Architecture Awards 2020

BUILD 2020 Architecture Awards 14 Jul20556 Since being founded, OLJ Designs Ltd has grown to become one of the best boutique architectural design firms to specialise in residential and housing design, but with capacity and ambition to expand to civic and commercial architecture. With the firm’s director, Olivier Jauniaux, at the helm, its future may be bright but its present is already incredibly successful. We profiled the firm following its latest success in the Architecture Awards 2020 from BUILD Magazine. LJ Designs is far more than a boutique residential architectural design practice. As part of its core offerings and central themes of excellence in all areas, the firm aims to engage in all aspects of a client’s life to help add calmness, meaning, and grace through subtle design that can become a backdrop to their family life. Family is at the core of the practice, and ensuring that all families have the chance to live a life that is free from stress and worry in a place they call home. OLJ Designs is also very interested in the world of sustainable design, and improving the housing stock and standards of the United Kingdom by ensuring that houses are future-proofed in a world where climate change can no longer be ignored. All of the projects that the firm designs go above and beyond normal building regulation requirements, and is built in partnership with specialist engineers and consultants to deliver the highest levels of sustainable architecture possible within client’s budgetary ranges. Olivier Jauniaux, the firm’s director, is also an undergraduate architecture studio tutor at London South Bank University, making teaching and academic research a key component of the practice. A key project that has factored greatly into the success that OLJ Designs has achieved is Black Box Loft, located in Chiswick, London. The brief for the project involved the reconfiguration of the first floor to create three bedrooms for young children, as well as a new family bathroom and utility room, and a master suite in the loft itself. The result speaks to the luxurious nature of work that OLJ Designs carries out. A series of bright and generous spaces focused on family life have transformed the family dynamics and brought a great level of comfort to what is a small, Victorian, terrace house. The proposal also focused on improving the connection between the house and the view over the Chiswick suburban gardens, a sight close to the client’s heart as a native Londoner. From its inception, the project principally involved building a loft extension and reconfiguring a tight staircase to open up the interior of the property. The loft sits as a suspended black box O Best Boutique Residential Architectural Design Practice 2020 - UK between two brick piers, sitting in stark contrast with the stock brick of the original house – standing distinct by subtly playing on the traditional and neighbouring loft conversion in hanging tile, replaced by strong black-stained timber and glass. When open, the folding doors reveal an internal glass Juliette balcony that makes the most of the almost floor-to-ceiling opening, creating an elevated outdoor space in the bedroom. The simplicity of the exterior conceals a complex structural and spatial enterprise of interlocking forms and tight design. The stair twists tightly and its forms are expressed and exaggerated, but allowed to be as open as possible to bring as much light into the interior as possible. A glass landing on the new floor brings light through the whole centre of the house from an opening rooflight in the stairwell, and this portion of the house becomes a central spine around which the family functions. Ultimately, the property has been redesigned to an impeccable standard that is wholly representative of just how exceptional OLJ Designs is as a firm. Exceptionality runs in the blood of OLJ Designs and of its director, Olivier Jauniaux. Mr Jauniaux approaches every project from two points at the same time. Firstly, Mr Jauniaux cannot, ethically, design anything that he would not consider living in himself, such is the height of his own standards. Every project he undertakes must meet or exceed his own standards for living. The second approach is from the client’s perspective. Mr Jauniaux likes to work hand-in-hand with his clients and create a truly collaborative project that results in exactly what they want, and so much more. These approaches are what stands out OLJ Designs as truly exceptional, as well as Mr Jauniaux’s excellent listening skills. He uncovers the intricacies of family life over the course of the projects, and becomes part of their fabric. This can often give the firm and Mr Jauniaux an insight into what they don’t even know they want, and they feel truly part of the project. Architecture is in an interesting place following the events of 2020, and in particular, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the United Kingdom in particular, there is also Brexit to