Urban Research
High density urban environments should be great places to live. Vibrant and convenient, they need to serve the individual and the community, accommodating diversity while creating a strong sense of place. Through an ongoing series of buildings, competitions and research projects, we are developing both the theories and techniques to help deliver sustainable communities. These work across the scales from the individual dwelling to large scale neighbourhoods.
Our Approach
Our interests have a broad range - spanning from an exploration of architectural language through loose form play to bottom-line efficiency of modern construction techniques. We explore these interests through an iterative process of generating and testing concepts. Where the opportunity to test a concept on a live project does not present itself immediately we will initiate a research file. This will be developed to the point where a live project is needed to take it further. Over time our knowledge base is evolving into a cross-fertilising set of concepts that form a kind of tool kit to apply to real projects.
Analysis and Insight
Our research projects to date are focused on housing and offices as these building types are the easiest for us to isolate and work on independently. Residential buildings are split into houses and apartments. The house types take the terrace unit as their starting point. Different plot widths working from a narrow 4.5m site through increasing increments guide the exercise. Combinations of brief items such as on-site parking, dedicated work space etc. and sectional organisations expose the degrees of design freedom for each width. Other design parameters such as energy use, flexibility, orientation, privacy, daylight, view, spatial interest etc. inform decision making on an individual design. The net result is a series of houses that represent staging posts within a broader design landscape. Changing metaphor, basic body plans also contain ideas at different scales that can be transplanted ultimately leading to transmogrification into new typologies.
High density urban environments should be great places to live. Vibrant and convenient, they need to serve the individual and the community, accommodating diversity while creating a strong sense of place. Through an ongoing series of buildings, competitions and research projects, we are developing both the theories and techniques to help deliver sustainable communities. These work across the scales from the individual dwelling to large scale neighbourhoods.
Our Approach
Our interests have a broad range - spanning from an exploration of architectural language through loose form play to bottom-line efficiency of modern construction techniques. We explore these interests through an iterative process of generating and testing concepts. Where the opportunity to test a concept on a live project does not present itself immediately we will initiate a research file. This will be developed to the point where a live project is needed to take it further. Over time our knowledge base is evolving into a cross-fertilising set of concepts that form a kind of tool kit to apply to real projects.
Analysis and Insight
Our research projects to date are focused on housing and offices as these building types are the easiest for us to isolate and work on independently. Residential buildings are split into houses and apartments. The house types take the terrace unit as their starting point. Different plot widths working from a narrow 4.5m site through increasing increments guide the exercise. Combinations of brief items such as on-site parking, dedicated work space etc. and sectional organisations expose the degrees of design freedom for each width. Other design parameters such as energy use, flexibility, orientation, privacy, daylight, view, spatial interest etc. inform decision making on an individual design. The net result is a series of houses that represent staging posts within a broader design landscape. Changing metaphor, basic body plans also contain ideas at different scales that can be transplanted ultimately leading to transmogrification into new typologies.
