Historic home or eco home?
Historic home or an eco home? You don’t have to choose! Many people put up with a draughty old home, the compensation being lots of beauty and character. But you can have an eco-historic home. Apart from anything else, re-use and refurbishment is about as eco as you can get, you are not adding carbon […]
How to Reduce Your Energy Bills
How a Holistic Services Strategy can Reduce your Energy Bills Last year, at the AECB* conference, we met Atamate, some pioneering services engineers. They have managed to achieve Passivhaus levels of energy use in buildings only fitted with building regulations levels of insulation. They have done this by using controllable, instant heating solutions, combined with […]
Garden Landscaping
YOUR GARDEN LANDSCAPING PRIORITIES When planning a garden landscaping project, there are lots of things to consider. These can seem quite daunting, but if you start with your priorities and the constraints of your plot, many of these decisions will be made for you. Decide what you want Make a list of all the things […]
Timescales for your home project
Timescales for your home project Good quality design takes time We are often asked how long a project might take to get to the build stage. Here are some example timescales for your home project in the chart below. These show expected timelines for different types of project, whether an eco-home, a barn or an […]
What is a Design Code for Self-Build Plots?
What is a design code for self-build plots? In a nutshell, a design code for self-build plots is a set of design guidelines. Gravenhill in Bicester, Oxfordshire, is a good example of a self-build site that has used a design code. See their design code here. These design guidelines contain information on: building heights […]
Eco home improvements (without building)
Below we have listed various eco home improvements. These are all actions you could take if you are not planning any building work right now. They also include actions that would suit a heritage home. If you are planning building work, these options will still apply to you. But you also have some extra possibilities […]
Eco upgrades to your home (as part of building work)
Eco upgrades to your home. How to improve your home both in terms of well-being and energy efficiency (without paying through the nose!) We can ensure that any eco upgrades to your home will be in proportion to other works you would like. Essentially, making you eco by default! Below we have listed various […]
How to be an architect and still have a life
A short blog from Clare Nash about why we work differently from other architectural practices. When I mention the title of this piece, ‘how to be an architect and still have a life’, it often brings a chuckle. Yet it is exactly on this basis that I set up my own firm and it is […]
Space-saving and peacemaking!
You might know a bit about what an architect does, but what many people don’t know is that architects solve relationship disputes! The situation is all too familiar: People are fed up with too little space, they are fed up with a dark room, they are fed up with tripping over umpteen things on […]
Pastiche Free Zone
Contemporary Vernacular Architecture should never be about ‘Pastiche’, here’s why… There is much stigma around the term, but what exactly does ‘Pastiche’ mean? To put it simply, pastiche in Architecture refers to the imitation of style or character of other buildings. The term is not negative however it often has negative connotations, with the belief […]
