Approach
Environmentally responsible architecture, designed from first principles.
Every project starts from the same conviction: that careful, low-carbon design is not a constraint on good architecture but the route to it. These are the principles that guide the work.
Fabric first
Get the building envelope right before adding technology. Continuous, well-detailed insulation and airtightness do the quiet, permanent work — low Dwelling Emission Rates follow, and the heating systems can be smaller and simpler.
Rooted in place
Material choices should follow their site. What is local, low-carbon and appropriate to a place will almost always outperform a default specification imported from somewhere else — a lesson as true now as it was in Roman building.
Reuse before rebuild
Keeping and adapting existing structures preserves embodied carbon and character at once. From vineyard stores to redundant stables, the most sustainable building is often the one already standing.
Detailed to last
Buildings live or die in their details — junctions, thresholds, the things you design out of sight. Careful coordination with engineers and consultants designs out cold-bridging and defects before they reach site.