Surrey Homes | SH43 | May 2018 | Restoration & New Build supplement inside

SH Restoration & New Build Supplement
Hale Brown Architects, Eaton Park
GRAND
DESIGNS
Whether you are building a house from scratch, or renovating
a listed one, your architect will be your guiding light
Hale Brown Architects, The Drive
CGI image by Visual Eyes Media Ltd
“Keep an open mind”
Simon Brown, Director of
Hale Brown Architects
There are all sorts of reasons why
a new build might be right for
you: a lifelong ambition, finding
the perfect site or perhaps an aspiration
to shape your own living environment.
Whatever the reason, it needn’t be a
daunting task to start from scratch.
First you will need to draw up a
‘Project Brief’. This can be a simple
wish-list, or you might try using
the internet to save a scrap book of
precedent images on your phone
or laptop. These may be pictures of
buildings, but they might also include
snapshots that illustrate a mood, quality
of light, colour or texture.
Rather than thinking of what needs
to be built, you might try focusing on
what it is that you want to achieve,
noting down all your requirements
and highlighting any challenges. Think
of your changing needs over time,
especially if this is going to be your
lifetime home.
This is the right time to talk to an
architect. Architects are professionally
trained to guide you through the whole
process from start to finish and to
see things from the broadest possible
perspective down to the smallest detail,
turning aspirations into reality.
Our first step takes your brief and
teases out what makes it tick. Working
with plans and sections we typically
start from the inside, organising the
size and sequence of spaces. Where is
the entrance and does the circulation
flow legibly to the principal rooms? Is
there an underlying logic, separating
entertainment from more private
rooms?
Plans can be difficult
to read, particularly
if you are not used
to them. Perspective
sketches, fly through
computer visuals and
real card models bring a
space to life and enable
you to inhabit a room,
considering its scale,
proportion and materiality.
The best houses seamlessly
integrate the inside with the outside,
responding sympathetically to their
environment. Every site is different, so
we look carefully at the surrounding
opportunities and constraints. How do
you enter the site? What is the sun’s
path over the course of a day? What
Picture frame
windows focusing
on a single view can
be just as powerful
as an entire wall of
sliding glass doors
views are there? Is there a strong local
or historical building character?
Where the sun rises and sets can
inform where the main living spaces
are orientated to make the best use
of morning or afternoon sun.Views
generate opportunities for drama!
Moving through a house can be
about telling a story by concealing
and revealing key views as you move
from space to space. Only a small
proportion of sites are located remotely
away from any neighbours.
Carefully
sited buildings,
thoughtfully
orientated windows
and planted
boundaries can be
used to maintain
privacy and minimise
noise from roads.
We always
recommend
keeping an open mind and allow the
proposal to develop organically. Like
all creative processes, there will be
design development as you go. Most
important of all, give yourself time,
don’t be afraid to make mistakes!
Hale Brown Architects Ltd
020 3735 7442 halebrown.com
17 surrey-homes.co.uk