Vanguard Self-Storage A new self-store facility for business and individuals
Close to the centre of Bath, this new facility is intended to serve the needs of local businesses and residents with flexible storage space in a range of unit sizes over 4 floors. In common with other stores operated by Vanguard, this building features a vintage artifact – in this case a restored De Havilland Vampire Jet, hanging within the entrance atrium. The high-performance frameless curtain wall will allow this to be visible from the street, avoiding unwanted glare and reflection. The project replaces a former laundry building, the roof form of which is reflected in the new design. New landscape planting, including 50 new trees and a re-naturalised watercourse provides an improved habitat for wildlife.
Keynsham Recycling HubA new combined recycling, vehicle servicing and office facility
We have provided architectural services during the detail design and construction phase of this modern recycling centre, working with multi-disciplinary consultants Sweco UK for Design and Build contractors Farrans Construction. The site includes: Household waste recycling centre, a reuse shop for people to donate items for reuse and resale, large Materials Recovery and Waste Transfer Station building, Salt store, vehicle workshop and offices.
In line with the council’s Climate and Ecological Emergency declarations and policy aims, the Keynsham Recycling Hub integrates many sustainability measures including on-site renewable energy generation.
Upper FarmAn artist’s studio in South Gloucestershire
The new studio for its artist owner is a replacement for a timber stable building on the edge of a Cotswold village with a typical context of stone buildings with stone tiled roofs. The Client is an artist and printmaker requiring a series of daylit spaces to carry out a variety of wet and dry processes ranging from design to sewing and etching / printing.
The building typology adopted is clearly legible as a simple barn form, appropriate for the setting at the interface between the domestic gardens of the village and the open agricultural landscape. The form also works well for the studio use, with an abundance of controlled daylight from the roof, and inspirational views out over the meadow to the North-west. A single window in the South East facing gable picks out a more focussed view.
The structure is a simple series of expressed portal frames made from LVL timber. The external materials palette continues with the aspiration of simplicity. A fibre cement roof on top of larch boarded walls speak of simple vernacular barns, but with the careful detailing of a less agricultural finish. The glazing is a repetitive module, but with an enlarged section of glazing in the central bay – referencing the barn tradition of a large central opening. An inset entrance door is the only element with a non native material accent colour clearly indicating the entrance.
Internally the Client’s brief called for white surfaces, which is given some relief and a suggestion of materiality by the expressed portal frames. The main volume is semi divided by a series of smaller servant spaces hosting the WC, plant and kitchenette as well as a small fume cupboard room.
The building is heated by an airsource heat pump and underfloor heating within the power floated concrete floor.
Park Grounds 2030 Masterplan
This work has followed on from the development of the Resource Recovery Park at Park Grounds, Wotton Bassett. Designscape, working with Format Engineers have helped our Client to develop a far reaching vision for using the waste heat and CO2 produced by the Waste to Energy plant which is currently under construction: The waste CO2 and heat will be used in inflatable greenhouses located on top of landfill to grow food for the local economy. The thin shell concrete commercial buildings will be able to house new businesses which can benefit from the heat and power from the waste recovery operation, with the existing farmland replaced on top of the buildings. The concrete shells will be capable of supporting very heavy loads such as cattle and tractors. The ETFE foil greenhouses – which can flex with the movement of the land on which they stand – benefit from the positive internal pressure which supports the structure, but also keeping insects and pollen out of the greenhouses.
Planning permission has been secured for both prototypes, and work is now underway to test the technology and construction techniques.
Resource Recovery park A new waste to energy facility
The proposed Resource Recovery Park at Park Grounds, near Royal Wootton Bassett, has been designed to celebrate the process of creating energy from waste. The design creates a masterplan with key buildings focused on site movement and safety. Crapper & Sons Landfill Ltd. have been based on the site for nearly 35 years having contributed to the wider community through the Landfill community fund. This next step in the development of the business presents a positive step towards a significant reduction in landfill waste and an increase in recyclables. The waste handling building will produce energy through its combustion plant which feeds back into the grid. The translucent polycarbonate facade of the building in shades of green, allows high levels of daylight into the building to improve the internal working environment for employees, a high priority for the client. The timber roof structure has been design using parametric modelling and was selected over steel for reasons of cost and longevity.
Park House A contemporary new house using traditional materials.
This new family home is a replacement dwelling in the Greenbelt, replacing an unremarkable series of existing buildings which occupied a prominent corner in the village Conservation area. The challenge was to design a building which responds positively to the village context, respecting the defining characteristics of the village, whilst at the same time creating an uncompromised contemporary piece of architecture, responding positively to its physical and its social context. The proposal retains one small fragment of the existing buildings which was originally a public “Reading Room” built in 1885 “for the use of men and boys of the village”. The design responds to the public realm with a series of steep (50deg) pitched gables with stone copings – familiar forms and materials, but with non-traditional detailing around openings. On the other side it responds to the private gardens with a much more open and transparent façade, connecting the living spaces to the garden and open countryside beyond. The dominant material is the Cotswold stone roof which unifies the whole composition, the glass and metal panels of the private side provide a counterpoint, which emerge subtly in the detailing around the openings, and in the staircase “turret” which provides a lookout from the private interior to the public realm. The house design has comfortably exceeded the requirements of Code for Sustainable Homes (Level 4), primarily through the use of simple passive energy design principles, but will go further still by the use of various active energy technologies.
Withycombe A radical refurbishment and house extension
Located in an enviable position within the Green belt close to Bath, Withycombe sits on the side of a steeply sloping valley with panoramic views to the south. The original house was constructed in the 1930’s and extended in the 1960’s. Our client wished to modernise and extend the house which had been empty for 10 years. Working within a restrictive planning context, we developed a proposal for a replacement house, which was in effect a radical comprehensive refurbishment. This approach gained planning approval and our involvement through the detailed design and construction phases has continued, with the house due for completion later in 2019. The house features large areas of glazing and extensive terrace and balcony areas to make the most of the open prospect.
Middle StokeA cantilevered house
This scheme replaced a 1960s house overlooking the Avon Valley at Limpley Stoke. The site is in an exceptionally attractive location but did present a number of challenges – the far reaching views out of the site are almost due North, making it quite difficult to get sunlight to penetrate the plan. The original house was in an unsafe condition, being sited on an unstable slope at the southern edge of the site.
The new house has to sit closer to the Northern boundary of the site, but views out over and down the Avon Valley are made possible by cantilevering the upper storey off a rubble stone base. The upper storey culminates in the master bedroom and bathroom which will have unparalleled views out over the landscape. The garden has been designed to slip over and under the house, with green roofs and covered terraces, embedding the building into the landscape.
The simple rectangular volume of the upper storey is clad in charred timber battens (which were change from the aluminium cladding which was part of the original planning approval.
Structural Engineer: Format Engineers
Landscape design: B:D Landscape / Greenhalgh Landscape Architects
Photography: by fotohaus
Crowe Lane An innovative house framed of CNC machined timber
The existing bungalow is a very quirky “wriggly tin” building, almost a shack, built around two stone chimneys. The site is also very unusual, being landlocked between neighbours’ gardens with the only access possible via a 1.2m wide footpath. But the site benefits from an open rural outlook with long views down the valley. So the design proposal was driven by the constraints of site and has evolved as a partially prefabricated plywood structure supported on a few masonry elements. It is conceived as a freeform structure providing the shelter required for living in the garden. The architecture is very “un – housy”. All of the components can be carried by hand onto the site and erected by hand. Excavation and material moving is kept to a minimum. The design process involved the extensive use of parametric modelling, with the main structural components then being cut using digital fabrication methods. The result is an undulating roof of plywood cassettes floating like a tree canopy over a series of freeform living spaces, and also includes an upper level and rooftop deck like a treehouse in the garden.
Greenways A modern single storey house
Greenways is a new single storey house, sited in the large rear garden of an early C20th house in Combe Down, Bath. The four bedroom family house is organised in two wings. These are arranged to create a semi enclosed courtyard to the front of the house and south facing garden to the rear.
Entering the house, one first arrives at spaces associated with the life of the family, living, cooking and dining. These open directly onto the rear garden, clearly visible through a full height glazed wall of sliding doors. The more private bedroom wing is accessed from the centre of the house, via a top lit corridor. Bedroom windows face south into the garden. These are protected from excessive solar gain by a pergola running the length of the house. The house features a ‘green’ flat roof as though lifted from the original lawn. Split face masonry walls echo the mining activities which previously took place below the site.
