Georgian contemporary

LISTEN HERE 🔊 A practice’s debut new build scheme is a luxury house that tackled a sloping site and planning objections, with a sensitive blend of Georgian and slick modern architecture in north west London. James Parker reports Sitting among... View Article

Passive learnings

Natural materials have been carefully transplanted by Architype into London’s leafy suburbia to create the UK’s largest school designed to Passivhaus specifications to date. Sébastien Reed reports With state secondary schools in the London Borough of Sutton (LBS) experiencing an... View Article

A timber oasis

Sheppard Robson’s timber pavilion created in Manchester’s Spinningfields commercial district offers a contrasting distraction, with an exposed frame and richly textured elevations harking back to colonial buildings. James Parker reports Spinningfields is Manchester’s biggest commercial district, home to a clutch... View Article

Escaping the pastiche

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Wimshurst Pelleriti, the architects behind a renovation and extension of a historic office building in London, explain how the practice pushed for a modern addition, rather than a proposed ‘pastiche’. Jack Wooler speaks to Leo Pelleriti In... View Article

Origami House

Eve Dennehy of Structur Communications explores Origami House, a one bedroom garden building at a family home in West London that features complex geometry in its folded plate ‘origami’ style roof. Over the past ten years the average age of... View Article

Revamp, don’t replace

Lindsay Appleton of William Smith Group looks at how vinyl wrapping can enhance interior designs using architectural finishes, as part of the trend to reuse and recover furniture on sustainability grounds, rather than rip out and replace The trend for... View Article

Climate control

A new Canadian engineering faculty building will research and develop solutions for clean power innovation, as part of the Government’s response to climate change. ADF’s Sébastien Reed speaks to its architect Venelin Kokalov about a project that uses glazing to... View Article

Reclaiming control

Rob Lea had always wanted to design and build his own home, and convert an old barn, so when the opportunity came to do both – using reclaimed materials – he jumped at the chance TEXT Roseanne Field IMAGES Rob... View Article

Skellefteå Cultural Centre Q+A | White Arkitekten

ADF speaks with Robert Schmitz of White Arkitekten on the practice’s Skellefteå Cultural Centre project Context 1. How did you first get involved in the work on Skellefteå Cultural Centre? “It was an open international competition announced by the municipality... View Article

Buying into the concept

Wanting to be part of the self-build hotspot that is Graven Hill, Dheeraj and Taniya Malik found a building system that they liked so much, they set up a business based around it TEXT Jess Unwin IMAGES Jess Unwin &... View Article

Playful participation

LISTEN HERE In designing a riverside replacement for Chelmsford’s main swimming pool and gym, Pick Everard followed a brief to increase local community participation. James Parker reports In 2014, Chelmsford City Council undertook a condition survey on the only sports... View Article

A HAPPI medium

LISTEN HERE Linden Court is PRP’s response to the Greater London Authority’s call for exemplar housing designed for retirement living. Project architect Mark Walker spoke to Sébastien Reed about how the HAPPI standard was key to the project’s success The Office... View Article

Daring to be different

Ex-headteacher Joan Morters opted for a timber-built passive house system and a roof shaped like butterfly wings for her retirement home TEXT JESS UNWIN IMAGES JESS UNWIN & JOAN MORTERS Former teacher Joan Morters’ self-build story is an inspiring lesson... View Article

Recycled retreat

Almost everything was recycled or reinvented in Sally and John Medforth’s rural retreat TEXT Heather Dixon   IMAGES Dave Burton When Sally and John Medforth bought a hillside farm in Yorkshire it came with a series of dilapidated 18th century... View Article

A family affair

Many parents would feel sceptical about letting their child design their future home. But for one couple in Liverpool, handing over the reins to their daughter turned out to be the best decision they made TEXT ANNA REYNOLDS IMAGES FAMILY’S... View Article

The whole nine yards

A development of nine contemporary homes near Gosport, Hampshire, have been arranged around a historic military facility to offer expansive bay views. Jack Wooler visited this meticulously-designed scheme Approaching these striking new buildings from a distance, David Craddock, director at... View Article

A showcase of innovation

James Parker reports on the design development of a major new teaching and research facility for Manchester which puts cutting-edge engineering on show in new ways, and connects the city’s industrial past with its future The Manchester Engineering Campus (MECD),... View Article

Bold as brass

Listen here. The project architect in charge of a new architecturally adventurous flagship retail store in the German city of Wuppertal explains to Jack Wooler how the practice went about revitalising a large brownfield site, and created a unique retail... View Article

Two views of the river

Listen here. A new pier has opened for the Thames’ main river taxi which provides new public space as well as vital transport infrastructure, in a design which divides the structure into two to make the most of its location.... View Article

The fruits of determination

Listen here Nothing was going to stop resourceful self-builder Gill MacLeod achieving the house of her dreams, a major renovation in rural Scotland TEXT JAYNE DOWLE IMAGES EMMA GRAY Clambering around a delivery depot in a hi-vis vest and hard... View Article