Our main priority is helping clients make great architecture that serves their needs and responds in a vital way to its context and cultural surroundings. In order to do this and to further the studios own knowledge base we invest in a wide programme of research which enables us to be inventive and to find new and sometimes unexpected solutions to the problems that we are posed.
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We work in collaboration with like-minded consultants in order to further our thinking and skill level and since our inception, we have always looked to develope concepts grounded by good research that have a light touch on the planet, are low in carbon and energy-use. We look to our research to help us and our clients mitigate the impact of climate change.
High Trees
High Trees is located in the ward of Sunningdale, Ascot in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (ANOB) within a very low-density residential area. The project provides a family with a new WFH summer house, storage and garage that sits sensitively alongside the existing semi-detached Tudor host property.
The proposal looks to develop a studio/home office that is environmentally aware and one that touches the ground softly in order to limit its impact on its natural surroundings. The form and height of the structure has been carefully generated to follow the permitted development regulations.
The architectural concept of the proposal comes from an aesthetic inversion of the host Tudor main house, with the timber beams crossing horizontally and vertically in white and the walls using black timber cladding. A kind of modern interpretation of mock-tudor. The concept looks to generate an eco-friendly structure with the lowest possible embodied carbon footprint, through the choice of the construction materials, re-using the existing concrete slab for the foundation, re-using existing doors from the main house and including a green roof to improve biodiversity. By using a timber construction over traditional masonry or concrete we are targeting 340 kg/CO2e/m2.
Date of completion: 2022
Total Cost: £35K
Gross internal Floor Area: 35 sqm
Client: Bartlett Family
Structural Engineer: Studio Allen
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