New 3-bedroom house in Cambridge

This compact house was an addition to an existing 1950's semi-detached house, thus making a small terrace. The design had to be sensitive to the street scene, and to maximize the small footprint, the main stairs were fitted into the slope of the single storey part on the left.

Conversion and enlargement of former shop to create flat and commercial offices in Cambridge

This was originally a small terraced cottage which had been extended on the rear ground floor to form a large showroom for a second-hand furniture shop. A first floor extension was built, limited in size to prevent loss of light for the next door residential property. Commercial use was retained at the front part of the property at ground floor, and a duplex flat created at the rear and first floor.

New 3-bedroom detached house in Cambridge

There was opportunity here, on an open site with two open frontages, to get plenty of light into the house at the same time as making an interesting architectural statement at the end of a row of houses.

Conversion and extension of former gasworks to create four town-houses in Salisbury

The rich, orange, solid brickwork of this engine-building was well worth keeping although it was a challenge to put the car parking all at ground floor under the building itself. Measures to ameliorate ground contamination delayed the implementation of the scheme for a year, but the glorious views of Salisbury cathedral from the roof velux-balconies made it all worthwhile.

Conversion of dwelling into 2 town houses and a workshop in Bath

Like many popular towns and cities, Bath lacks reasonably-priced small homes, unless they are provided by Housing Associations. This scheme converted a run-down 5-bed house into two 2- bedroom houses at a price that first time buyers could afford.

New 3-bedroom house in Longstanton, Cambridge

The proximity of trees to the footprint of this house necessitated piled foundations (see the video). On the plus side, it was possible to retain most of the larger trees on the site and give the house a sense of privacy.

Renovation and extension of house in Cambridge

This was a semi-detached house until a new house was added to the left of the picture (see top of page) Extending into the roof compensated for the loss of part of the garden, and care was taken to keep a pathway available from the back garden round the side of the new house to preserve a rear entry to the house. It's hard to describe how bad was the condition of this house before work commenced!

Conversion and enlargement of redundant public house to two townhouses in Salisbury

Planning permission was obtained for this conversion despite a concerted campaign of opposition by CAMRA. What they didn't appreciate was that there were 150 pubs in the Salisbury area at the time and this, no doubt among others, was an insolvent business.

Conversion of shop to two flats in Salisbury

The ground floor flat had a few challenges from the Building Regulations since there was no rear escape route and "inner rooms" had to be avoided. The bigger worry was the next door chip shop which provided a meeting place for the local lads. Fortunately this potential problem melted away once the front was paved and framed with good quality hooped fencing.

Renovation of terraced house in Horningsea

The most interesting feature of this was the speed. Not requiring either Planning permission or Building Regulations approval (well, it would now), the property was turned round in 12 weeks.

New swimming pool cover in Stowmarket

uPVC is not our favourite building material, but in this case, where there was a high humidity level it came into its own. This was a one-off design, and precision in the specification of the components was vital - with uPVC there is no scope to saw off a bit of excess material here and there.

And for good measure....... a brace of garden offices

There's a business in here somewhere! There are a small number of people who just don't want to buy a cheapie from the garden centre, balanced on a scattering of gravel. These two "offices" were constructed on insulated concrete foundations with perimeter footings, and insulated in the walls and ceiling with high-performance polyeurethane slabs and 150mm rockwool.