Empathise and engage

If there’s one thing we’ve learned makes better buildings, it’s empathy. Architecture never happens in isolation—and simply by being interested and engaged, we’ve found it’s possible to open up the conversations that connect a scheme to its clients and community.

Weconstraints

We believe that the more constraints there are, the better the architecture. If there aren’t any constraints, we create them. Challenging sites, existing buildings and complex briefs almost always present incredible opportunities for great design.

Passive future

To limit our environmental impact, we start with what is already there. By manipulating the form and fabric of a building—whether new or existing—we can work with the existing conditions of topography, light and orientation, and harness the natural energy sources offered by air, ground and water.

Social detail

If a site’s constraints guide the bigger design decisions, then it’s empathy that informs the smaller, social details. These details frame the human narratives that aren’t included in the brief, anticipating specific moments in the users’ lives.

Mud on our boots

Good architecture is as much about what happens on the building site as it is about what’s on the drawing board. By working alongside contractors as well as clients we can ring-fence the ideas and details that matter, championing quality and sustainability throughout construction.

Russettings Registry Office
WorkStudioActivityNewsContact
Curl la Tourelle Head
Work
  • Russettings Registry Office

  • Locally Listed

  • Sutton, London

Client
  • London Borough of Sutton

We were commissioned by the London Borough of Sutton to extend Russettings, a large two storey Victorian Villa built in 1885 that has been used as a Registry Office since 1953. Mainly clad in red bricks and featuring an irregular mix of gabled roofs, chimneys, and bay windows, our proposal sensitively brings this building into a more modern context.

Using red clay tiles for the walls and roof of the extension, this additional space provides a larger ceremony/conference room that makes a feature of the large bi-folding timber doors which open onto the terrace and garden. While providing a direct connection between the inner and outer space, the raised platform also offers a dramatic space for the newly-weds as they exit. A ramp running parallel to the existing south elevation provides wheelchair access to the higher level.

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