Build Magazine 10 Architecture Spatial Design Architects is an Essex-based firm who specialise in quality contemporary architecture, with a strong focus on the design and delivery of unique residential and commercial buildings. With a deep and genuine love for their work guiding their imaginations and shaping their house designs, the effort on display here reflects a well-established knowledge about design, form and function, all of which is aimed at achieving and enhancing the brief as set to them by the client. esign is ultimately subjective – for a private client, it can also certainly be very personal. The client – often a couple – will invariably have fixed ideas about what they want. Sometimes it will be a jigsaw of influences gathered by studying closely the houses of their friends, noting what they like and certainly what they don’t. This is the belief held by Brendon Robins, who, at the head of Spatial Design, is responsible for guiding the company’s overall vision: to design form and function, and to blur the divide between internal and external spaces that individual home-owners, families, businesses and communities can enjoy, relax and work within. As Brendon explains, an architect can sometimes encounter the extreme situation of having a client that presents their own plan and an elevation sketch.” The task then is to explain tactfully a better solution and try and open them up to other alternatives. Rarely does it happen, but if the client won’t be moved, then we, as the designers, have to decline the commission because otherwise it would be our reputation at stake.” Taking such efforts to maintain a reputation in the architectural industry means that Brendon’s firm is always winning new business – “Our clients, new and long-standing, get what they need, when they need it. We work to the tightest deadlines, with the upmost quality. We provide a professional studio relationship with a team that has the ability to meet the demands of our clients’ requirements. The project solution is the attention to detail with design creativity and clarity.” “Like many architects,” Brendon explains, “We think our designs and planning concepts are second to none. For example, our Build Award results from a private client employing Spatial Design Architects from conception through to completion, coordinating all consultants and being a team leader for their large extension and ground floor interior overhaul. Our client wished for a contrast in architecture against the traditional brick facade and wanted to remove their former conservatory and build a functional space that allowed them to connect to the garden with ease.” Reputable Innovation in Housing D “The challenge was opening up the existing house with large span steelwork to create the ‘picture frame’ structures. We designed two connecting pods with seamless interiors. These comprise a separate framed formal dining room and another large framed kitchen, dining and family room. It has certainly become a space that has defined ‘blurring the boundaries’ between the internal and external spaces. Time was spent on the finer detailing of the extension and our clients have said that we certainly delivered the space they wished for.” Taking into consideration his beliefs on what distinguishes Spatial Design from its competitors, Brendon reflects on the wider architectural design industry, and highlights that the appetite of developers and builders for profits means that there will always be a bank of permissions to keep the hungry needy for homes. “It cannot be right that 250,000 homes receive planning permission each year,” he says, “but this is way out of proportion to the number of projects which are actually built.” Another pressing problem that Brendon highlights is that the UK is in need of a network of skills academies with the specific function in mind of training construction workers – bricklayers, carpenters, plasterers, roofers, etc. – to take up apprenticeships on construction sites. This points towards a certain skills shortage faced by UK businesses that can harm the productive capabilities of architectural firms. Because of this, Brendon sees part of his role – and that of Spatial Design – as being to educate about effective, efficient house design. “We are at a certain disadvantage in this country because, unlike on the continent, we are the only nation to sprout mass housing developers. In our practice, we are generally dealing with one-off designs for discerning one-off clients. These are people who understand that it is not difficult to design something good and not just milk it down to make more profit. They wish for something different and contemporary, rather than copying a traditional format, and certainly not the mass housing approach that has tarred the name of good British design and architecture.” “We believe that the aim should be for mass housing developers to break up the mass of the one-design- fits-all strategy, and provide a site policy for ‘architect- designed’ homes. We think Spatial Design Architects has a big part to play in this.” “Furthermore, although we do not currently operate according to a BIM-enabled environment at the moment, we are developing our core knowledge and will be undertaking BIM courses in 2017, in order to enhance our skillset yet further.” Brendon sees a very exciting and expansionist future – not just for the industry, but for his firm. Although the reputation of Spatial Design has been built on houses, it is comprised of essentially good designers who can turn their hands to anything – from sports facilities, to schools, to public buildings. Because of the increased pressure to do so, Spatial Design Architects shall widen its project base and commissions over the coming months. Company: Spatial Design Architects Name: Brendon Robins (Lead architect) Email:
[email protected] Web Address: www.spatialdesignarchitects.com Address: Second Floor Studio, The Granary, 6 Crescent Rd, Warley, Brentwood, CM145JR Best Home Counties Residential Single- Storey Extension: West 2016