Front Planter

After moving into our new studio in Brockley towards the end of November, we have been hard at it trying to put are our stamp on our ‘shop windows’, allowing us to showcase what we do as a studio. 

Leading on from our recent festive window display during December we decided it was time to complement this by stripping back the dilapidated planters in front of our new window displays. After stripping back and clearing away, the neglected overgrown areas revealed rotted plywood bases which simply had some holes cut out to hold the existing plant pots in place.

We thought we could utilise and reuse the retained pallets from when we were fitting out the new studio spaces. With the addition of the pallets and some additional bracing to strengthen the existing base structure we were able to give a new lease of life to our little front garden. 

One of the issues with the existing planter was poor drainage. To tackle this by cutting pallets to fit with the pallets running front-back, lining the base using a weed check 50gsm provided a natural gully in between while adding a layer of gravel over this should offer a suitable drainage system. On top of this, we added a layer of composite and layer of topsoil finished off with wood bark chippings around the plants.  

Barry is our head gardener and sourced a selection of shrubs, ferns, coloured heather, ivy and conifers positioned carefully to utilise the varying soil depths of the planters due to the natural slope. 

We are really pleased with the results, happy to have recycled some of the waste material from our fit out and Barry has already set his sights on the next outdoor project which will see the landscaping of the side plot re-landscaped! Watch this space! 

Christmas Party - Wreath Making Workshop

Just before we all broke up for the Christmas holidays we had a party at our new studio. Part of the reason we are so excited at the new studio space is that it provides us with room to be a little more hands-on and practical - for example we now have a dedicated area to make models, a great surface for printing inks on and even room to set up the drawing board!

We thought that a good way to celebrate Christmas in the new studio and provide a first opportunity for ‘making’ would be to have a practical Christmas party. So we invited the wonderful artist and florist Grace A Williams to our studio to run a wreath making workshop. Her work is closely tied into the crafts, practices and industries traditionally thought of as being in the female arena and floristry has been a part of some of her pieces in the past, for more information on her work please visit:

https://www.grace-a-williams.com

The day started early at the New Covent Garden flower markets in Battersea to buy the raw materials - a bustling working market full of boisterous characters and good cheer. Then onto Borough markets to pick up the other raw material required for a Christmas party - food and booze - before heading back to our studio for the workshop.

Whilst we were all novices and starting from scratch was a lot harder than it first appeared, over the course of a few hours we had a great laugh and produced some very fine looking wreathes to adorn our front doors and tables over the holidays. A few pictures can be found here:

Studio 'Shop Window'

One of the things we are most excited about at the new studio is our ‘shop windows’. It has made a big difference to the atmosphere within the practice to see the world go by during the day and we really want to start a rolling series of window displays to give something back to the street scene in our new home.

With Christmas being the first major occasion since moving in it was decided the first scene for the window display should be a festive feature.

Earlier in the year we had a rebranding exercise that resulted in our fabulous new website and some rather funky business cards that are inspired by origami techniques. Unfortunately since moving our surplus business cards became defunct due to the change of address but Clare had the idea to use them to create a series of mobiles within the window. One window features falling snow and business card stars whilst the other window has a minimal business card Christmas tree.

We think the results are very cool and a really good re-use of our old business cards that would otherwise have been thrown away. It has been particularly enjoyable to see passers-by come and press their noses right against the glass to take a closer look which hopefully is a good sign for future window displays; Watch this Space!

Settling into our New Studio

We moved into our fantastic new studio a few weeks ago and have been getting used to working in the environment. Here are a first few images of the space…

We have moved - first pin up in new studio!

We have made the move from our old offices in London Bridge to our own studio in Brockley. We are very excited to be in our new space and look forward to exploring the potential opportunities being here may provide. We’ve already had a few pin ups around the meeting table - here is Luke presenting a little taste of some of the work his students have been doing at Birmingham School of Architecture to the rest of the team.

MW Architects wins Ultimate Luxury Bathroom Design of the Year 2018!

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Recently our Luxury Master Suite (see: https://www.mwarchitects.co.uk/blog/2018/7/9/master-suite) won the Ultimate Luxury Bathroom Design of the Year category at the Designer Kitchen & Bathroom Awards 2018. 

We were delighted that the judges recognised the careful process of keeping the spatial design fairly simple to allow the natural quality of the materials and the skilful craft of their assembly to be the main event. 

Here is what the judges had to say about the design:

The Luxury Bathroom category is always a great pleasure for the judges because for the designers it’s a test - having a huge budget doesn’t necessarily mean great design. What we saw this year is what I would describe as restraint. It is hard if you have a huge budget to exercise restraint…the projects we enjoyed and got through the shortlist were the ones where the money had been spent on the materials and then the materials were left to speak for themselves. 

The winner of the Luxury Bathroom category actually stood out to us as being a superb use and control of light and space and materials. The materials were so beautifully selected and so fabulously executed that they also enhance the use of the space, they create an ambience in the space that is warm but I would say it is contemporary. So the bathroom really is exuberant, and it is luxurious.

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New Studio Space taking shape

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There are exciting times ahead for MW Architects as we are about to move into a new studio space in South East London. We are currently hard at work fitting out the new studio to provide it with desk spaces, a meeting area, a kitchen and a model making workshop. We are super excited about the move and the impact working in the new space will have on the way we operate. Watch this space for news on our new studio which will be unveiled in the next few weeks. 

Luxury Master Suite

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This project in NW3 was a brand new home for a previous client.  Having inherited a planning permission for the site from the previous owners, external works were limited to the approved envelope and style but the inside provided a canvas for the clients to display their personalities all the way through the home.

With a generous 750 SQM floor plan, spaces were able to be given more area than in other smaller homes.  This led to grand connected spaces at all levels.

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On the first floor, the Master Suite is the epitome of private luxury with a 90 sqm bedroom, bathroom and dressing area across the entire south facing rear of the property behind a large double door from the main hallway.

With a central Juliette balcony the bed sits against a bespoke back-lit bedhead wall with inbuilt side tables and reading lamps and lights floating above.  This opens up onto a large dressing area with a set of corner cupboards and a central dressing unit.

Walking around to the bathroom there is a suggestion of what is to come as large slabs of contrasting marble ‘peek out’ into the passageway.  The design here is based on a series of slabs rising from floor to ceiling in contrasting and inverted marbles to create distinct spaces for the functions of the room as well as to define ‘his and her’ spaces. 

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As you enter the bathroom you are greeted with Panda White book-matched marble slab denoting ‘her’ dressing area with a sink unit on the reverse.  Facing onto this is ‘his’ sink area on a Black Moon book-matched marble slab.  Behind this slab is a 2.5m walk through shower and separate ‘his and hers’ toilets behind the final partition.

The marbles were carefully selected to be as close to a perfect invert of each other as possible, with the monochrome adding to the impressive contrast.

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The floor-to-ceiling slab partitions are set to be perpendicular to the rear wall and window allowing light to flow into the entire bathroom space.  The striking pebble free-standing bath floats harmoniously in front of one of the windows.  The effect is a dramatic yet very functional bathroom space.

Materiality was of high importance throughout with the suite flooring in timber parquet throughout allowing a real sense of continuing space -  the only break in this is for the walk through shower slab.  White plastered walls are used in all spaces to allow the materials to be visually prominent.  A dark grey stained oak is used on the bedroom furniture with the bedhead being a painted softwood and a bespoke construction built in situ. 

Acle Bridge Visitor Centre Competition - Norfolk Broads

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We recently entered into a competition to design the new visitor's centre at Acle Bridge, in the Norfolk Broads. We were given the task of designing a canal side visitor centre that provided cafe space, facilities for mooring boats, an education space and an exhibition area in order to educate visitors about the history of the Norfolk Broads and the importance of water. The building was also to be designed in order to take advantage of the surrounding landscape, the largest protected wet land in the UK. 

We approached this project, designing what we hoped had the ability to be a landmark building for the Norfolk Broads Authority. Being in such a significant part of the country we took inspiration from one of the greatest pieces of architecture found in the Norfolk Broads, the wherry boat. We wanted to capture the wind filled sails that can be seen cutting through the reeds of the Norfolk broads in a solidified structure but in an abstracted manner. Due to the organic shapes created by the sails we thought it would be counter productive to begin with computer modelling. Instead, we started our

investigation using craft rock to create organic 'sail like' shapes. We were then able to establish numerous roofing schemes that we could use in the design of our building.

The result, we believe, is one that answers the brief while delivering a unique piece of architecture and in some way a part of the Norfolk Broads, in building form. We have proposed a collection of 'sail like' swooping curved roofing planes which create a dramatic and spacious interior. Large expanses of glass frame the outstanding surrounds while also flooding the building with natural light, while making the building more sustainable as a result of large solar gains. The concave roof planes also serve as grey water collectors allowing the building to be serviced by the water it collects. The roofing system itself is a unique system that we invented and pioneered in conjunction with structure mode (read our blog about that here). A cnc cut, LVL structural timber, self reciprocating, double curved timber roof with a stressed skin

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