News & views
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27th
AugAt Archer-Hoblin we pride ourselves on our expertise, and will be adding to our “News and Views” various articles which display our knowledge. We would love this to become a forum and a help section for people in the industry and those who are interested in learning more. One of the key features we will [...]
At Archer-Hoblin we pride ourselves on our expertise, and will be adding to our “News and Views” various articles which display our knowledge. We would love this to become a forum and a help section for people in the industry and those who are interested in learning more. One of the key features we will concentrate on is our in depth knowledge of basements and basement construction. Basements were a popular feature before and during the Victorian era, mainly due to the dense inner city population, and the shortage of suitable space for building. After WW1 low cost housing became a priority, and large areas of land were released to accommodate this.
The British basement was neglected for much of the last century but the last decade has seen a big revival in basements, and now they are back in style. Modern construction methods and waterproofing techniques have been key factors in this, allowing basements to be designed and created in various ways; New build, Refurbishment, and Retrofit. With rising land costs and shortage of prime sites, even some of our National house builders, and the self-build sector have recognised the benefits of basements, and are maximising the space available. Larger homes can therefore be built competitively on smaller sites.
Property owners looking to ‘up-size’ have also realised that in this overpriced market, the basement option is hard to ignore. If you have unused space partially or completely below ground, the investment in a basement refurb can add a complete new floor to your property, providing quality space for living, leisure, utility or storage. It will also add value and saleability to your property.
Urban home owners without subterranean space are not left out of the basement boom, far from it. Retrofit basements are well established in the UK. This is the method of micro tunnelling under your property, and creating a completely new floor underground, following the footprint of the building. Archer-Hoblin offers the complete package, working with our own or your Architects & Structural Engineers. Excavation, underpinning & other structural work is carried out with military precision. Drainage, waterproofing, and insulation are carried out with a high level of expertise, as are the decorative finishes. Natural light & ventilation are designed into the basement, to make it an attractive addition to the property.
If you are interested in finding out more, please feel free to contact us. We are the friendliest contractor you will ever call.
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31st
JulTogether with our development partners, the Network Housing Group, we are delighted to announce that the £21 million regeneration of a brownfield site in Homerton has been given the go ahead. The new development will create 97 new homes in the community and will include many innovative features such as a 6 storey high living green [...]
Together with our development partners, the Network Housing Group, we are delighted to announce that the £21 million regeneration of a brownfield site in Homerton has been given the go ahead.
The new development will create 97 new homes in the community and will include many innovative features such as a 6 storey high living green wall and over 20% renewable energy generation on site.
We will be working closely with Mitali Housing Association and London Strategic Housing, both members of Network Housing Group, as well as Hunters, the Employers Agent, to provide homes of the highest standard taking into account the needs of the diverse local community.
Work on site will commence in September 2009 and will be completed in the summer of 2011, ready in plenty of time for the Olympics!
We would like to thank all involved who have worked tirelessly over the past 12 months to bring this fantastic project to fruition.
What can we tell you about Hackney that you don’t already know? Well try this for a starter: Lewis Berger, the pioneer paint manufacturer, moved his factory to Homerton in 1780. Later, Xylonite, an early plastic, was invented in Hackney, whilst the firm that claims to have coined the term ‘petrol’ – Carless, Capel & Leonard – was based in Hackney Wick.
View other Archer-Hoblin Community social housing projects in our portfolio.
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9th
JulThis is the first in a series of jottings to give you a “blagger’s guide” to the ages of architecture in the UK. We have started in the 19th Century with a style Archer Hoblin has great experience in renovating and refurbishing, using traditional craftsmanship. The Regency has been defined as “The period 1811-1820 during which [...]
This is the first in a series of jottings to give you a “blagger’s guide” to the ages of architecture in the UK. We have started in the 19th Century with a style Archer Hoblin has great experience in renovating and refurbishing, using traditional craftsmanship.
The Regency has been defined as “The period 1811-1820 during which the Prince of Wales (later George IV) acted as regent during his father’s periods of insanity”. However, most historians would allow the period from 1795 to 1830 as being the true Regency period. The Prince was not yet fifty but he was grossly obese, dressed in garish uniforms, often of his own design, allegedly sacking housemaids if he caught them looking at his immense belly and weeping at the feet of the disinterested beauties he diligently pursued. But all hail to the man who sponsored the building of Regent Street and Cumberland Terrace and who loved the novels of Jane Austen. A true playboy of his day he spent money like water. In three years he is reported to have spent £160,000 on furniture alone, in those days a staggering sum.
The Prince presided over the rebuilding of much of central London, with possibly his most impressive achievement being Carlton House given to the Prince of Wales when he came of age in 1783. With the help of the 3 architects Henry Holland (1745-1806), James Wyatt (1746-1813) and John Nash (1752-1835), he transformed a relatively modest two-storied house into a veritable palace worthy of comparison to European royal retreats. Regency high style at its most sumptuous was embodied here. Until it was found unsafe and demolished in 1827, Carlton House was a showpiece of Regency high society’s taste.
Brighton House (eventually renamed Brighton Pavilion), was partially rebuilt between 1815 and 1822 when the Prince became interested by the taste for Chinoiserie, then fashionable again. He commissioned designs for a new building in the Oriental style with several eminent architects submitted drawings. The final result was the work of John Nash. The Prince was ecstatic with the results and was to furnish and decorate his pride and joy in exuberant style.
It has to be borne in mind that the Prince was not the only influence to be felt in the early years of that century. The previously mentioned trendsetters and architects James Wyatt, and John Nash were busy designing castellated mansions and gothic ornamental cottages. In fact all over England style conscious landowners were commissioning carefully constructed ruins and follies to adorn their country estates Another important Regency personality was of course Nelson (1758-1805). His death in the hour of victory at the Battle of Trafalgar created a “Nelson Cult” which touched virtually every aspect of Regency life.
Although it is, of course, impossible to generalize about popular styles, we’ll do it anyway. There were two major streams of architectural styles popular in the Regency period. The first, which lived on far into the Victorian period, was one of medieval revival. This is often termed Victorian Gothic, or more accurately, Gothic Revival.
This style was based on medieval architecture, in particular the Gothic churches of the late 13th and early 14th century. Architects like James Watt, emulated the Gothic tracery and other decorative elements of the Gothic period, but used more modern methods of construction and substituted cheaper materials. Thus, many Gothic Revival buildings used stucco in place of medieval stone, and braced fanciful Gothic curves with hidden iron struts.
The second, and more popular style of Regency architecture, was classical in nature. That is, it used the philosophy and traditional designs of Greek and Roman architecture. The typical Regency upper or middle-class house was built in brick and covered in stucco or painted plaster. Fluted Greek columns, painted and carefully moulded cornices and other decorative touches, were all reproduced in stucco. The key words to describe the overall effect are “refined elegance”.
Regency Terraces. First a mundane definition: a terrace is a fanciful term for row housing, that is, a string of houses, each sharing a wall with the house beside it. The most characteristic Regency designs survive today in terrace housing.
Many of the more upper class terraces, such as those designed by John Nash surrounding Regents Park in London, are entered through triumphal arches reminiscent of ancient Rome, These arches, generally in stucco, lead to grand rows of houses, with carefully balanced pediments fronted by massive pilaster columns. The best remaining terraces built in this grand style are in London, Cheltenham and Brighton.
Characteristics. Windows are tall and thin, with very small glazing bars separating the panes of glass. Balconies are of extremely fine ironwork, made of such delicate curves as to seem almost too frail to support the structure. Proportions are kept simple, relying on clean, classical lines for effect rather than decorative touches.
Windows and doors, particularly those on the ground floors, are often round-headed. Curved bow windows are popular, and detached villas often featured garden windows extending right down to the ground.
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12th
JunWe thought our new hoarding in Ealing looked rather fetching, and we are especially pleased that the first project to bear the new livery is one we are completing for Genesis Housing Group. Through the years we have built strong ties with Genesis, and this project in particular reflects their desire to provide very high [...]
We thought our new hoarding in Ealing looked rather fetching, and we are especially pleased that the first project to bear the new livery is one we are completing for Genesis Housing Group. Through the years we have built strong ties with Genesis, and this project in particular reflects their desire to provide very high quality affordable housing with all the best that community, energy efficient design can achieve.
Genesis are one of the UK’s largest and most successful providers of homes for rent and sale, providing homes and services to tens of thousands of people across London and the south east. The Group consists of PCHA, Pathmeads and Springboard housing associations, owning and/or managing more than 40,000 homes. Now that is the sort of client to be proud of.
We have brought several projects to Genesis, who like our design flair, but who also appreciate that we design with the end user in mind. We never forget that we are building homes, not just buildings. We consider Genesis to be one of our partners in the industry.
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28th
MayWe are frequently asked to work on buildings of great age, heritage and style, but that doesn’t always mean that they are “listed” buildings. So what does this actually mean? In simple terms a listing covers the whole of a building, both inside and out. This includes any object or structure fixed to the building, and anything which forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948.
We are frequently asked to work on buildings of great age, heritage and style, but that doesn’t always mean that they are “listed” buildings. So what does this actually mean? In simple terms a listing covers the whole of a building, both inside and out. This includes any object or structure fixed to the building, and anything which forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948. This includes boundary walls, outbuildings, cobbles in courtyards and any signs attached to the building.
Everything built before 1700 which has survived close to its original state will be listed. Buildings dating from between 1700 and 1840 are listed, although some selectivity is applied, while buildings from 1840 to 1914 are selected on the basis of their demonstrating technical advances, having some notable feature, or being designed by a famous architect. More recent buildings are now considered on a similar basis, but have to be nominated for listing. Such nomination has included bridges, barns and even telephone boxes.
English Heritage is the party who administer the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 in England and Wales. They decide whether a structure should be listed, and allocate that structure to one of the following grades:
Grade I: buildings of outstanding or national architectural or historic interest
Grade II*: particularly significant buildings of more than local interest
Grade II: buildings of special architectural or historic interestJust to confuse things, the Department for Culture, Media & Sport is thinking of changing the term Listed Building to Designated Structure. This is to rationalise the designations so that Scheduled Ancient Monuments, Listed Landscapes, monuments and maritime heritage sites would all be covered by the same system. We can’t wait.
If you want to demolish, alter or extend a listed building, in a manner which affects its character or setting, you need to contact the conservation officer of the local planning authority to establish whether Listed Building Consent (LBC) is required. LBC is similar to planning permission, though no fees are involved. In some circumstances English Heritage will also have to be consulted, though this would normally run in parallel to LBC.
Small grants are available from most local authorities and County Councils to assist in the increased cost associated with repairing a listed building. Such grants will not extend to cover standard maintenance or improvement, but are rather intended to assist with works such as re-roofing, re-pointing, damp proofing and timber treatment. The government contributes to the cost of works by way of VAT concessions, which are a whole further subject.
If you own a listed property and don’t adequately maintain it the local authority may make an application to the Secretary of State for a direction for minimum compensation to be included in a compulsory purchase order. English Heritage may also place the building on it’s At Risk Register.
We hope you found this useful, but if you are in any doubt, want more information, or want a helping hand through the system to get your project off the ground, just get in touch. We have a habit of making these things much easier, and our contacts can help with any difficulty you may be having in the process.
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21st
MayBeing an established, design-led construction group, we saw the opportunity to review and re-structure the Group at a time when the construction industry has been hit hard. We decided to go back to our roots - to redefine our company’s structure - in order to carry out a complete rebrand to make us stand out from the crowd. A positive, strategic marketing move in less positive times.
Being an established, design-led construction group, we saw the opportunity to review and re-structure the Group at a time when the construction industry has been hit hard. We decided to go back to our roots - to redefine our company’s structure - in order to carry out a complete rebrand to make us stand out from the crowd. A positive, strategic marketing move in less positive times.
When we formed 20 years ago, the main field of our work was residential underpinning for the insurance market. This work honed our skills and experience in high-end renovation and refurbishment, developing our current capability of fulfilling entire build projects at the highest levels of industry standard. We also turned our focus on the affordable housing sector where we now have an outstanding reputation for our design-led and humanitarian approach to social housing. Our offering has expanded significantly since the early days, so we restructured the company into 6 different divisions, including Community, Projects, Works, Civils and Services.
Our marketing communications agency, VGroup, took us through their Brand-Vision process, aimed at getting under the skin of the company ethos and core values, creating a new identity and controlling the brand once it is rolled out. Our new company structure has been mirrored in the new brand architecture and creation of the new identity, followed with the design and build of the new family of websites for the Groups’ divisions.
We have recognised that now is the time when companies need to maximise the effectiveness of their brand, its values and their communications to work hard, stand out form the rest and create a competitive edge.
It’s been an enlightening experience working with a professional branding agency in building our brand – VGroup’s discerning, analytical approach matched with an impeccable attention to detail was the perfect match for Archer-Hoblin. We wanted to signal positive change to our clients, employees, partners and stakeholders, and we are excited to finally be able to show off the final results.
We hope you like our new look.
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12th
MayOn one of our current projects we are being asked to remove sections of pugging in the floor void. For the un-initiated, pugging is a method of insulating between floors commonly used in the richer homes before the 19th century. It consists of plaster reinforced with horse hair, pressed onto timber laths under the floor timbers.
On one of our current projects we are being asked to remove sections of pugging in the floor void. For the un-initiated, pugging is a method of insulating between floors commonly used in the richer homes before the 19th century. It consists of plaster reinforced with horse hair, pressed onto timber laths under the floor timbers.
The less experienced in this field may decide to simply break up the material and remove it, but there is more to it than that. First of all, English Heritage don’t take kindly to the destruction of such a material, which would often give grounds for listing the structure. Secondly, removal of this material may give rise to the risk of anthrax. Yes, anthrax.
In 1895 controls were introduced in the UK which required animal hair being used for reinforcement to be sterilised by boiling prior to use. The purpose of this was to kill anthrax spores trapped in the hide, especially imported hides from China, Russia and Siberia. This new law greatly reduced the cases of anthrax experienced in certain factories of the time, and was quite a health boost in its day.
In 1919, The Lancet wrote of cases of anthrax caught by soldiers during the Great War from shaving brushes imported from the USA. Only 20 factories produced the brushes, and only a handful of these failed to sterilise the horse hair, which was generally imported from Argentina. A surprising number of deaths were attributed to this cause during the war.
There are no known cases of anthrax being caught from the removal of plaster reinforced with horse hair. It has, however, been confirmed that the anthrax bacilli can survive in a “dried” or dormant state for years, coming back into active life after being reintroduced to moist air. We follow the guidelines and our operatives wear masks and gloves when working. The area is also regularly vacuumed and cleaned.
When you work on heritage buildings, it does pay to know what you are doing. You only get one chance to get things right, and mistakes often cannot be reversed.
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1st
MayWe are often asked how much it would cost to create a basement floor to an existing property. The unhelpful answer is that this is totally dependent on what you intend to put in it, and to what extent it lies underneath the existing structure.
We are often asked how much it would cost to create a basement floor to an existing property. The unhelpful answer is that this is totally dependent on what you intend to put in it, and to what extent it lies underneath the existing structure.
Pushed to give a guide price, we normally state that the cost is between £150 and £300 per sq. ft. of area per basement floor. That doesn’t really help when you are trying to make that decision to appoint an architect to proceed with the job. You need to know a much closer figure, or you will either kill the job with caution, or jump in with no safety net. To help you we have the following handy hints:
1. Step one is to phone us up, or send us an email. Our engineer and estimator will pop round to see you to discuss what is feasible, and give you a very good approximation of price. There is no obligation from this, but it will help you take the next step with confidence, even if that step is to stop.
2. Consider whether you can use adjacent land as your basement, instead of the footprint of the property. For a house this may mean excavating out the back garden, putting in a basement and then topping off with a slab after which you can re-create your original back garden, or start afresh with glazed views into your new basement.
3. Think about what you would like to put in the basement. We are frequently asked to install swimming pools, gymnasiums, cinemas, saunas, spas, garden rooms (glazed fourth wall), games rooms etc. Just occasionally we are asked to install servant’s quarters or utility rooms. The guide here is to consider the value being added to your property if your main purpose is to enhance investment value.
4. There are many ways to bring light into the basement, so consider this as secondary to your access point. How will the basement interact with the rest of the property? Is there room to extend your existing stairwell downwards? There is always a solution, but we can help you to get there quicker.
5. Are you intending to remain on site during the creation of the basement? This is quite often feasible, but it does have implications. For example, you will experience regular periods of noise, which will transmit through the structure to all parts of the property. Furthermore - if we are undertaking a whole house renovation - the phasing of work to allow for partial occupation will mean a longer construction period.
6. Importantly, make sure whoever you use is willing to provide you with an insurance backed long term warranty, such as that provided by members of the Association of Specialist Underpinners (ASUC) or similar. There are a lot of companies selling a service out there. Very few of them have the experience, resource and capability needed to become ASUC members. A warranty is worth very little unless it still exists whether the installer is trading or not. Remember, it may be a considerable investment you are committing to. You need the comfort of a good warranty.
7. As costs go we may not be the cheapest, but we will be close to the cheapest. Furthermore, we will be the best, and that has got to count!
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28th
AprRichard Brinsley Sheridan (1751 – 1816) wrote the famous tome “ The School for Scandal” amongst others, and struck quite a pose as a politician, dramatist and whit in Georgian society. He is also one of the famous past inhabitants of a property in the heart of Mayfair that is undergoing extension and renovation by Archer-Hoblin.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751 – 1816) wrote the famous tome “ The School for Scandal” amongst others, and struck quite a pose as a politician, dramatist and wit in Georgian society. He is also one of the famous past inhabitants of a property in the heart of Mayfair that is undergoing extension and renovation by Archer-Hoblin. Built in 1769 by Robert Adam, this beautiful Grade 1 listed residence - though in poor repair - still holds many of the original features of the age, and is being lovingly restored by the present owner to be his London home.
Archer-Hoblin is well underway underpinning for the creation of a new basement to house all the luxuries of life, and is undertaking surveys of the moulded Adams ceilings prior to repair. Working closely with English Heritage and Westminster City Council we will be using some of the country’s finest craftsmen and artists to produce intricate designs in stone, marble, crystal, plaster and wood.
The owner took considerable care in appointing his building company. After interviewing all the usual names, and inspecting their works, he decided that Archer-Hoblin held the greatest capability in delivering exceptional quality at excellent value. Our experience and close working relationship with English Heritage certainly helped, but we’d like to think that our bespoke service and combined offer held sway on the final decision.
The project will see AHG Civils, AHG Services, Archer-Hoblin Projects and Archer-Hoblin Works all working together, minimizing our reliance on subcontractors, improving interface co-ordination and lowering outturn cost.
As for Sheridan, his quotes show that little changes in 240 years:
“The newspapers! Sir, they are the most villanous, licentious, abominable, infernal - not that I ever read them! No, I make it a rule never to look into a newspaper.”
Hertford Street, Mayfair:
Interior Designer – Anna Owen Design
Architect – Buschow & Henley
Structural Engineer – Jampel Davison & Bell
Services Designer – MH Associates