Bespoke and High Performance

  • Unlike a mass-produced product, a building, is a one-off. Most high value products like cars, computers or medical machines take... Unlike a mass-produced product, a building, is a one-off. Most high value products like cars, computers or medical machines take... Unlike a mass-produced product, a building, is a one-off. Most high value products like cars, computers or medical machines take... Unlike a mass-produced product, a building, is a one-off. Most high value products like cars, computers or medical machines take...

    Unlike a mass-produced product, a building, is a one-off.  Most high value products like cars, computers or medical machines take thousands of hours of research, development, engineering, tooling, prototyping, fabrication, and testing, before they emerge from the production line. 

    Whilst many buildings are replicable, an architect designed building is typically bespoke.  This means that the design, engineering, and fabrication are done once, for that building and they need to work.  This is a highly challenging approach to building but at the same time it is the ultimate opportunity for customisation, to achieve a product that is to a client’s exacting specification.  This does not mean that everything must be bespoke, or custom built, as this can become prohibitively expensive.  The key is to understand what the performance criteria of the client is and for the design team to focus on where innovation and creativity can be used in achieving this.

  • We are interested in making high-performance buildings, such that performance is one of the deciding factors behind people’s choice of homes, business or even holiday destination. 

    A great building is often celebrated for its beauty, its materials, and its detailing.  Less frequently is it celebrated for its performance.  The RIBA Awards now take into account the energy in use, looking at the feedback from the first year of a building’s use.  This indicates a growing need to demonstrate the environmental performance of a building within the architectural industry.  But not many buildings in the UK are designed by architects, even less in the US, where 1-2% of all homes are designed by architects (source: https://commonedge.org/). 

    Typically, a building is designed to meet minimum standards set by government.  Instead, we are interested in making high-performance buildings, such that performance is one of the deciding factors behind people’s choice of homes, business or even holiday destination (see Sustainable Hospitality).  How efficient is a building to warm or cool, how may kilowatts/hour of power can it produce, how much does it improve occupants’ quality of life, how many daylight hours does it receive, how durable is it to flooding or overheating. 

  • Every home that is sold or rented in the UK has an Energy Performance Certificate. Until now, most residents have...

    Every home that is sold or rented in the UK has an Energy Performance Certificate.  Until now, most residents have taken little notice of these.  Property experts often advise buyers to take little notice of EPCs as they are not reliable and have limited effect on price.  The average home in the UK is band D – meaning that it performs rather poorly and omits 6 tonnes of carbon per annum.  Nationwide research indicates that a higher performance home with an A or B rating may add 1.7% to the value, while a low performance F or G will reduce value by 3.5% (source: FT 2021).  As energy prices rise, and the cost to heat (or cool) low-performance buildings becomes more significant, the value of high-performance properties may start to be recognised.

    All new build properties have the opportunity to go beyond the minimum, but many large house builders only set their standards to the minimum.  Site standards and professional monitoring can help to raise the standard of traditional, mass-built homes, to improve the chances of the minimum standards being met.

  • We work with smaller developers and private clients who see the added value of going beyond the minimum. A high-performance...

    We work with smaller developers and private clients who see the added value of going beyond the minimum.  A high-performance home is also a very desirable one, especially as energy prices continue to rise.  As legislation requires all homes (not just the new ones) to be as energy efficient as possible, this approach will become more widespread.  All our clients want a low energy building.   High-performance solutions are helping us to achieve A rated buildings and zero-carbon.

    At Closer Close we were commissioned to take over from a previous practice to create a more exciting design vision.  The client embraced the design and the idea of building high-performance homes.  Each house is built to achieve an ‘A’ energy rating, using high-performance insulation, efficient heat pumps, electric vehicle charging points, and beautiful flush solar panels generating 2100 kWhrs/year.  Furthermore, the houses have ample cycle storage, the minimum amount of concrete to provide flood-resilience in the slab, built using a local workforce, they have shared spaces for health benefits and are raised to protect them from flooding.

  • For Penrose Mews we were asked to achieve 10,000 square feet of accommodation on a compact backland site. This was...

    For Penrose Mews we were asked to achieve 10,000 square feet of accommodation on a compact backland site. This was a highly ambitious target to achieve without compromising the design quality and building performance or impacting on the adjacent buildings.  The ingenuity in the solution was the creation of a basement under the shared courtyard, hiding almost 50% of the development, along with a series of lightwells and skylights to bring natural light into almost every room and to provide cross ventilation.  We were able to create generous unit sizes and exceed minimum standards.  We used high performance glazing, insulation and heat pumps to exceed building regulations. Not only did this achieve the clients targets but it created high-quality, high-value, high performance buildings.

  • For the Royal Borough of Greenwich we are delivering a zero carbon dousing scheme for adults with learning difficulties on... For the Royal Borough of Greenwich we are delivering a zero carbon dousing scheme for adults with learning difficulties on... For the Royal Borough of Greenwich we are delivering a zero carbon dousing scheme for adults with learning difficulties on...

    For the Royal Borough of Greenwich we are delivering a zero carbon dousing scheme for adults with learning difficulties on a complex backland site.  The scheme was granted planning consent in 2020 and is due to complete in 2022.

    For English Heritage we were asked to look at the feasibility of a café and gardeners’ welfare and how to make it more sustainable.  We took this beyond the remit of the brief to see if it may be possible to use the capital works for the new buildings to improve the energy efficiency of the whole site.  This meant zero carbon designed new buildings, with improved daylight, views and water efficient equipment, as well as whole site sustainable drainage plan.  Roofs were enlarged to provide additional on-site renewable power generation for the existing buildings, as well as solar shading for future climate adaptation.  The café is designed with a bespoke but prefabricated design and a poetic interpretation of the heritage setting.