We’ve just tabled our first sketch design for a new house in Wharfedale which looks at principles to create a discreet and partially buried development within a steeply sloping site. The intention is to minimise the visual impact of the new dwelling within its open landscape setting, reducing its visual impact over the existing building configuration on site. We are planning to use orientation, form and building mass to make a low energy, low impact sustainable dwelling. Creating an open plan living and eating area with easy access to the outdoors is important to the client and we have designed a sunken living area with visual connections to the wider landscape. The corner fire place, the focus of home and hearth, is expressed as a stone chimney at the upper entrance level, subtly announcing the presence of the main volume of the building a storey below. Link to project.

Robert spent an intense few days at the end of last month examining the latest cohort on the Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Practice in Architecture – ARB / RIBA Part 3 course at the University of Cambridge. This involves marking exam papers, reviewing professional development records, and assessing candidates in their oral examinations. To be able to step outside the daily activities of practice life and to critically engage professionally in the development of future architects is a privilege; and it is also an opportunity to reflect on the breadth of skills and knowledge required to fully qualify within our profession. Existing, new and emerging legislation, building procurement and contract administration, running a business, professionalism, the ethics of architectural practice and managing risk within the design process were some of topics being considered as part of the path to professional registration for a new generation.

Our application for the Centre for Arts Heritage and Future Technologies in the World Heritage Site of Saltaire has now been registered with the local planning authority. You can view more about the project here. A news article is also available via the Bradford Council website. Link to project

A planning application has now been submitted for new-build and conversion works at New Birks Farm, Guiseley. The proposals convert the existing farmhouse and barn into two dwellings and create three new dwellings to the rear of the property, organised around a shared courtyard. On green belt land, this is an eminently sustainable location, opposite an existing housing development and just a ten minutes’ walk to the local railway station and town centre facilities. The existing farmhouse building and its attached barn are currently in a poor state of repair and are undesignated local heritage assets, identified within the conservation area as a building group that makes a positive contribution to the town’s heritage. The new housing is designed to be subservient to the existing buildings and is arranged to minimise the visual impact of vehicles within the site. The new development will support the conservation and repair of the existing buildings and their beneficial re-use as homes while also creating an appropriate setting for this edge-town site. Link to project

We have just been commissioned to design a one-off house on previously developed land in the green belt overlooking Wharfedale in West Yorkshire. The intention is to replace an existing stable block with a compact detached dwelling, making the most of the topography, orientation and spectacular views afforded by the site.

Guiseley Power Health and Fitness training studio is now complete and has had a soft opening for existing clients. This has been a really interesting project to develop proposals and provide detailed design for. The site, on the corner of Bradford Road and Tranmere Drive, was occupied by a tired-looking single-storey showroom with an apartment above, and a storage outbuilding. These buildings were separated by a public sewer and the required wayleave distance gave us an opportunity to reorganise the site as a courtyard development, retaining and retrofitting the showroom with a new roof volume above, replacing the outbuilding, and wrapping both buildings in a new perimeter wall that creates private outdoor space connecting social areas and the main exercise floor of the studio. Details of the project can be found here.

We’ve just returned from a fabulous practice awayday, visiting a number of Peter Aldington projects in Buckinghamshire including Diggs Field, Turn End and the former practice office of Aldington, Craig and Collinge. It was a real pleasure to be shown around Middle Turn and the gardens at Turn End, and for the visit to Diggs Field to be introduced by Peter Aldington himself (now aged 90). The attention to detail, the well-observed and careful design of domestic space, the consideration of volume and of light, and the integration of house and landscape, starting from an understanding of site and creating strong connections between inside and out, were a pleasure to see in situ. A really enjoyable and inspiring day out!

We have been invited to take part in a limited competition for the retrofit and alteration of a central Bradford former warehouse building, earmarked for use as part of the Bradford 2025 programme for City of Culture. This is a challenging concrete frame building, currently with poor circulation and limited natural lighting opportunities, but with great potential to create an arts venue and managed workspaces that could successfully re-animate two currently stymied streets in the centre of the city.

More information here.

We are delighted to have received planning permission for the remodelling and extension of a terraced townhouse in the Heworth area of York. Set within a conservation area, the Victorian property had previously been extended beyond the original off-shot extension. Our proposal removes this addition to replace it with a new half-vaulted music room that opens onto the existing urban garden. Internally the house will be thermally improved and the rear ground floor spaces altered to create a new open plan kitchen, dining and family room with access to a landscaped courtyard. This is visually separated from the main garden by a new pergola structure that frames the route to the side garden entrance. Link to project

We have just received planning approval for a barn conversion in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty for which we had previously secured an approval for conversion into guesthouse accommodation. Set in the Upper Washburn Valley, the redundant barn will be converted into a five double-bedroomed home with the remains of its animal fold repurposed as a walled garden, surrounded by wild meadow planting. Our design approach has been to minimise significant changes to the character and form of the building to avoid over-domestication of both building and setting. We are reusing existing and blocked up openings wherever possible and retaining the existing roof structure to create a characterful property with a double-height entrance that shows off the scale of the building, upper floor rooms that open to the underside of rafters, and a sequence of living spaces that connect to discreetly sited outdoor areas and take advantage of long distance views to farmland, moorland and sky. Link to project.

We have been commissioned to develop proposals for two family homes in the Selby District of North Yorkshire. The context is a disused farm complex in a village setting on designated green belt land within the village conservation area. The intention is remove more recent agricultural sheds and to repair, convert and extend two historic barns identified as key non-designated heritage assets, referencing the distinct village morphology and local vernacular forms to create a bespoke housing project that will be self-built by our clients.

Happy New Year! We are pleased to launch our new website for the practice which has been some time in the making!

We are showcasing a range of projects undertaken and completed in the last few years. Please take a look at the work that we do and the services that we provide.