New Parish Hall SS Peter and Paul Mitcham

A brief walkthrough of our initial proposal for the new Parish Hall at SS Peter and Paul RC Church. Taking the site conditions, typologies of the Roman villa and early basilicas, and timber trabeated structure, the plan is organised around an atrium at its centre providing light and ventilation and planted with shrubs and lavender and   the Parish Pastoral Council meeting room forming a new public front to the (sub) urban space adjacent to the existing Presbytery and Church. The multi-use hall is situated to the rear, opening up to the garden. The slides from the initial presentation can be downloaded here.

Its all very preliminary and unrefined, proportions, sizes of rooms, materials and details will be developed along with a more detailed analysis of the programme and liaison with the client and statutory bodies. (all work copyright Satmoko Ball Ltd. Jan 2012)

Lateralisms Volume III: The Recovery of Meaning

Above work by Jay Mistry and below by Madeline Pope, students of our final year diploma unit at the University of Nottingham.

The book showing the work of the unit put together by the students, is now available for download here.

Pylon Design Competition

Our timber pylon entry for the above. Conceived laterally with a strong environmental agenda; a light touch concrete free footing which has half of the ground loading of a 16 stone man, a hanging hedgerow providing protected habitat and 30 tonnes of ballast (inspired by Salisbury Cathedral spire), an engineered timber structure sourced from the UK and of course a high level wind turbine.

Full competition panel here.

Thanks to Ron, Barney, Doug and Phil for their input.

Lateralisms 3

Its the end of the academic year. We looked at Portland again in final year Diploma with a variety of student derived sites and programmes. Photos of the work here.

Hammersmith House Phase 2 Development

We're reworking an earlier project in line with changes to our client's brief. These are initial plan sketches we ran through in a recent meeting together with a rough 3d computer model.

Now linking 3 flats to form one dwelling, earlier thematics related to the Balinese compound as a microcosm of urban space, figure/ground and layered threshold are maintained. A top lit atrium/internal garden has been added as a link between buildings.

Looking forward to working up the drawings.

Earth to light

Here's a couple of images from a recent proposal for a temporary space to promote a well known luxury beverage. The 'field of barley' ceiling is made from rods of perspex coupled to a field of programmable LEDs which can also interact with the occupants. Video installations line the walls and the banquettes are cut into an abstracted landscape.

Lateralisms 2

Some snaps of the student work of unit 5 at the Nottingham end of year show here.

If you are interested in what the above has to do with the practice of architecture, link to our new Lateralisms site here where you can download PDF copies of both year books showing the work of the students and tutors.

Sketches from Bali

We're developing a project for a small new urban building in Sanur in Bali. It will create a new frontage to a busy mixed use street and a small public space in the form of an open courtyard around a large mature tree. It will house a mix of retail/office, bar/restaurant, gym and housing. The sketches are from a recent train journey where I was attempting to consolidate a number of the design intentions through quick vignettes of key moments in the building.

We're currently working up models and scale drawings.

Change of plan

Slight change of design! A larger opening was desired; 'slidy foldy' prevails.

Things change constantly from inception to the last coat of paint - whilst I think that the earlier scheme had an enjoyable dimension in respect of the horizontal trinket shelf and more complex proportions, this one is simpler and sits just as happily with the added bonus of being potentially cheaper to build.

House extension - Crystal Palace

This single storey rear extension to a three storey victorian semi is about to go into planning. We like the fact its not all 'slidy foldy' and maintains the corner of the room whilst still providing a strong connection with the garden.

The horizontal glazing transom becomes a shelf for display of the owner's things with the backdrop of the garden and rainwater is discharged into a planter via an ornate rain chain. A planter at the other end of the terrace and a barbecue plinth extending into the garden mediate between the pastoral world of the garden and the raised level of the house.

We were looking at the work of Sverre Fehn during the design development and particularly the Villa a Norrkoping Sweden 1963-64. Images here and here

In this extraordinary house he makes a window as something between building envelope, built-in furniture and floating picture frame.

The Fisher House 1960-67 by Louis Kahn also does a similar thing and also incorporates a window seat.
Both windows place objects and trinkets belonging to the occupants at the threshold between the interior of the home and the world outside just like any window cill but emphatically so. This enables the history and personality of the occupant to become part of the building envelope, both as a public declaration of their life and interests and also mediating the external world to the interior through their stuff - reinforcing their place in the world.

10 New build flats Hemel Hempstead

Poking around one of our laptops earlier I came across these files - they're movies of an early development model of a project we recently obtained planning consent for (albeit in a slightly different form). The project is for 10no. 2 bed flats and includes an underground car park below the garden deck to the rear.

The site is on a suburban edge of the town and the brief had the conflicting requirement of high density occupation on a low scale site - the neighbours are bungalows or small two storey developments and the site overlooks fields to one side and a wooded bank to the rear.

We were looking at timber shakes and rural barns with low eaves to reduce scale but with the generous proportions of a Georgian town house to present a decorous public facade to the street. The rear of the building, made up of living rooms, had a more open relationship with the private garden and afternoon sun. In the iteration shown we were already reducing the dormer windows in line with the advice of the planning consultant.

The model represents a turning point in the design where the input of the other key parties (planners and planning consultants) was having an impact on the proposal. Our website shows images of the project as it was initially proposed.

The project is currently awaiting funding.

Hammersmith house extension video

In this project we started with the typology of the Balinese compound, looked at the work of Geoffrey Bawa and Luis Barragan and reworked the configuration of a typical London garden flat to transform the existing dwelling into a completely different kind of place to live. The use of deep threshold, framed views and layered 'rooms' sets up a complex parallax which enables the occupant to enjoy a dynamic variety of spaces by simply moving around the building.

Should be on site this spring.