Phase 01 Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, has received a RIBA Awards for International Excellence 2018. The project, on which A-Zero worked with lead architect O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects on the environmental design was described as ‘an exceptionally fine urban campus with few compromises providing a wonderful stage for the university and the city’

https://www.architecture.com/awards-and-competitions-landing-page/awards/riba-international-prize/2018/central-european-university-phase-1

Image  : © Tamás Bujnovszky

Construction starts this week on this new build end of terrace house in Camberwell. The design reference from the adjacent buildings in terms of materiality, reusing the dog tooth brick detail in a new way to create a new elevation to the adjacent park.

Some early renders of a new development in Rotherhithe we have been working on this week. The area is adjacent to London’s Docks, where London’s timber trade was based. Not much of that legacy remains, so our scheme draws reference to industrial materials of that time on this prominent park facing site.

Our Middle Room Project is listed within this year’s ‘Don’t Move Improve’ publication…

Phillip with the team at BBC Construction on our Streatham development of five residential units. The existing building has been fully reconfigured and extended to provide a range of unit types, using the many level changes of the original building to achieve spatial interest within the units. More photos to follow when we get there…

Lots of model making in the studio this week on our Quarry House. Built within an old quarry, the design will achieve Passive House standards, and incorporate a palette of materials ranging from  glulam timber, zinc cladding and cotswald stone walls.

The Tata steel roof is on for our scissor truss barn in Surrey. Very impressed with this product – only two days to install the whole thing, and looking very crisp.

All the trusses are in, and walls are going up on our Surrey Scissor Truss farm…starting to look like a building….

Giles spoke this week as a part of the National Energy Programme-II SYMPOSIUM 25-26 October 2017 in the University of Westminster – ‘Innovative Sustainable Building Design & Energy Efficient Technologies – https://www.westminster.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2017/westminster-architecture-department-hosts-national-sustainable-building-design-symposium

Giles will be lecturing in University of Bath next week on the subject of ‘Invisible Performance’ : “Environmental Performance should not dictate architectural aesthetic. Sustainability should not impede creative thinking’

dezeen has featured the Central European University campus redevelopment in Budapest, Hungary, in which we were environmental consultants to O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects. The article talks about how the project links old and new by making connections between existing courtyards, removing existing inefficient buildings and designing new buildings around a series of courts.

https://www.dezeen.com/2017/08/11/odonnell-tuomey-central-european-university-budapest-renovation-surgical-strategy-architecture/

We have been granted planning permission for a new build house in the middle of the Grosvenor Terrace conservation area, on a site adjacent to a public park, created as a result of a World War II bomb. The end of terrace site has a prominent position relative to the historic terrace. We have developed the facades in close reference to the existing listed buildings, configuring existing elements in a new way. The aim is that the finished house should look strangely familiar – as though it is new but was somehow always there….

Very excited to see several years of hard work finally unveiled with the removal of the scaffolding at our project of three houses and a nursery at Elephant & Castle. The internal fit out is on-going, but we are almost there with the externals…

Great to hear that the Central European University campus redevelopment in Budapest, Hungary, in which we were involved with O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects was selected for this year’s Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland Best International Project.

Our competition submission for the AJ ‘House of Colour’ competition for an innovative, colourful playhouse for children.

“THE SUN HAS GOT HIS HAT ON
HIP HIP HIP HURRAY
THE SUN HAS GOT HIS HAT ON
AND WE’RE GOING OUT TO PLAY…”

Colour in the morning is not the same as colour in the evening. The sun moves, light shifts, colours change. Our proposal responds to this change with a play structure that orients itself to two directions.

Two interconnected play spaces face east and west. A diagonal wall between each is perforated with differently sized openings, some big, some small – lots of opportunities to run between, play hide-and-go-seek, hangout. Morning sunlight reflects from a series of multi-coloured panels onto the diagonal wall clad with Hardie Panel, and again in the evening, creating a play of reflections and shadows through the day.

We have worked with Ceramic Artist Ingrid Saag, to create a series of art pieces within this central wall, providing coloured openings from one side to the other. Colours range from vivid to earthy, energising to relaxing, and provide an idiosyncratic, inspiring palette for two different worlds – one morning, one evening.

Almost finished on our project in Wandsworth – two houses, one old, one new. The new house fits on a rather awkward site, and inherits this site geometry into the plan. Built of recycled bricks with angular reveals to the front window, the project seeks to reinterpret the language and proportion of the original house in a contemporary way.

Our High Kitchen project is published in Archdaily this morning – http://www.archdaily.com/869295/high-kitchen-a-zero-architects 

Photos from a house we have just finished in South London. The iroko cladding is on the three pop-out windows around which the rear elevation is organised. Photos of the interior to follow shortly…

Some magnificent images of the first phase of the Central European University redevelopment in which we were involved in the capcity of environmental consultants to O’Donnell Tuomey from the initial competition win to Detailed Design. More details here : http://a-zero.co.uk/portfolio/central-european-university/

Fatherhood / Architect duties combine in Wandsworth : new infant addition to the practice, Emile Bruce, got to visit site this week to see progress on our new build house which is progressing well and due for May completion.

Giles & Phillip on site in Elephant & Castle. We are steaming along with all the steel work complete, and the brickwork catching up by the day. The external envelope should be watertight by May.

We are just finished on site with this ground floor extension in Leyton – our first to have used a ‘horse door’ (a door which can either open top or bottom). The project is designed around a pre-existing brick wall built by the client’s father, which we extended into the house to establish a strong visual connection between inside and outside. The bright yellow horse door provides access to the garden. The large picture window is framed by a galvanised structural frame which also forms a structural gutter to provide a cantilevered canopy over the door.

And this is where we have got to on our Elephant & Castle development at the end of 2016. Brick work done up to first floor, and the steel frame installed up to the fourth floor. Bit to go till it yet till it looks like the rendering – but looking quite photogenic in the mist nonetheless…

We are nearing completion on this house in South East London. Many more photos of this project to follow as there is a lot to show…

We have reached that auspicious moment where our brickwork is now the same height as the hoarding…. Things should start moving quite quickly now….

Zinc portal frames around a ground floor and dormer windows are designed to provide the necessary solar control to the windows.The house has been completely reconfigured and extended,  the new interventions linked with a palette of materials comprising solid oak panels, pigmento red zinc and external sandstone tiling. A new kitchen bench seating area addresses the garden through the glazed corner window. More photos to follow…..

New rendering of our Thames House project, due to go out to tender this month. The glazed corner windows catch oblique glimpses toward the Thames, and sit flush with a fibre-cement cladding. The volume of the main house is lifted up over a brick base, constructed of the recycled bricks from the existing house which will be demolished. Rendering by Whitaker Studio.

Progress on our Wandsworth developemnt.The project comprises the construction of a new build house on an angular corner site, and the extension and renovation of an existing dwelling. Builders started in July, and have made good progress to far on demolition.

Some photographs from a small house ‘contraction’ project we did this year. This was a project where we persuaded the clients to reduce the size of their home, but make the space work more effectively so that it feels larger. This means making a connection between the front and the back with a concealed pocket door between, and using am industrial palette of materials of anthracite coloured windows, butcher board worktop, and exposed London stock brick walls.lls.

We have lots of projects on site at the moment, all at various stages of completion, and all involving substantial alterations to existing properties, either by extending them or in some cases contracting them. It is always interesting to try and re-imagine how the original house used to be – always quite difficult after five months of contractor occupation.

Planning approval has been granted for the redevelopment of this old School house in Moor Park as a new residential dwelling. The existing building, built in 1920s is one of the founding buildings of the estate, and the design seeks to work within the character of the existing property,but providing a more contemporary internal layout, and exemplary environmental performance.

Our Willesden Road Junction project has been featured in this month’s Grand Design Magazine

Energy Consumption has been greatly reduced in this side extension by A-ZERO architects. The environmental upgrades include the installation of a new MVHR system, high performance glazing, and greater levels of insulation throughout. Internally, the new addition features a series of roof-lights, and exposed brickwork, while externally, the decorative iroko facia spans the rear elevation with bi-fold doors leading to the stone clad garden’.

The June 2016 A-ZERO line up : Sho, Caterina, Giles, Anya & Phillip.

Phase 01 complete… now on to phase 02….

It’s not quite finished – but good enough to take a couple of pictures. Now that the lawn is established, and the last remnant of building materials has been removed off site, it is ready for a summer. There is still a bit to do interanally, so the final photos won’t be for a couple of months yet…

We are slowly but surely getting out of the ground on our Hampton Street Project. Piles are in, below ground drainage is in, utilities are in. Now things get interesting with some concrete pours….

Our Peckham project – ‘extending without an extension’ is a finalist in the London Building Excellence Awards 2016 in the Best extension or alteration to an existing home category. Fingers crossed!

Photos from our St. John’s Wood project from last summer. Giles had worked on this house 10 years ago, and we were asked back to reconfigure the interior, creating a new kitchen / dining area and study space. We worked with an excellent joiner – Rob Berry, who we would highly recommend.

Our Willesden Junction project is virtually complete. The original house has been fully refurbished and extended with an infill extension to the side. We thought a lot about the glazing around this extension, the rhythm of light in the space, and the transparency of the corners. The iroko wrap-around emphasises this relationship, whilst providing integrated down lighters over the full width bi-fold doors. More internal photographs to follow….

We have lodged planning for a house in Northwood. The building, was originally built as a school, and the organisation of spaces internally is very unconventional. The proposal is to work with the language of the original school building, introducing a series of garden facing roof elements which draw on the materiality and pitch of the original roofs, but are clearly different in their expression.

First part of the build is in – all the piles are down. Not very much to look at, but it has generated a phenomenal amount of muck and dirt. Next stage is the joys of below ground drainage….

Things are almost wrapping up on our Willesden Junction project – the resin floor is down, the wrap around roof-light is in, the MVHR is running, the joinery is happening… almost there…

‘the unique angular design of the proposed dwelling is innovative…it would add a distinct and vibrant element to the street scene which would have a positive impact on the character and appearance of the area’.