Brunskill Design Architects are also conservation specialists, working on listed buildings, in conservation areas and special settings, such as properties in green belt and areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Past examples range from negotiations regarding the renovation of a thatched cottage in Dorset to negotiating consents with English Heritage for the Grade I listed St Pancras Station redevelopment.

Brunskill Design worked on the scheme design for the new Midland Rd Extension to the Midland Grand Hotel, St Pancras, a Gothic style red-brick building that gained listed status in the 1960s. It has been re-opened as an hotel with the addition of apartments at the top of the building.

We also work with developers to create attractive schemes for apartments on brownfield sites.

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The workplace is a reflection of the business created within it, and, through effective design, a work destination can be built that will enable an integrated sustainable approach to the way your business works.

Is your business in need of a green workspace that will enhance and establish reputation as a place of forward thinking, sustainability and quality? Create a healthy, functional and inspiring place of work.

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If you require a listed building consent, or your site is in a conservation area or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) or green belt, we can usually assist you with plans and negotiations. Achieving consent for a scheme is often a tall order. Meetings with Conservation Officers and others in the Planning departments of Local Authorities are often necessary to look at what may achieve consent. We can develop a scheme with you and help you put the case for your project, sometimes using additional specialist planning advice available through us if required. Often a staged process is required to proffer solutions to the Local Authority then receive feedback. Also we provide construction works information for conservation projects including suitable specifications, with workmanship and materials information.

Past examples include:

• Grade I listed St Pancras Station redevelopment, negotiating consents with English Heritage, and detailing suitable construction for approval and completion.
• Negotiations regarding the renovation of a thatched cottage in Dorset.
• Design for loft conversion and extensions in urban Conservation Area of St Albans.

These examples may demonstrate our experience in dealing with conservation issues, which we wish to use to your benefit, adding value to your project.

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With construction services and with material prices fluctuating, many special offers and weekly price rises coexist. If you are extending an existing building, it’s usually best to open up to the weather in the summer or early autumn. Allow a few months for the project planning phases.

Brunskill Design can lead you through all the stages to completion.

1. Initially a feasibility study is often a good idea. This basic report at low cost, will help firm up the objectives, the scheme required, the cost of it, what it will be made of, how long it will take to build and what the resulting project will be worth.
2. Planning Permission drawings and 
3. Building Regulations drawings and written specification are likely to follow this in most cases. Please note for small domestic works lots of items no longer need local authority planning permission since national rules changed in 2008. Your local authority can offer advice to householders.
4. We create all construction details and specifications required sufficient for the build.
5. Costs associated with tendering and further architects fees can be avoided by using our build service by direct Contract.
6. We cost plan, schedule, insure and project manage the build and construct the works to the specifications developed with you. We try to minimise disruption in the planning. There will be stage payments due during construction. All works will be done following a ‘full plans’ submission to Building Control (this is the preferred method as reduces cost risk to all).
7. You will have the opportunity to ‘snag’ the final works and have items corrected before final handover and the final payment is required.

We can incorporate garden design and interior design elements / tasks when required.

If you wish to assess the likely costs for your property please call us now on 07821 876060. If we can’t help you on the phone we will make an appointment to visit the property. www.brunskilldesign.com

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People are becoming aware of all the space above their ceilings, in their roofspaces. The image above shows previously unused loft space reclaimed. Great volume previous generations would have slid a polystrene tiled ceiling across, now are great opportunities for natural daylight and sunlight to be drawn into the house. Volumes are opened right up and the joy of high ceilings is brought back into ‘modern’ properties. These often slope which brings a great dynamic to the interior aswell as giving a good place for the ubiquitous Velux.
Please note we’ve used pictures of a projects by others for illustration purposes (not all Brunskill design projects illustrated) Of course we’d love to have the opportunity to design this for you, with our structural, horticultural and other professionals and super practical builders we would like to schedule in a project for you. Contact us when ready to make your vision reality on 07821 876060.
 

It’s about living life the way you want NOW and for the next few years at least while we all work our way out of recession. So we may tell ourselves ‘no more rehearsal!’ and ‘Carpe Diem’ – seize the day, every day.

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Do you like any of these? (click image to enlarge.) What makes a good place to live? Well we want our built environment to be good for us, and for the planet.

Whether we live in the town or the countryside we tend to always want space and natural light. We want good facilities for washing, preparing food and dining etc. The appearance of our buildings matters to us too, traditional and modern can raise very subjective feelings. Both have their place, there can be good and bad versions of both.

Most buildings have potential to be improved in some way. For example, some houses benefit from a 180 degree turnaround in their planning – to get advantage of a garden or a view – life improving qualities.

Site orientation has a huge importance in the design the sun always rises in the east and sets in the west, therefore the sun and shadows will move around your building in a totally predictable way. Our starting point for house design is always orienattion with regrad to the sun, a south or west aspect is higly desirable, but east or north facing sites can be dealt with by careful placement of rooflights, light wells, courtyards or conservatories. In this country we usally want to capture as much sunshine as possible. Building regulations now mean having large windows has to be dealt with very carefully due to concerns about high heat loss through glazing.

A well controlled junction between inside and outside spaces is really helpful and enables us to use our external spaces better. Connections to gardens and outside spaces can be big wide openings like in Studio MG’s stunning modern house in London, or more modestly, elegant pairs of double doors. Our old buildings need to adapt and change to survive in their usefulness. (Adapt, change, survive is the company motto in these recessionary times. Normally our motto is quality not quantity). Whether a building is brand new or elderly, the same issues arise and each should be treated with design integrity undertsamding the merits of what exists in the building, whther that is aspect, spaciousness, good planning, detailing, quality of materials and workmanship or something else.

Sitting comfortably with you neighbours and respecting their privacy is important as we build and rebuild our communities. Whether you live in London, Bath or St Albans, the issues are similar.

Ecological concerns and energy consumption are now really understood as critical. There are lots of things we can do to help save energy. The Energy Saving Trust aims to cut carbon emissions by promoting the sustainable and efficient use of energy in households, the public sector and the transport sector.

The Simon Conder design for the modern house on Marshal’s Drive in St Albans Hertfordshire is a rare of contemporary modernism in the St Albans area. Exceptional circumstances led to the design being accepted. St Albans has a reputation as one of the most conservative councils for example, whereas Bath, a World Heritage City, a huge conservation area, has allowed some unashamedly modern extensions if they are of high enough quality and well integrated into their context. A Spanish hacienda in St Albans or rural outskirts of Bristol, would have to be exceptional to be able to sit in context successfully. Overall its the design quality in context and integrity of what is built, that matters, not the styling.

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