In keeping with tradition, here is this years Christmas cartoon with Santa Claus’ perspective on the year just passed. A merry Christmas to one and all from all of us here.

We are delighted that planning approval has been granted for our residential development in Guildford following a unanimous vote by the Guildford councillors on the planning committee last night. The scheme for 19 residential units on a steeply sloping ridge, is designed as a series of brick buildings organised around a central planted courtyard with copper roofs whose syncopated rhythm echo the site topography. Five affordable units will be provided, and the whole development will be heated via a centralised air source heat pump.

We thoroughly enjoyed working with client Safeguard Coaches and planning consultants Fuller Long on this project – congratulations to the whole team.

Cranes in place this week in Oxford this week to install the superstructure for a CLT house. We are quite excited with this as it is working structurally with a 8m span so the material is doing what it is designed to do. It also looks great!

We are really excited to complete this project in Isleworth. A small but intricate house with new oak joinery elements juxtaposed against the original fabric of the house. Great work from BBC Construction, Dominic Ash bespoke joinery and AumAxum windows

Despite the lock-down, this project is powering on – lots of work happening at the moment in preparation for window installation and steel cladding.

Just before the lockdown, we completed and photographed two new buid houses in Bermondsey. Built on an incredibly skinny site with limited opportunities for outward facing windows, we found other ways to get light into the site, through new inward facing elevations, light scoops and the odd cheeky circular window.

First look at our Thames House project which was finally revealed as the scaffolding was removed last week. We are super excited to finally see the integration of photovoltaics, fibre cement, and roof lights. Only took seven years …

Progress on our Quarry House project – with windows measured up, concrete complete and steel cladding just about to start. The dry-stone walling is progressing nicely…

Some good news in these strange times… On Monday this week, the Southwark Planning Committee voted unanimously in favour of our proposal for a new build development of 6 duplex apartment constructed of CLT, and incorporating a chequer-board elevation of planted green wall in Rotherhithe. We are looking forward to delivering this project with #designerlondondevelopments .

We are very excited to start this week on a new project on site for the refurbishment and extension of a property near Highgate. The project creates a series of diagonal connections throughout the house through double height living and circulation spaces which allow the family to socially connect across multiple levels.

We have been working on a project by the Thames in Isleworth for the last few months. The project involved a substantial refurbishment and reconfiguration of a once-river-side cottage. The first part to be completed is the refurbishment of the original facade – here is a before and after picture…

The pre-fabricated envelope of our Quarry House was installed this month. The twin wall panels, fabricated by DG timber solutions, and installed by Construkt CLT went in despite the storm force winds that battered the site…

Always nice when the postman drops in a magazine with one of our projects in print! Full article on page 50 here :

The steel frame is in place on our Tower bridge House, a complex geometry which benefited from a BIM model to make sure everything fitted. The building is starting to take shape at last….

All done! We are really pleased that this project is complete – time to take some proper photos… Good work by March Construction.

We recently completed a small extension in North London clad in larch with the SiOO:X treatment all supplied by @russwooduk. Good work by Blero Construction. Photos by @adamscottimages

Concrete pour galore in our Quarry House this morning. All concrete is 50% Ground granulated blast furnace slag – less embodied carbon than the alternative. #

Our Glazed fissure House was long-listed and exhibited in this years Don’t Move Improve 2019 exhibition. The exhibition showcases some of the best home improvements London has to offer and runs until April 26th, in the New London Architecture galleries at The Building Centre

Two in one week! Our six unit scheme in Rotherhithe was granted planning approval by Southwark Council this week. We are hoping to construct this one in CLT – watch this space….

After a lengthy planning consideration period, our Ealing development has been granted permission. The scheme provides nine units as a part of a full refurbishment and extension of an existing town house. As a first for this area, we argues the case for a full basement dig, through provision a series of double and triple height living spaces which bring light and air down to the living spaces.

Planning has just been granted for the construction of two houses on a very thin site in Southwark. As with many of our sites, this one is unbelievably constrained, and the building geometry is a way to achieve good levels of light, air and outlook within these constraints.

The wrapping came off the scaffolding this week on our Camberwell new build house. We really like the way the light catches the dog-tooth brickwork.

Progress on our Tower Bridge House with the insitu concrete work coming out of the ground quickly. We had a group of Architectural Association Students to site, researching the materials that are being used on site, specifically, their embodied energy. Contractor Joe is quite the teacher….

As is tradition in the studio, we went on a tour of London taking in some of our projects which are under construction, or completed in the last year. Here, Giles, Ross and Sho seen posing outside a small cedar clad pop out extension in Harlesden.

Our project, Glazed Fissure House has been chosen to feature in this years Don’t Move, Improve! Awards 2019 – Find out more in the magazine and free exhibition, opening to the public on Wednesday 23 Jan 2019, at New London Architecture

We have started on dog-tooth brickwork on our Camberwell house. Looking forward to seeing the scaffolding come down so we can see the effect from a distance….

Phase 01 of our Quarry House is our for tender this month. We hope to break ground before November…

Phase 01 tender for our Quarry House is out and we continue to work on the phase 02 detailed design including the internal glulam timber frame, and purbeck internal stone walling. Here is a new rendering of the project by studio FIP

Super excited that our Thames House is due to start construction next week. The project will provide views to the river (including Tower Bridge) whilst working within the difficult constraints of the site in terms of privacy and overlooking. The form of the house mediates between the adjacent buildings, and also provides a south facing inclined roof on to which solar renewable technologies will be integrated as part of the fibre cement cladding.

Our Scissor Truss Barn has reached practical completion. The asymmetrical scissor trusses were fabricated on site by a very dedicated team of carpenters, who did a great job in recreating out 1:20 model which has been on site from day 01. More photos for follow soon…

Next week,Giles will be speaking at the WeWork summer camp, discussing key aspects of sustainability in our lives, our workplace and our home. Giles will be part of a Colloquium with Federico Montella, WeWork’s UK Director of Sustainability, and Morgaine Gaye, journalist, author and futurologist.

https://summercamp.wework.com/speakers/

Photos from a project we completed earlier this year near Acton, London. The idea was to allow a visual connection from the first floor upstairs rooms through a linear slot roof light in the new ground floor extension. This lets lots of sunlight in to the space, which transforms the centre of the plan.

Practical completion reach on this development in Streatham, London comprising seven apartments. Very well run project with BBC Construction https://www.bbcconstruction.co.uk/ as the Main Contractors.

Renders of our Rotherhithe proposal which is in for planning this week. The site has a prominent location in front of a park, in a part of London where the heritage of the near-by docks still resonates. The design intention is to refer to both these contexts, in terms of a checker board planted façade to the adjacent building which brings the park to the other side of the development, and a palette of materials of brick and steel which refers to the industrial heritage.

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….