became a process of ‘restitching’ the terrace together, completing the line of buildings with a nod to the imagined original intention of the Victorian builders. Internally, we developed the spatial programme with a communal ground floor with a bed and bath per floor above, the stairs pulled to the street-side to create both a buffer and allow us to position the main window between floor plates. On each floor we followed a similar pattern of stairs with bathroom accessed off the landing, towards a constriction of storage/ ancillary spaces in the middle of the plan giving way to the habitable living/bed space to the quieter rear.

The house is presently for sale.

Our response was to re-centre the enlarged kitchen more centrally on the ground plan, reduce circulation space, open up the stairwell to allow light in from the second floor, replacing the steep stairs and creating more points of egress from the main rooms to the west. To mediate this passage, we proposed a wraparound open veranda of green oak frame and metal corrugate – reminiscent of farm building utility – to create a supporting liminal space and flow to the building’s function.

Central to the client’s brief was an increase in the numbers it could sleep, in addition to making all bedrooms ensuite, which required an extensive internal refurbishment alongside two new extensions. The main new addition between the two existing buildings offers two new bedrooms alongside a shower room with the small extension to the north acting as a visual totem of the entrance with a bathroom above a hall. Both extensions were designed to be mono-pitched ‘wings’ off the main house, though this was revised to make the smaller of the two more in keeping with the veranda.

Our design for all new construction was founded on the need to use as much local wood as possible, enabling a more pleasant internal environment (in it being more breatherable) as well as have lower embodied carbon in order that we might achieve our Architect’s Declare pledge. We enabled this by employing a wood-fibre insulated stud, clad in oak shingles with a lime finished surface internally.

Currently going through tender, we aim to start on site by December 2023.

Our response was to create a new ‘backbone’ of access that brought visitors straight from the main entrance heading west, towards the garden, where the view down the Glaven Valley and the expansive Norfolk sun were best seen. This connects north in a straight line, through wide doorways to the stables. This proposed recentring the kitchen in the heart of the main house with a generous new curved- roof pavillion extension, and readdressed the utility spaces from the back door, unifying the disparate lean-tos created a more harmonious facade as you approach down the driveway, as well as making a lovely annex to the north. Presently on site, it is due to complete in January 2024.

Architecturally, we made a difference between the proposed extension facing east (Utility) being more aligned with working farm processes, and the west (Kitchen and Stables), which were inherently more familial and private.

In this way, while the former had a robust timber/ brick/flint treatment, the latter used a rich patinated copper-clad roof on timber columns with large sliding windows.

Channeling the artist and musician John Cage, choreographing stochastic sound and moving-image, visitors will be welcomed into a rumble with a ‘Site Briefing’ wall and a ‘Site Safety’ video. With optional ear defenders, visitors will sneak through a sand-bag and mesh covered scaffold wall to a quartet of cement mixers exuberantly performing in the RIBA Gallery. Through timed self-turning mixers, percussive aggregate of different grades and noise cloaks, visitors will witness an abstract city in motion at the epicentre of architectural debate. Through an intentional high contrast black and white material finish, informal arrangement of mixers and pink site lighting, each part of the exhibition space will be visually arresting to atmospherically enhance the next.

Mindful to sensory and cognitive impairment, and inclusive design requirements, the ‘Site Briefing’ wall will graphically and linguistically connect to the bold legibility of building site instructions. Meanwhile the ‘Site Safety’ video will be a specially produced short documentary charting the many building works in a short walking radius from 66 Portland Place to contextualise the exhibition.

Through the ‘curtain’ to inside, four cement mixers will be strategically illuminated and safety covered at their openings to encourage time-lapse photography prompting a consciousness to the here and now. It is also envisioned alongside the exhibition, there will be a range of programmed events including improvisational dance, jazz night and ‘an evening with aggregate’ with experts and enthusiasts speaking about building waste. Combined, the moments of silence when the machines intermittently stop turning, will be when the visitor becomes fully aware of the absence of power. Here time will become profound. The project has been intentionally designed to use prefabricated and reusable components, enabling easy assembly, take down and recycling.

Done in close collaboration with Retrouvius Design, the project aimed to make a home, exhibition space, store and general rallying-point for the Retrouvius family. In this, the school – the lesser of the two volumes and in the better condition – formed a more private home, forming phase 1, and the grander-spaced church, a more public-facing space.

We successfully delivered phase 1 and tendered phase 2 before stepping back from the project.

Our involvement was from stage 1 to 3, arranging the plans, designing building control compliance, material / spatial palette, and developing the key unit layouts. We then handed this to the design and build contractor, Oktra.

It is arranged with a series of stores and supporting spaces clothing the existing WC and kitchen counter, separating them off from the main office volumes in white-painted studwork into which a shape has been intuitively cut to reveal the otherwise hidden studs within. This shape has become an emblematic form, a form that is the semiotic extension of our work and practice, the icon of personality we feel ourselves to be.

This contrasts with the bright yellow floor, edged in dark green, that brings positive vibes and vitality to all that use the space, setting a tone of happy endeavour to any creative venture that uses it.

To date, we have a number of small architectural practices working from here alongside an ESG consultancy and a project management company.

After a careful reading of this context, it became a process of ‘restitching’ the terrace together, completing the line of buildings with a nod to the imagined original intention of the Victorian builders. Internally, we developed the spatial programme with a communal ground floor with a bed and bath per floor above, the stairs pulled to the street-side to create both a buffer and allow us to position the main window between floor plates. On each floor we followed a similar pattern of stairs with bathroom accessed off the landing, towards a constriction of storage/ ancillary spaces in the middle of the plan giving way to the habitable living/bed space to the quieter rear.

The house is presently for sale.

Our response was to re-centre the enlarged kitchen more centrally on the ground plan, reduce circulation space, open up the stairwell to allow light in from the second floor, replacing the steep stairs and creating more points of egress from the main rooms to the west. To mediate this passage, we proposed a wraparound open veranda of green oak frame and metal corrugate – reminiscent of farm building utility – to create a supporting liminal space and flow to the building’s function.

Central to the client’s brief was an increase in the numbers it could sleep, in addition to making all bedrooms ensuite, which required an extensive internal refurbishment alongside two new extensions. The main new addition between the two existing buildings offers two new bedrooms alongside a shower room with the small extension to the north acting as a visual totem of the entrance with a bathroom above a hall. Both extensions were designed to be mono-pitched ‘wings’ off the main house, though this was revised to make the smaller of the two more in keeping with the veranda.

Our design for all new construction was founded on the need to use as much local wood as possible, enabling a more pleasant internal environment (in it being more breatherable) as well as have lower embodied carbon in order that we might achieve our Architect’s Declare pledge. We enabled this by employing a wood-fibre insulated stud, clad in oak shingles with a lime finished surface internally.

Currently going through tender, we aim to start on site by December 2023.

Our response was to create a new ‘backbone’ of access that brought visitors straight from the main entrance heading west, towards the garden, where the view down the Glaven Valley and the expansive Norfolk sun were best seen. This connects north in a straight line, through wide doorways to the stables. This proposed recentring the kitchen in the heart of the main house with a generous new curved- roof pavillion extension, and readdressed the utility spaces from the back door, unifying the disparate lean-tos created a more harmonious facade as you approach down the driveway, as well as making a lovely annex to the north. Presently on site, it is due to complete in January 2024.

Architecturally, we made a difference between the proposed extension facing east (Utility) being more aligned with working farm processes, and the west (Kitchen and Stables), which were inherently more familial and private.

In this way, while the former had a robust timber/ brick/flint treatment, the latter used a rich patinated copper-clad roof on timber columns with large sliding windows.

Channeling the artist and musician John Cage, choreographing stochastic sound and moving-image, visitors will be welcomed into a rumble with a ‘Site Briefing’ wall and a ‘Site Safety’ video. With optional ear defenders, visitors will sneak through a sand-bag and mesh covered scaffold wall to a quartet of cement mixers exuberantly performing in the RIBA Gallery. Through timed self-turning mixers, percussive aggregate of different grades and noise cloaks, visitors will witness an abstract city in motion at the epicentre of architectural debate. Through an intentional high contrast black and white material finish, informal arrangement of mixers and pink site lighting, each part of the exhibition space will be visually arresting to atmospherically enhance the next.

Mindful to sensory and cognitive impairment, and inclusive design requirements, the ‘Site Briefing’ wall will graphically and linguistically connect to the bold legibility of building site instructions. Meanwhile the ‘Site Safety’ video will be a specially produced short documentary charting the many building works in a short walking radius from 66 Portland Place to contextualise the exhibition.

Through the ‘curtain’ to inside, four cement mixers will be strategically illuminated and safety covered at their openings to encourage time-lapse photography prompting a consciousness to the here and now. It is also envisioned alongside the exhibition, there will be a range of programmed events including improvisational dance, jazz night and ‘an evening with aggregate’ with experts and enthusiasts speaking about building waste. Combined, the moments of silence when the machines intermittently stop turning, will be when the visitor becomes fully aware of the absence of power. Here time will become profound. The project has been intentionally designed to use prefabricated and reusable components, enabling easy assembly, take down and recycling.

Done in close collaboration with Retrouvius Design, the project aimed to make a home, exhibition space, store and general rallying-point for the Retrouvius family. In this, the school – the lesser of the two volumes and in the better condition – formed a more private home, forming phase 1, and the grander-spaced church, a more public-facing space.

We successfully delivered phase 1 and tendered phase 2 before stepping back from the project.

Our involvement was from stage 1 to 3, arranging the plans, designing building control compliance, material / spatial palette, and developing the key unit layouts. We then handed this to the design and build contractor, Oktra.