Tune house nearing completion
Our house conversion project on the bank of Mjøsa lake, 90km north of Oslo, is nearing completion. Interior work progressed well these last few weeks and, with the winter now receeding, the exterior insulation and landscaping will soon start. Great work by our client and builder Chriss Brohaug.
Self-build timber structure
The interior restoration of our two-century-old barn in southern France is almost completed, with all its stone walls repointed and the ceiling of the new insulated roof painted. Credits to our self-builder clients for their amazing work!
The erection of the internal timber structure has also started. We planned the layout of the converted barn so that interior work could be organised in three independent phases: after this initial phase, our clients will be able to start inhabiting the barn, while continuing to work on the rest of the internal structure. Eventually, this first part of the structure will serve as a bedroom for their future guesthouse.
More photos of the project on our clients' blog...
Rejointoyage
After 122 bags of lime mortar and 8 months of hard work, Mélanie and Béranger, our self-builders in France, have completed the repointing of 200 sqm of stone wall in their converted barn in Dordogne! Beautiful result and a major achievement before starting to build the internal timber structure next month.
Photos by Béranger Hau. More on our clients' blog...
New build house using the PassivHaus Planning Package
We're designing a new build house for a village in Nottinghamshire, using the PassivHaus Planning Package as a design tool.
The site has an excellent orientation, allowing extensive use of passive and active solar collection to the rear of the property. The north, street-facing facade has been developed to respond sensitively to its Conservation Area setting.
The project is currently going through consultation with the village residents and Local Authority planning department prior to the submission of a planning application.
On Renåfjellet
First site visit to one of our upcoming Norwegian projects: two mountain cabins on the slopes of Renåfjellet, at a ski resort overlooking the Ren valley, about 300km North of Oslo.
Great views and plenty of moist reindeer moss!
Tune House on site
The Tune house is now on site, with the roof going up. The project, located on the bank of the Mjøsa, Norwegian's largest lake, involves the rebuilding of a two-story building into a family house and an attached workshop.
We are reusing part of the existing concrete structure — an unusal object in the Norwegian housing world! — and fully glazing the south facing gable wall to frame stunning views to the surrounding hills and neighbouring lake.
Upgrading a 1920s house
This project is currently on the drawing board in the practice, and we thought it worth sharing some interesting aspects of the process so far.
We started out with a client with a beautiful property... that is unfortunately an energy guzzler and has a layout that just doesn't work for the family's lifestyle. The house features a half-timbered front and an interior with many Art Deco, Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts features. The rear elevation however has many problems with the detailing and a too-hot/too-cold (and out of keeping) conservatory.
We brought Hockerton Housing Project in to create a 'Home Energy Masterplan' for the property. They thoroughly surveyed the existing fabric and identified cost-effective and practical methods to improve the energy performance of the building. Their report identified measures and payback times for a range of approaches, from the 'no brainer' moves that would pay off straight away to the 'green halo' measures that improve sustainability but might not pay off for years or even decades to come.
We took that information and worked with Branch Construction, an environmentally aware building company, to develop budget costing and buildability strategies on a number of different design options. Having worked out what the current problems were with the house, we developed some ideas for solving them and creating an amazing new home for our client. This centres around a completely remodeled core to the house, linking front to back and interior to garden.
Finally, we rated the options for cost/buildability, sustainability and design – presenting the conclusions as an architectural strategy report. You can download a public version of this report.
This thorough-going approach has helped our client through some tough decisions on the project scope, and the trade-offs between cost, sustainability and payback time. Having established a scheme that can be completed as a Permitted Development (not requiring planning permission) we are now developing the project into the detailed design stage.
ArtHitectural on our WAF Awards shortlist
The architectural news blog ArtHitectural has published an article about our inflatable event space, recently shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival Awards 2011 in Barcelona.
You can read the full article on ArtHitectural...
The Architects' Journal on the WAF shortlist
The Architects' Journal reveals the list of all entries shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival Awards 2011, including our inflatable pavilion for Lille Museum of Modern Art, in France.
2hD shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival Awards!
Our inflatable pavilion for the Lille Museum of Modern Art, in France, has just been shortlisted for World Architecture Festival Awards 2011. No need to say we are chuffed!
We'll be presenting the project to the jury in Barcelona on 3rd November. We are shortlisted in the Display category, along with seven other projects from all around the world.
