News

Congratulations to @humannatureplaces and the whole Phoenix team! On Thursday this week, the South Downs National Park planning committee gave unanimous approval of the Phoenix development. This is an important moment for Lewes, for our client Human Nature and the construction industry at large. The project has the potential to really change what we do, and how we do it, for the better. Congratulations on a huge amount of work and an outstanding scheme to Human Nature and the whole project team. This is going to be exciting!

In contrast to the large matt render end walls of the existing building, the new extension is clad in high-gloss tiles, which reflect both daylight and the gardens that surround the house. Our proposals extended this house in Surrey, by architect George Buzuk (1968), to form a multi-generational family home, with the works completed in 2020. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #wellbeing #retrofit #residential #homes #sustainability

Explored through shaded diagrams and massing models, the new extension required for additional bedrooms and living space, affords a subtle degree of separation from the existing accommodation and thereby giving autonomy to all generations. The new light filled space between the new and the retained is a shared living space, glazed at either end to provide views out to the garden. Our proposals extended this house in Surrey, by architect George Buzuk in 1968, to form a multi-generational family home, with the works completed in 2020. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #wellbeing #retrofit #residential #homes #sustainability

Our proposals extended this house in Surrey, by architect George Buzuk (1968), to form a multi-generational family home, with the works completed in 2020. Working with the building’s distinctive geometries, our brief was to find a way to extend that would be respectful of the strong character of the existing building, affordable on the challenging budget, while also being comfortable and generous to the wonderfully mature gardens that surround the house. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #wellbeing #retrofit #residential #homes #sustainability

From the outset we knew this would be a complex and ambitious blend of retrofit and new-build to create a long lasting, robust, loose fit building for the future. It has been a careful process of stitching, repairing and rebuilding to create flexible architecture which can respond to future change. We’ve resurrected the yard typology, ubiquitous to this area of London, creating a permeable block bounded by three lively streets, utilising self finished durable materials throughout to enhance the sense of continuation between retained and new buildings. It’s a multi aspect and multi-access workplace, with opportunities to connect to and across the yard, or be outside on another terraces that connect you the wider city. It creates a collegiate atmosphere between tenants which in turn feel connected to the neighbourhood. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #archtiecturestudio #studio #workplace #workplacedesign #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #wellbeing #retrofit #brickwork #sustainablity

The proposals looked to retain and reuse existing buildings combined with carefully composed new additions, rebuilding the site holistically through a series of new buildings, rooftop extensions and roof terraces. The result is a sense of spatial generosity, vistas and connectedness that unifies the buildings. The retention of existing built fabric dramatically reduced the amount of waste that would have been generated, and takes advantage of the significant embodied energy on the site. The building has achieved BREEAM Excellent and WELL Gold certifications, which attest to Great Suffolk Yard’s credentials for both environmental sustainability and user wellbeing. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #archtiecturestudio #studio #workplace #workplacedesign #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #wellbeing #retrofit #brickwork #sustainablity

Great Suffolk Yard is a workplace project in the Liberty of the Mint Conservation Area in Borough, London, where we have worked collaboratively with our client @tailored_living_solutions from initial conversations in 2018, through planning, construction and on to completion in early 2023. Three existing buildings and four new buildings enclose a central yard to create a thriving new multi-aspect workspace, with access to multiple external terraces in additional to the shared yard. The retrofit and new-build project reinstates the warehouse and yard typology that characterises the area. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #archtiecturestudio #studio #workplace #workplacedesign #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #wellbeing #retrofit #brickwork #sustainablity

The fitout of our TDO studio required close collaboration with the contractor, where they could bring their joinery skill and experience to the formation of this XL piece of plywood furniture, suspended from retained and additional red-primer steelwork. Alongside drawings we also produced a model to clarify how all the pieces fit together to make an unique workspace within this unusually shaped arch. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #archtiecturestudio #studio #workplace #workplacedesign #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #wellbeing #timber #plywood #steelframe

TDO moved our studio from Hackney into an unused Southwark railway arch in 2012. At that time Network Rail had not been able to find a tenant due to the unusual shape and size of this arch, located only 5 minutes walk south of Tate Modern. Our studio fit-out, completed in 2013, introduces a suspended timber workspace at Mezzanine level, maintaining the arches scale from Ground level through retained double height areas above the entrance and breakout space, allowing the full volume of the railway arch to be experienced and appreciated. The plywood is much like a large scale piece of joinery supported from primer-red steelwork, which provides 15 workspaces and an open-plan collaborative ground floor space, with meeting room, kitchen area and wash facilities tucked into the awkwardly narrow spaces of the plan. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #archtiecturestudio #studio #workplace #workplacedesign #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #wellbeing #timber #plywood #steelframe

Thank you @architectsjournal for the wonderfully written and insightful Building Study by @_ellie_duffy of our Great Suffolk Yard for @tailored_living_solutions Really excited to share more detail and images of this project next week. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #london #retrofirst #retrofit

In initial conversations with clients for both residential and workplace projects our focus is on wellbeing alongside sustainability. We often make reference to this photograph, looking out towards the pond and garden beyond from within our Forest Pond House (completed in 2011), for the inherent qualities that the natural regenerative warmth provided by the face finished timber. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #house #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #wellbeing #timber #timberframe #garden #pond

We have enjoyed working collaboratively with our client @tailored_living_solutions on Great Suffolk Yard from 2018 through to completion in early 2023. With tenants now occupying the building we look forward to sharing more about this new exciting workplace project over the next few days. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #house #homes #architect #architecture #retrofit #workplacedesign #workplace #architecturelovers #london #brick #brickwork

TDO studio’s interest in off-site manufacture and MMC is continuing with our research into a system of panellised components that can be arranged to construct workspace extensions to existing buildings utilising regenerative natural materials which provide our clients with higher quality and cost certainty. These components are designed to be demountable for future reuse elsewhere. We were approached in early 2022 to assess a client’s existing portfolio of commercial buildings for the viability of roof level extensions. They were keen to test our research into off-site MMC systems to be deployed across multiple sites, to create module arrangements that provide shared meeting rooms, breakout space, kitchen and dining areas with access to rooftop external gardens. The research and development continues into 2024, with the first installation anticipated in early 2025. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #house #homes #residential #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #london #workplace #craftsmanship #timber #timberframe #modular #workspacedesign

Our Old Church Street Town House project continues to be a reference for the studio at TDO. Through the design development of these proposals we developed an approach to assessing the rhythms of the surrounding street fenestration that has continued to inform our research and proposals across other urban streetscapes where the built environment has grown and changed over time, requiring new architectural proposals to respond to those adjacencies while also remaining contemporarily of their time. In late 2011, TDO were commissioned by our client @echlin_studio , who entrusted us with their first built project. The brief was to provide an architecture for a new unique home on this site, within which they could develop their emerging brand identity. Through carefully considered Pre-App and Planning applications with Planning and Design Officers, Design Review Panel and consultation local groups, the ambitious proposals were supported. Collaborative working with the client, contractor and specialist makers throughout construction enriched the project to provide this unique new home, completed in early 2015. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #house #homes #residential #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #london #workplace #craftsmanship #brick #brickwork #bronze #windows #metalwork #metalwindows

Planning permission has been granted, November 2023, for our proposals to retain, refurbish and extend an existing 1960’s commercial building on St John’s Street in Clerkenwell, London. Working collaboratively with our client across a series of sites in London to improve the wellbeing of their Tenants, the brief to TDO in early 2022 was to produce proposals that; enhance and complement the existing building through the improvement of the built fabric and its amenity spaces; create a unique character for the building through the retention and refurbish the existing fabric and structure where possible to preserve the embodied carbon of the existing building. Our proposals seek to rectify the functional problems of the existing building to provide accessibility for all and adopts a sustainable design for the external building fabric. This is to be achieved through the refurbishment and modernisation of the retained building structure and complemented by a brick clad mass timber frame extension to the St John’s Street facade. This new street facing facade replaces an existing condition that detracts from the surrounds and provides the opportunity to improve its appearance and reinstate the building line while also and enabling improved quality of the building’s thermal, daylight and natural ventilation performance required for the modern workspace accommodation within. Introduction and extension of lightwells to the rear and centre of the site, providing ground, lower ground and basement levels with natural light and ventilation enable the change of use of the basement and lower ground floor from storage and car parking to contemporary office workspace use. Reconfiguration of entrance sequence, internal layouts and circulation to provide accessibility for all. The introduction of a covered walkway with PVs and planting at rear external first floor level, providing a biodiverse, sustainable, and accessible external amenity space. Thank you to @darcstudio_ for their illustration of the proposals. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #house #homes #residential #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #london #workplace #craftsmanship #brick #darcstudiouk

Earlier this week Planning consent has been granted on our proposals for 5 new homes in Lambeth, London. A successful outcome to the longest running series of Pre-App and Planning applications we have been involved with as a Practice. It is testament to our client’s commitment to the underlying design concepts and their perseverance with the Planning process to have achieved this outcome. Our client approached TDO in 2018 to work collaboratively with them to design a multi-home scheme on their challenging vacant site within the Larkhall conservation area in Lambeth, South London. Through a series of Pre-Applications with Planning & Design Officers from 2019 to 2020, the proposals evolved towards an agreed arrangement of accommodation and architectural language that references the historic pair of buildings that had once occupied the site, with small shops at street level and residential accommodation on the floors above. Our proposal for recessed balconies to the apartments at First and Second floors, inset behind unglazed apertures within the street facing fenestration, were key to providing the private external amenity that would complement the conservation area while also exceeding London Plan requirements for new homes. Two duplex apartments are located at Ground and Lower Ground floors, with dual aspect to rear courtyard gardens. At First and Second floors lateral apartments with recessed balconies provide generous dual aspect layouts, with a fifth home within the metal clad roof form, set back from the street to accommodate their own south facing private roof terrace. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #house #homes #residential #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #architecturephotography #london #homedesign #craftsmanship #brick #brickwork #brickhouse #modelmaking

Reuse, refurbish and retrofit of existing buildings, rather than demolish and rebuild, has become an ever more prominent conversation at the earliest stage of our design process with regards to both environmental and social sustainability. In 2016 we were commissioned by our client to assess the viability of converting a disused Coach House on the St. Margaret’s Estate, north of Twickenham Park, into a highly sustainable 3 bedroom family home with retention of the existing fabric, openable windows and light filled internal spaces, including natural light into a new basement and enlarged first floor bedroom level. To achieve these objectives we set the target of Passive House, while in the understanding that other aspects of the client brief that centred on wellbeing must also balance the requirements of Passive House. Following structural survey, the front elevation was required to be rebuilt which in turn allowed for it to be 'moved out' towards to street by one meter, providing additional internal space and subtle shifts to the previous window positions. The Coach House build completed in 2019, with the family moving into their new highly sustainable retrofitted home. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #house #homes #residential #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #architecturephotography #london #homedesign #craftsmanship #brick #brickwork #brickhouse #sustainability #sustainabledesign #retrofitfirst

Working collaboratively with our clients to develop, understand and fulfil their brief is fundamental alongside undertaking site analysis to inform initial concept design. In 2019 we were approach by one of our clients @tailored_living_soltuions to assess and improve on a previous consent by others for a new-build mixed-use building on a vacant site facing onto the Ashburnham Triangle Conservation Area, on Greenwich High Road. Our proposals looked to optimise the development opportunity through analysis of the streetscape, where we believed an additional storey and larger footprint at ground floor could be accommodated through careful design moves. This approach increased the number of new homes and also allowed for larger south facing balconies to all apartments above the enlarged commercial unit at street level. Completed in 2022, vertical slender brick columns and horizontal fair faced white concrete slabs form deep south-facing balconies which provide the homes a visual break from the busy street and solar shading to the full height glazing in the summer. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #house #homes #residential #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #architecturephotography #london #homedesign #brick #brickwork #concrete #concreteconstruction

Natural daylight into the centre of the home helps reduce reliance on artificial lighting while also enhances wellbeing, connecting us to the outside from all areas of the house. The design for Fab House centred around a precision made plywood staircase which interlocks the Ground and First floor timber modules. A piece of crafted joinery celebrating natural daylight and face finished materials at the heart of the home. Designed collaboratively with @mrgeorgeclarke, Fab House is our factory built MMC house type for @weareurbansplash, installed at @smithsdock in 2018. #tdo #tdoarchitecture #house #homes #residential #architect #architecture #architecturelovers #architecturephotography #homedesign #naturallight #craftsmanship #fabhouse #stair #stairdesign #modularhome

Places for People @placesforpeopleofficial appointed TDO in 2017 as plot architects to gain detailed planning consent for 71 new MMC homes over 2 of 5 plots of their Dove Lane masterplan, with planning consent granted in 2018 on this challenging brownfield. The masterplan brings hundreds of new homes and business space to 1.6 hectares of vacant land in St Pauls, Bristol, to deliver 230 new homes, 893 sq m of retail space, 1,218 sq m of office space and improved landscaping across the vacant site just off the M32 in St Pauls. Our brief was to design exemplar timber frame modular housing by way of a 61 apartment scheme on one plot, and 10 modular terrace houses on the other. The proposals were to be exemplary technical deployment of off-site modular construction, and exemplary pieces of architecture in their own right. We looked to achieved this by expressing the inherent qualities of the modular construction through collaborative working with the off-site manufacturers. In the apartment scheme we expressed the supporting steel frame externally and used colour to define an elevational rhythm and the width of each home, with further horizontal and vertical layers bringing depth to the facade. The colour is offset by an off-white, canvas-like cementitious finish to the building. The design for the terraced houses learn from Fab House, our modular homes delivered for Places for People and Urban Splash. The colourful elevational treatment flows from the apartments, and colour is used again to define the extent of each home. The detailing further defines each house as an individual building, which is part of a larger whole.