What do you do when an old client calls and tells you he has just bought a burnt out, flooded grade II listed georgian shop with a dark basement and no daylight on three sides? He wants to make it into a beautiful modernist home for his family - but the budget is..... tight.

This one took a lot of effort, drawing and re-drawing and some intense negotiations with the planners and the church commissioners - but it was a delight to do because our clients were very trusting, supportive and patient - and sometimes having a lot of restrictions produces the most imaginative solution. Hats off to the contractor too - it was a difficult job which involved the complete removal of every bit of building fabric within the curved external wall.

Another old client came back to us when they bought this lovely house. Their expectations were high - they had known the building since childhood and were moving from another very lovely house with a Gertrude Jekyll garden. This was very hands on - there is barely a straight line in the building. There were a lot of historically important features - some of which had been obscured by previous badly executed conversion work - which needed to be worked with sensitively - not that easy when a lot of new technology and systems are going in. Sometimes it's what you take away as much as what you put in that makes the biggest difference

Working With Older Buildings

Refurbishing, re-modelling or improving older buildings requires a sensitive approach - particularly if they are listed or in conservation areas. Developing and maintaining a positive relationship with the local planning authority is key to maximizing such buildings' potential whilst minimizing the time and cost involved. Selecting an appropriate contractor is also a major factor in ensuring the process runs as efficiently and satisfactorily as possible.

The case studies show different situations where we have applied our expertise to achieve happy results for our clients

There is a nineteenth century ex-bakery in South london which has gone through a lot of transformations in its time. Prior to the conversion work we carried out, it had been used for many years as a social security office - and a very grim one at that - deep open plan, artificially lit and air-conditioned spaces with low grade partitions and false ceilings which paid no respect to the original building's windows or character. This was quite a challenge too - because the 'clients' were very small... pre-school children and toddlers. They obviously have a very different perspective on what 'space' and 'scale' mean -at the same time their care is heavily bureaucratically regulated - so this job was pitched somewhere between the comic book and the rule book. It works and it's fun.