ATA Teaching at CAT Summer School

Fran and Junko spent a most enjoyable couple of days at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) architecture diploma summer school, talking about projects and about participatory design. A workshop in which we played the architects and students were allowed to be clients had us all laughing, but illustrated a great truth - bringing all the participants into the design process makes it much more interesting!

Delightful too to see the setting out drawings for the timber building in the woods, and the photos of the build in action, we love the bird hide, even if birds might hide in it better than humans

Click here to see a fantastic video by the CAT students of their bird hide construction, and here for photos taken by the students.

ATA Celebrates 20 Years!

Anne Thorne Architects invites you to celebrate its 20th birthday and the 1st of ATA LLP

ATA Host Idaho Charette Students

ATA hosted students Corey Becia & Charles van Ausdell from the architecture school at the University of Idaho for their one day design charette at the end of the students month long visit to the UK. The charette brief was to design a sustainable serpentine pavilion. The students took sensory experiences as their theme and designed a beautiful pavilion constructed from greened gabion wall, a delicate roof structure, and lightweight structure, weighted by a body of water that collected rainwater run off from the roof.

The student trip focused on sustainable architecture and design in the UK and was led by Bruce Hagland, professor at the University of Idaho, who'd taken the 20 architecture students on building visits and to the Centre of Alternative Technology in Wales during their time month here.

Passivhaus and Retro-fit Scheme Submitted for Planning

ATA have submitted Passivhaus and retro-fit scheme to Dan Leno house in the conservation area for Planning

ATA have submitted their new housing scheme following the consultations with the local residents in the conservation area.
The scheme includes three new-build houses and sustainable, low carbon refurbishment & retrofit to existing adjoined terrace houses that will create 5 new flats.   Dan Leno (1860–1904) an English music hall comedian lived in one of the houses. There is a blue plaque.
The Existing street comprises a number of styles of architecture from mid 19th Century to 21st Century. The variety of houses in different floor heights and window lines, mainly in blocks of four, gives the street an interesting, varied appearance and rhythm. The new buildings respect the qualities of craftsmanship and human scale. ATA have maximised the thermal performance in the new houses to provide good quality on the inside as well.

West Hendon Pilot on Site...

ATA's terrace of six houses and a pair of semi detached houses are in the middle of construction as part of the first new buildings in the regeneration of West Hendon, with Metropolitan Housing Trust & Barratt Homes.

The houses respond to the natural slope down to the Welsh Harp Reservoir, the south facing orientation, potential views towards the water, and opportunities for use of solar energy.  Together these suggested the asymmetrical pitched roofs, stepped gables and bay windows, which give each house its own identity.

Sustainable construction and services are at the heart of our strategy; well insulated walls, roof and floors which perform well over building regulation requirements, sustainably sourced timber and timber products, including high performance timber windows,  whole house ventilation, low water use fittings and duel flush WCs, rainwater collection for garden and external use, condensing low NOX emissions boilers, low energy use light fittings.  High levels of insulation and solar thermal water heating will mean reduced utilities bills to residents.

Passivhaus Environment Centre Starts on Site!

The timber piles are almost complete on site, ready to take the timber frame for the building. The low-impact timber pile foundations will support the 300 sqm building in the centre of the regenerated Lordship Recreation Ground. The timber foundations remove the need to use CO2 intensive concrete foundations in the middle of this valuable green space with the London Borough of Haringey.  

The Environment Centre has been designed by Anne Thorne Architects to exemplary sustainable standards, with the local community involved through all stages of the design process. The building is to act as a sustainable learning tool in both it's construction, it's operation, and the future activities that will take place under it's green roof once the building is complete.

The Secret Millionaire Visits Centre 404!

Centre 404 was featured on Channel 4's The Secret Millionaire programme. The money donated from the secret millionaire will continue to fund the centre's Juniors Club for the next year and a special event for the  family carers.


The centre has also been fundraising hard to get the building refurbished and disability access incorporated.  ATA are working with Centre 404 to create a more accessible new basement floor with new garden room, level access reception, accessible lift to all floors, changing places facilities and level access to their beautiful garden, which is why the fund raising is so important!

Centre 404 is a centre for carers of children with learning disabilities and works towards building a community and a society where people with learning disabilities are valued. 

Over the years Centre 404 has built vital services within the borough of Islington that have enabled children and adults with a learning disability and their carers to have a voice and to access community activities and support.

Innsbruck Inspiration!

ATA's Jennie Swain was at the 15th International Passivhaus Conference in Innsbruck on the 25-29th May. An inspirational conference, people, architecture, lots to digest....really interesting presentations on retrofit and cost effective passivhaus, and even a passivhaus cattle auction building!
Watch this space for Jennie's review and pictures from the Austrian Passivhaus building visits......


In the meantime, great blogs here on the conference by fellow UK passivhaus architects Jonathan Hines of Architype and Mark Elton of ECD

Tenant Feedback from Stoke Retrofit so far...

The tenants for the Stoke-On-Trent retrofit for the future project that Anne Thorne Architects carried out with Sanctuary Housing have given us some really interesting feedback from life living in their house so far. The house will be monitored for energy use and comfort conditions, and just as significant the recording of the tenant's views and experiences of living in the house.

"After our first two months here, we love our eco-house, and enjoy living here, and it’s good to feel environmentally responsible without having to make vast lifestyle changes."

Some really good feedback in living in a house with a heat recovery ventilation system, and feedback that we will move to improve on in future schemes and retrofits.

The tenants were involved along the design process, from the technical specification of the house and insulation levels, as well as choosing pain colours and finishes for their new home.

ATA seeks to gain feedback from completed buildings through our work with researchers to ensure we have detailed information on building performance, and can learn from it....!

Read more on the project blog here

Shared Learning Across Construction - Fran at ProBE

ATA's Fran Bradshaw presented a talk on Friday at Westminster University as part of the Centre for the Production of the Built Environment (ProBE) Symposium and Launch.

This symposium sought to identify key elements and strategies needed to develop a more integrated system of vocational education and training for the built environment in the UK.

Fran's talk discussed topics of shared learning potential across the construction industry and education, and Anne Thorne Architect's collaborative approach and experience in shared learning across their projects with clients, self-builders, construction professionals, young people and community groups.

Click Here to View Fran's Talk

Visit Probe Website Here

ATA working with LoCo Cohousing Group

ATA are working with the Cohousing group  London & Countryside Cohousing (LoCo) to develop a mutually supportive community, living in low energy homes, with some shared facilities, encouraging social contact and individual space, in a community managed by themselves, the residents. 

Affordable housing will form part of the scheme but all residents agree to the aims and objectives of Co-housing. As architects, ATA believe it is important to approach the designing of LoCo's new homes in the same way that they intend to the community to function. Our aim is to act a informed facilitators. 

Consultation and consensual decision making is a key part of the development process as well as the final project.

Passivhaus standards will be used for the homes and grey water recycling.  The houses will be built to Lifetime Homes standards  The group is a mixed community but with particular emphasis on the needs of older people.

Highwood Village Hall AECB Visit

As part of the London AECB group, we visited the lovely essex hamlet of Love Green, part of Highwood Village, to visit a community-led sustainable village hall build, almost complete. 

Community members Petra and Richard gave us a really inspiring talk through the life and story of the project, from the need to create a sustainable hub for the village, and a social centre for the local community that would also act as an exemplar low energy building for future development in the village.

A significant PV array, partly grant funded, on the roof is hoped to bring income to the community for reinvestment and running costs.

The community has future plans for a community orchard

Click here for more details on the project.

Fran speaking at Sustainability Now

Fran is speaking at Building Design's Sustainability Now online conference event at 3pm on 19th May. 

Chaired by Amanda Birch, Technical Editor of Buiding Design, Fran will be tackling Sustainable Architecture and Design in relation to minimising the negative environmental impact of buildings, and particularly the issue of Embodied carbon, as Anne Thorne Architect's has long championed the use of low-embodied energy materials through their work.

Another topic on the agenda and close to all at ATA's hearts is the issue of engaging with occupiers to achieve innovative design. Fran will be speaking alongside Robin Nicholson, Senior Partner at Edward Cullinan Architects, and Chris Twinn, Director, Arup.

Click here to listen to the talk...

http://www.sustainabilitynowevent.com/

Works Starts on Wolves Lane Horticultural Centre Masterplan

(Image by Junko Suetake, ATA)

ATA have started work on a visionary masterplan for Wolves Lane Horticultural Centre in Haringey. The Centre provides the community with a great resource that includes a Plant Nursery and Garden Centre open to the public and for wholesale plant sales, educational visits from local schools, and a great cafe with the strongest homemade ginger beer i've ever tasted. There is also the gem of a Palm House which is well worth a visit

The centre provides a valuable training opportunities in catering and horticulture for people with disabilities, as well as volunteer opportunities for the wider local community.

An exciting project for ATA to get their teeth into!

Low Carbon Tricks for Old Bricks

"Traditional buildings: adapting for a low carbon future" was a very well attended conference with a great programme of speakers explored this issuing surrounding traditional buildings and techniques and desicussion around how you provide significant reductions in energy use, whilst remaining sympathetic to the character and fabric of our historic buildings.

Actual monitored U-Values of existing stone walls, limecrete floor construction, ventilation to existing buildings, and the possibility for renewables were all on the agenda.

Jennie of ATA spoke on behalf of the Passivhaus Trust, and as a Certified Passivhaus Designer and her experience of applying the Passivhaus Enerphit standards to our existing UK housing stock using natural insulation materials and breathing wall construction. To view Jennie's presentation, click here.

The joint conference was held by Cumbria Action for Sustainability, The North of England Civic Trust and the Churches Trust for Cumbria.

Click here for more details