How important are The International Design & Architecture Awards?
We are so happy to be shortlisted for IDA Awards it really feels like our hard work over the past 10 years is really starting to be seen by a wider audience and we couldn’t be happier to be rubbing shoulders with all these other great brands. Obviously it would be great to win this year more than most as we turn 10! However just being shortlisted we know will elevate our brand even more. We can’t wait for the awards ceremony in September.
What projects are you currently working on?
We are currently working on whole house renovation. A double fronted Edwardian villa which has been vacant for five years. So everything needs to be renovated, windows, electrics, plumbing and our clients want to make their home as sustainable as possible, which is a challenging retrofit in these old houses. However, we have had to phase this work due to budget constraints, so we started by adding the MVHR ventilation system to create cleaner air quality and reduce heating costs once the heat pump is connected in the next phase of works.
Budget has been challenging as this is a 5 bedroom 1 bathroom home soon to be a 7 bedroom 3 bathroom home. So we have advised our clients on how best to phase the work ensuring all future works are consider in the design at the start so once more funds become available it will be a simple addition to the current project.
Our clients wanted open plan living so to give them their dream home there was a lot walls to be removed and steels added the house, which we designed with the help of our structural engineer and our skilful builders and with the addition of 2 new bathrooms their home will be unrecognisable when we have finished!
Whilst that is all happening we are busy designing the next couple of projects one being a simple kitchen upgrade where will be adding walls to reduce the size of the current open plan space to create a more cosy environment as our clients children are now all grown up. Plus another ground floor reconfiguration of an old Victorian terrace house to make it more open plan and user friendly for the young family. So we have a lot on!
What was your favourite project to work on and why?
Design is always my favourite as when I walk into a room I can really visualise a space and how it can be changed to deliver the home our clients want. We have a great team around us of structural engineers and builders so they can bring our designs to reality.
So each project I love as they are so different, however the more walls I knock down the happier I seem to be! As this really does change the way people live, for the better, and this is the feedback we get from all our clients. Clients know how they want to live in their home but don’t know how to get there and that’s what we do best, interpret their wishes, get the project completed on time and to budget whilst maintaining quality of finish.
What was your most challenging project to work on and why?
I think it is this current project, the whole house renovation. As I have removed the majority of the ground floor walls and added a few new ones, and even though I trust my engineers and builders I still have restless nights when the acrow props and in and we are waiting to fit the new steels. Houses falling down is definitely my stress dream! Which is so unwarranted as with all steel work we have done over the last 10 years, my team are so good we hardly create stress fractures in plaster on the floors above the work.
