Garden office in Hampton published on Real Homes

Looking back at the publication of our project for a garden office in Hampton on the July issue of Real Homes Magazine.

Our project for a garden office in Hampton was published on the July 2019 issue of Real Homes Magazine.

This marks a very significant step for our firm since it is the first relevant national publication of our work.

The project of the garden office is understandably a project that is very close to our heart since it is our very own office.

The idea of having a separated building for our practice dates to 2015 when the office was founded. The idea behind this was that it would make sense to enhance our property and at the same time achieve a very practical space to carry out our operations. With many people working remotely from home I suspect that this kind of configuration will become more and more popular.

We feel that our office is much more than a traditional garden office shed and from a planning perspective, it is a very good example of what you can build under Permitted Development.

We are very happy that our project was recognized as worthy of publication. The office itself proved to be a wonderful space to carry out or work as Architects in every moments of the day. The amount of daylight received both in the morning and in the afternoon is just optimal in any season of the year and this makes us very satisfied.

In a sense we treated the office project as our very own experiment and we can say that it embodies all the qualities that we try to achieve in every project: attention to detail, materials quality and careful relationship between architecture and daylight.

The same magazine asked to publish an article for another Square One Architects projects, the house extension in East Sheen. This may follow in the next few months; we will certainly keep our blog updated!

RIBA London directory

Our project for a house extension in East Sheen was featured in this year’s RIBA London Directory, this is the third project featured in three years!

Our project for a house extension in East Sheen was published on the RIBA London Directory of Chartered Practices 2019.

As usual we are very proud to see one of our designs being featured in this type of publication that showcases the best projects from all around London.

In this case we are particularly proud because the project in question is one of the larger schemes we have been developing in the last few years.

The project dates to 2017 and it includes a ground floor rear plus side extension, a first-floor infill extension and a loft extension. The project was completed in late 2018.

The existing house, a 1930`s detached dwelling in East Sheen, was significantly extended and enhanced thanks to our work.

This project represents another successful case study where the Architect, client and contractor managed to work together and deliver a product of exceptional quality.

The extended house feels incredibly bright and spacious and the existing rooms have been enhanced by adding new spaces such as an open plan kitchen and dining area, a more secluded living space towards the rear of the property, a first floor family bathroom and the new loft extension that includes a new bedroom and an en-suite. The project also includes a side extension that is used as a self-contained granny flat with a bedroom, en-suite bathroom and a small living space.

We received several requests to publish this project and we will keep this blog updated.

You can see the final pictures of the project here

RIBA featured project!

A big thank you to the Royal Institute of British Architects for having published our project for a Garden Office in Hampton in their official 2018 commercial brochure.

Our project for a garden office in Hampton was featured in latest RIBA 2018 commercial directory.

We are always very proud to have our projects featured in this type of publication as a recognition of our hard work during both the design and the construction stage.

In this case Square One Architects acted as both the Architect and the client and it was a very interesting experience because it allowed us to have a look at the construction process from two different points of view.

On one hand being the project client made our life easier in the sense that we kept a tight grip on every decision and the actions of the Architect in terms of design were perfectly harmonised with the duties of the client both during the design and the construction stage.

Said that being Architect and client at the same time presents its own issues; Having less constrains during the design phase can be very challenging. It may seem counterintuitive however it is much easier to design a project when the there are many limitations about what can and cannot be done. I think someone said that total freedom is the worst prison for an Architect, and I tend to agree with this statement. The input from a client is an essential part of our work as Architects and the limits to our creativity are essential to our work.

In order to avoid working in total freedom (or maybe I should say anarchy), we built our project around some existing limitations that were already in place. Some were purely technical (planning, drainage etc..), some were financial and in the end, we managed to find a balance that works for us.

We certainly wanted a simple building that could act as an incubator for our young practice. We were not looking for an architectural statement that could leave a mark in the short term, but also become boring or impractical in the long run.

In this sense the project was very successful. Many architects in history did not want to live or work in one of the buildings they designed because they would be over critical about their design and challenge every detail daily driving them eventually crazy!

Luckily this wasn't the case with our garden office project and we're still thoroughly enjoying working in this space to date.

The final project pictures can be seen here.

London Directory

Our project for a rear extension in Hampton Hill was published on the RIBA London directory 2017. A big thank you to our clients and everyone who got involved with the project!

Our project for a rear extension in Hampton Hill was published on the London RIBA Directory Guide 2017.

We are very proud of this project that was also featured on Don’t Move, Improve! and other publications and received a great deal of attention from the public.

The existing house was semi-detached and dated back to the 1930s. It featured a side extension that was used as a kitchen; however, the rear of the property had not been extended.

Both the architect and the client saw the extension as an opportunity not only to gain additional habitable space, but also to enhance the ground floor of the house.

The new extension features large windows and skylights that provide views across the rear garden and additional daylight to existing kitchen and dining area. It is the example of an extension that does not just provide extra space but enhance the existing space as well.

This project is a testament to the hard work that we carried out as a practice but also to the client who proved repeatedly to be very design focused taking wise decisions.

We should also mention the contractor who built the extension following our instructions to the letter.

The success of a project is always a function of these three main actors involved the construction process: The Architect, the contractor and the client and the collaboration between the three of them he is paramount.

This project is very successful example of this principle and we are very grateful to everyone who was involved.

The final images of the project can be seen here.