Category: Residential

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Projects Residential

6 Kingsdown Parade, Bristol

6 Kingsdown Parade, Bristol

Residential

The site at No 5-6 Kingsdown Parade in inner Bristol was purchased by our dear friend the late Ben Hamilton-Baillie with a view to creating a new type of co-living in retirement for himself and like-minded others. Sadly he did not live to see that happen. Without its guiding light, the project faltered and the site, a former filling station of approx 1000 sq m with fine south-facing views over the city was broken up into two parts, the smaller of which now has a new house for Ben’s wife, Jennifer Hill. 

The new house occupies the site of a small and rather run-down corner house whose character was much-loved by some locally and which informed the design of its replacement. Thus the new house comprises a strong brick screen wall enclosing and protecting the house on the north and east (Kingsdown Parade and Marlborough Hill) while the south and west elevations open out onto the walled garden and to the distant views of the city and the countryside beyond. 

The house has a highly insulated, well-sealed* timber frame, clad on the north and east by a Flemmish-bonded brick wall with a Liassic limestone rubble plinth and a reconstructed rubble wall that continues westwards to join that of the adjacent site at No 5. To the south and west the cladding is render and glass and the roof carries a full array of SW-facing photo-voltaic panels.

* The frame has an airtightness of 1.2 cu m/hr/ sq m (way better than B Regs’ required 8) and an average U Value of 0.13 W/sq m/K.                              

The contractor, Dovetail specialises, as the name suggests in timber construction and the house contains several fine timber elements, notably the gently curving stair as well as being beautifully constructed generally, as we hope the pictures show.

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Projects Residential

Common Farm, Melbourne, Derbyshire

Common Farm, Melbourne, Derbyshire

Residential

Common Farm is a perfect example of the fine substantial red brick farmhouses that punctuate the rolling farmland of south Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire. Listed Grade II, its square plan with four square rooms on each of three floors nonetheless lacked a single space suitable for the focus of a young growing family. 

A remarkably helpful and responsive Local Authority and Conservation Officer helped to quickly arrive at sympathetic though substantial addition using materials and forms from the local farm vernacular to expand the house, to integrate it into the generous garden and to take advantage of the views across the fertile landscape to the nearby town of Melbourne.

As well as sympathetic Local Authority, the project was blessed with a wonderful contractor, Rich Jennings, who was a pleasure to work with; intelligent, responsive and able to produce work of the highest standard. So high in fact that the Conservation Officer asked if she could use it for demonstrations of how to work with Listed Buildings.

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Projects Residential

Water Lilies, Kingsweston

Water Lilies, Kingsweston, Bristol

Residential

In 2016 we were flattered to be approached by Dr Steffie Broer of Bright Green Futures who had recently completed a co-living scheme at The Courtyard in Lower Cheltenham Place in Bristol’s Bohemian St Werburghs. On the strength of her enthusiasm for the Clifton lido, Steffie wanted us to work on a new residential scheme on a site near Kingsweston, on the north-west side of Bristol. Little did we know what obstacles would be thrown in the way of this exciting new project on 0.5 Ha of steeply sloping brownfield land with a massive brick and concrete reservoir at its centre. Now in 2024, a new community of nearly 100 people of all ages lives in 21 houses and 12 flats surrounding a communal garden built on top of the old reservoir structure, which is now a car park.  

Delays began with Planning (which took 19 months in spite of no significant objections and widespread support) followed by the Covid pandemic, which kicked in simultaneously with the start on site in spring 2020, Brexit delays to imported goods, global timber shortages (not ideal for timber frame scheme) and complicated funding. All were finally overcome. 

The dream of a community living in state of the art dwellings gathered together in its own surroundings is finally a reality. The tenacity of both Bright Green Futures and Contractor Dove Construction were both essential to the eventual outcome. 

The homes’ shell structure completed by the Main Contractor comprise timber frames externally clad in insulation and air-tight membranes, eliminating the need for vulnerable vapour control membranes, reducing cutting and improving visible control of both insulation and membrane continuity. The resulting buildings have air-tightness of less than 2 cu m/hr/ sq m (B Regs accepts 8) and wall and roof U Values of 0.13-15 W/ sq m/ deg C.

Each house and flat was individually designed in conjunction with the owners-to-to be. Although sadly many fell by the wayside as delays took their toll, happily others were there to take their places, and now a hundred residents from babies to retirees, and all stages in between, live in a group of buildings with a genuinely “organic” feel to it, the variety and richness deriving not from the arbitrary variety of shapes and materials so beloved of the Planners, but from the different sizes, arrangements and locations of the thirty-three dwellings. Each has its own small private garden or balcony (some have both) and access to the communal garden and the Hub Building, a sort of residents’ ‘village hall’ all completely separated from vehicular circulation and the car park below the garden.

At a time when Government is rightly and belatedly looking at ways of creating affordable sustainable homes at reasonable density, (as opposed to spec house builder greenfield noddy box density) Water Lilies’ 66 dwellings per hectare, each with private gardens and all with access to a generous communal garden shows what can be done with the vision of a developer whose priorities are sustainability, community and variety as opposed to laziness, greed and monotony.

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Projects Residential

Crease Lane Cutting, Tavistock

Crease Lane Cutting, Tavistock

Residential

Townend Cottage, High St Moreton in Marsh is a seventeenth century Grade II listed stone house at the north end of the broad High Street of the Cotswold town of Moreton in Marsh. It was substantially extended in the nineteenth century when a separate coach house was also added.

Planning Permission was obtained to divide the main house into two, to convert the coach house to a separate dwelling and to build two new houses forming a courtyard to the rear.

Protracted discussions were required to overcome the objections of the Environment Agency, Gloucestershire Highways, the local Conservation Officer and predictably the neighbours.

Work on the main house including the addition of a new stair tower, is now complete and the remaining works are under way.

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Projects Residential

Townend Cottage, Gloucestershire

Townend Cottage, Gloucestershire

Residential

Townend Cottage, High St Moreton in Marsh is a seventeenth century Grade II listed stone house at the north end of the broad High Street of the Cotswold town of Moreton in Marsh. It was substantially extended in the nineteenth century when a separate coach house was also added.

Planning Permission was obtained to divide the main house into two, to convert the coach house to a separate dwelling and to build two new houses forming a courtyard to the rear.

Protracted discussions were required to overcome the objections of the Environment Agency, Gloucestershire Highways, the local Conservation Officer and predictably the neighbours.

Work on the main house including the addition of a new stair tower, is now complete and the remaining works are under way.

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Projects Residential

Crump House, South Gloucestershire

Crump House, South Gloucestershire

Residential

Crump Farm comprises a seventeenth century Grade II listed farmhouse and surrounding gardens and outbuildings, the latter in various states of repair.

The project addresses the repair and re-use of several of the barns, including the ruinous cow-shed, for a variety of uses including a cider press and Bed & Breakfast accommodation, the latter partly in a new building proposed forming a courtyard with the old cow-shed.

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Projects Residential

Armada Way, Plymouth

Armada Way, Plymouth

Residential

The Bank, Armada Way, Plymouth is located in the centre of town, Barclays moved out of and sold this building in 2010.

Our client bought it and converted the ground floor to shops and the upper floors to student accommodation. The whole process was completed in one year.

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Projects Residential

Widden Hill House, Gloucestershire

Widden Hill House, Gloucestershire

Residential

This 19th century rectory sits audaciously on the edge of the Cotswold escarpment with views to the Black Mountains in Wales.

The rector communicated with his brother there via a heliograph mounted on the roof. After a chequered history involving a major fire and hideous extensions, the current owner set to work in 1985 and restored the former glory.

The ‘millennium folly’ was added as a barn owl roost in 2000.

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Projects Residential

Apartments, Vauxhall

Apartments, Vauxhall

Residential

This unrealised project designed jointly with Burrell Foley Fischer is for a large mixed use development of flats and shops, the refurbishment of several listed houses and new premises for the charity Clubs for Young People.

The site is between the busy Kennington and Harleyford roads, its apex at the junction with the Vauxhall Cross gyratory where the prominent elliptical tower stands on a podium of mixed retail and residential uses. The road frontages are completed to enclose a sheltered open space at the heart of the site comprising private gardens and communal open space.

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Projects Residential

A ‘Make-Over’ for Daisy, Gloucestershire

A ‘Make-Over’ for Daisy, Gloucestershire

Residential

Our client fell in love with the location but not the house. Built in the 60’s on a steep valley side in Gloucestershire the house enjoyed glorious views over a generous garden, however it suffered from excessive solar gain in summer and lack of insulation in winter.

As part of other general alterations and improvements windows were reduced and the house was over-clad with insulation and timber; covering the concrete fake stone block-work to effect a dramatic character change.