Award winning scheme

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Middle Farm, Tallentire, a development of 4 energy efficient houses first blogged in the entry ‘House For Sale' has won an award. Allerdale LABC presented the developer, Jadaal Ltd, with the Built in Quality award in recognition of excellent design and build quality in the Multiple Housing criteria on Thursday 23rd April 2009.

The previous blog entry mentioned that the houses are now for sale and I’m pleased to report they have all now sold which is recognition alone in times like these.

It’s good to be recognised and even better to have good design that uses modern building techniques recognised. To save a little time as I’m such a busy man below is the press release which gives a little more background along with some new photos.

Jadaal Ltd Wins Allerdale LABC Built In Quality Award For Multiple Housing Scheme.
Middle Farm, Tallentire, Cockermouth, Cumbria (27 April 2009) – Allerdale LABC bi-annual Built in Quality award is given to Jadaal Ltd in recognition of the excellent build and design quality of 4 energy efficient timber framed houses. The scheme now goes forward to the Northern regional heats.

The four houses designed by Red Raven Design Ltd (Cockermouth) are built forming a courtyard arrangement adjacent to a Grade II listed property. The traditional Cumbrian aesthetic is contrasted with the airy spacious open plan interiors split over two levels. Despite the traditional appearance the houses are built using a bespoke factory constructed timber frame kit to Red Raven’s design. The SupaWall system by Maple Timber Frame Ltd consists of 190mm of polyurethane insulation easily beating the required insulation levels 3 times over with U-values of only 0.113W/m2K . This level of energy efficiency negates the need for central heating requiring only a heat exchange unit fitted to a whole-house ventilation system to provide all the houses heating needs.

Despite the use of bespoke contemporary design, innovative construction systems and high levels of insulation the scheme was quicker and easier to build than a comparative scheme built traditionally achieving only the minimal statutory energy efficiencies required by law.

The scheme commended by Allerdale LABC as “excellent” in terms of design and build quality sets new standards for all small scale speculative development.

From Computer to Reality

Almost 3 years ago I posted an entry about an unexpected planning approval (Unexpected Planning Approval) - that project is now virtually complete. The timber framed building built using Maple Timber Frame’s Ecopack system was erected and finished by the owner client. All that’s left is a little bit of landscaping and fitting of the correct downpipes and it will look just like my original visualizations!

Woolly Art

It was a long time in the making but the only thing woolly about this site is in the name (www.woollyrug.com). This Flash based website has been designed to reflect the works of Jane Exley and her contemporary locally crafted rugs. Based in Ambleside The Woolly Rug Co. makes hand crafted rugs exclusively from Herdwick wool farmed probably in sight of Jane’s studio.

It’s one of the small yet growing number of businesses that take the traditional and turn it contemporary – something I strive to do, particularly when it comes to architecture.

Three New Websites

It seems the interest in having a web presence has been given a new lease of life presumably prompted by the current economic doom and gloom. Over the past few months I have been working on several new sites three of which are briefly described below.

The small but well proportioned site for Duncan Hill Ltd (www.duncanhill.co.uk) provides the logistics specialist with their first online presence.



The second, and is no relation to the first, is for Roland Hill Ltd (www.rolandhills.co.uk). Again this is the building specialists’ first foray into the murky world of the web.



And finally, but not least, is the site for Print Express (www.printex.co.uk). This site replaces their existing one and is my first site to be wholly Flash.

Whitehaven Chic

Biddy Mulligan’s, a long disused Irish pub, in Whitehaven has been transformed in to three 1 bedroom open-plan apartments for sale. The building which was once a dark and damp drinking hole in Chapel Street is now a very light and airy loft-styled conversion by Me Me Me Brighton Ltd (www.mememebrighton.co.uk).



The extensive refurbishments including replacement of the existing tight and narrow staircase within a new stair tower, demolition of the original toilet block to provide parking, full insulation to bring each apartment up to modern energy standards (EPA rated B), and high quality designer bathrooms and kitchens has resulted in something normally only found in Manchester or Leeds.



In order to increase the feel of openness and space, in what is essentially a very small building, internal divisions were kept to a minimum using door-less partitions to create private yet open bedroom areas. It also allowed space to be ‘borrowed’ which increases the feeling of openness.



The properties are currently for sale by Cumbrian Properties (www.cumbrian-properties.co.uk).

To boldly go!.. and succeed

A brief but worthwhile update: The contemporary and bold makeover to the drab, boxy 1970’s bungalow I blogged earlier (To boldly go! Monday, September 29, 2008) has been given full planning approval. I had expected at least some required compromise but my pessimism was unwarranted. It just goes to show if you don’t ask you don’t get.

To boldly go!

It’s not often, in this quiet provincial land of ours up here in Cumbria, that you get the chance to create something different. ‘Radical’ around here is more often than not a bungalow with one of those modern en-suite thingies so to be commissioned to extend and revamp a drab 1970’s bungalow gave an exciting opportunity to do something different.

The boxy original layout of the bungalow has been re-designed to allow for an open plan family room with a mezzanine level at one end to provide a ‘quieter’ area that can also take advantage of the views of the Cumbrian Fells.

The overall layout has been kept simple and barn-like to keep construction simple and costs down. And if I’m allowed some architectural speak… the approach to the design was to produce something that took on the form of a converted barn but in a way that was unmistakably contemporary. Rather than it being a barn converted to house it is house that could be converted to a barn.



The construction is also a departure from what is usual to the area with the whole structure and cladding being in timber. The form of timber frame construction is one I have used before and I have chosen to use it again here to achieve a more energy efficient building and one that can be constructed much faster than a normal block and render building therefore reducing costs.

All we need now is a favourable view from the planners. I hope future posts about this job can be in a positive tone!

A New Website for GDG

It’s been a while since I updated my blog so I shall make amends by reporting the launch of a new website for one of my oldest clients. Green Design Group commissioned their first website in 1999 making them one of the first architect practices in the north to get on line. So, you can imagine the site needed a little updating. The new site has been designed to allow the easy addition of extra pages so that new jobs can be added when they are complete, it also incorporates a blog which gives the ability to post information not always appropriate for a presentation site. As most of my work the site is clean and simple with ease of access to information being the primary design ethic adopted.

The new site - www.greendesigngroup.co.uk
…and the old site – www.redraven.net/gdgold

New Year New Website

After many broken promises to myself to find time to update the old website I have eventually done it. The old site (positively ancient in web years) was designed back in the last century so was in serious need of an overhaul. The new site is similar in that it continues the minimalist approach to design allowing the information to remain ‘king’. All too often web designers over dress a site to the extent that the message is lost, it may look flashy but does it really work? …That’s for you to decide - here it is...

House For Sale

I seem to have neglected my blog for a few months – to make amends I have added a couple of completed schemes and I shall plan to add to the list of new years resolutions to put time aside to make regular updates to this blog.

I wrote about the first scheme in an earlier post (Publication). It gets a mention again as the house is for sale and comes with a juicy brochure full of glossy pictures which you can download here.


The second scheme is a development of 4 three bed houses designed around a courtyard adjacent to a listed building. The close proximity of the listed building and the sites past fraught history with the planning department caused some serious delays. However, with the use of timber frame some time was made up and the result is a group of 4 super-insulated buildings that utilise the sloping site to produce one-and-a-half storey height open plan living spaces.

For a 360 degree fly round click here.

All five houses are being sold by Grisdales of Cockermouth (Tel: 01900 829977)
(top image and 360 fly round by Grisdales)