As an architectural design practice we believe it is important to continuously engage with the built environment around us. Understanding and learning about architecture and urbanism from a human scale (how you inhabit your home) to a larger city scale (how you engage with the streets, parks and canals that make up the city).
Due to current restrictions many of us have turned to walking as one of our daily rituals. These daily walks have allowed us to explore and appreciate our local neighbourhoods in ways we hadn’t before. As well as providing us with a myriad of opportunities to unwind and redirect our thoughts after a day of working from home.
We have shared a few of our treasured finds and moments with you.
We live opposite a park but rather than walking amongst the trees and excellent array of dogs, the walk of choice has been informed by the texture of the paving which will help our baby sleep. There’s a particular stretch of pavement which has the ‘magic touch’. It has just the right rhythm of bumps in the slabs, and she is almost always asleep by the time we reach a slight kink in the road where a letterbox sits. At that point we diverge and explore our Edwardian and Art Deco surroundings, a recent find being this house built to order following the 1934 Ideal Home Show.
Despite being a stones throw from my rented second floor flat, I had never walked down Monsell road until lockdown 1.0. It was here that I discovered the little blue house and would you believe it, it was for sale! Smaller than a new 1 bed flat in London and coming in at £13,414 per m2, I renovated it and lived a very happy life there – in my daydreams! I love walking past it, imaging a new way of living and putting down roots in my local neighbourhood, which I now appreciate more than ever.
Ps. If the new owners of the blue house happen to be reading this, please get in touch as I have some ideas I’d love to run past you!
Hannah Bergstrand – Part II Architectural Assistant
The canals and rivers in East London are some of my favourite walking routes as they each have a very different character and no two walks are the same. On parts of the River Lea and the Limehouse Cut it doesn’t quite feel like you’re in London.
This photo shows the Hartford Union canal which has recently been drained for maintenance.
Tringa Kelmendi – Part II Architectural Assistant
Spending a large part of my life in Fulham, I thought I knew it all. How wrong was I.
I’ve been trying to make my way to the riverside most lunch times and after work, each time taking a different route. One of these occasions I came across this house on the corner, although I had passed it many times, I hadn’t noticed it until now. Hello there, said ‘the house with one eye’ I became fascinated by it, I hadn’t seen a house quite like it. The entrance, the position on the street among many other quirky details. Most of all of course its circular window, we don’t see enough of these, also what’s behind it?
I now imagine it winking at me as I make my way home, thank you.
Cat Mullan – Operations Manager
I remember when I first discovered this hidden gem in my local neighbourhood, I’d already been living in Streatham for some time and couldn’t believe this magical garden was tucked away at the top of the hill! Each time I go there I feel an incredible sense of calm and I’m taken back to days exploring Japanese gardens and parks hidden behind big temples, overshadowed by massive apartment blocks.
No matter what time of year I visit, the greenery and planting is always so full of character. The Rookery Garden’s always offer that little bit of tranquil escape away from the busy city. And it gives great views of Croydon too!
An exciting series of interrelated projects for a New Healthy Garden City in Ebbsfleet.
27 new homes for affordable rental and shared ownership
