Introducing the Floating Fanzone. Making use of Bramley Moore Dock, the concept proposes a flotilla of floating event spaces, all-weather enclosures, and immersive venues offering live sports screenings and a rich mix of pre and post-match entertainment.
October saw the anticipated debut of the UK’s first Amphibious House, designed by BACA, on C4’s Grand Designs show. The family home on the banks of the River Thames, that rises in its dock to float in the event of a flood, is a major breakthrough for British architects and engineers who have been searching for a solution to mitigate flood-risk.
Highlights of the show included the successful passing of the float test and the site under water during last winter’s terrible national flooding.
With this winter approaching and the potential for the first flood on the site of the newly-built house, it may not be long before the Amphibious House rises to the occasion.
October saw the anticipated debut of the UK’s first Amphibious House, designed by BACA, on C4’s Grand Designs show.
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Work has begun on-site for a high-end home in an attractive area in north of England. The five-bedroom residence will combine energy-saving technology with top-of-the-range luxury living. The four-storey home, featuring a sizeable basement, will include a home cinema, games room, dressing room and jacuzzi in its 7,000sqft of living space.
Clad in Ashlar stone and designed to meet CfSH Level 4, this opulent home will boast high-performance double-glazing, natural ventilation, under floor heating and Photovoltaic solar slates. The landscaped garden includes stone and lawned stepped terraces, reminiscent of an amphitheatre, with an attractive water feature cascading down its centre.
Work has begun on-site for a high-end home in an attractive area in north of England.
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Work has begun on-site for a modern five-bedroom family home in picturesque West Devon.
Located on an old farmyard overlooking Dartmoor National Park, the edgy home is designed to sit in harmony with the landscape and the surviving outhouses. The original granary will be completely refurbished to become part of the accommodation, accessed via a covered glass walkway from the main kitchen.
Natural materials will be employed, with an emphasis on local stone to soften the modern form and create sympathy with the granary, and combine with extensive highly insulated glass that will allow generous natural lighting and fantastic views across the stunning countryside. An innovative Sustainable Drainage System will not only enable effective rainwater collection and harvesting, channeling the water down a stepped promenade under the walkway between the house and the granary, but also create a feature rainwater pond.
Work has begun on-site for a modern five-bedroom family home in picturesque West Devon.
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BACA’s Brook Street flood-resilient home is close to completion and will be ready to welcome it’s family-owners in time for Christmas.
The main structure has been completed with finishing touches to the interior and landscape now underway.
The elevated building, located in an historic Oxfordshire village, is situated next to a brook that can flood during periods of heavy rain. During a flood, water is conveyed underneath the house, yet in dry periods its elevated nature means the house appears to float above the surrounding wildflower meadow. The sculpted landscape enables water storage and provides a gradual warning of an approaching flood.
The family home is low in profile and simple in form with a nod to converted barns in the area; the series of interlocking buildings, clad in timber, glass and steel, provide open-plan living space that also manages to maintain the intimacy of separate rooms.
BACA’s Brook Street flood-resilient home is close to completion and will be ready to welcome it’s family-owners in time for Christmas.
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The Architecture Review ‘Water & Architecture’ video series has now gone live to coincide with the debates coming up at the Old Royal Naval College. It is good to see and hear the issues and opportunities being seriously discussed.
Watch the Architecture & Water documentary Part 1: A river runs through it
The Architecture Review ‘Water & Architecture’ video series has now gone live to coincide with the debates coming up at the Old Royal Naval College.
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Clients, colleagues and friends came together to celebrate BACA’s 10th Birthday this October.
The party was a double celebration, with guests enjoying popcorn along with the canapes and wine as they watched the debut screening of the BACA-designed Amphibious House on C4s Grand Designs.
The party was hosted at Director Robert Barker’s fabulous Forest Mews Home, recently nominated for further awards for its design and innovative use of materials. BACA would like to thank everyone who could make it on the night and has been a part of making the company the success it is today. We look forward to the next exciting decade.
Clients, colleagues and friends came together to celebrate BACA’s 10th Birthday this October.
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The Practice is delighted to have been asked to present to a group of visiting Chinese officials on Monday the 27th of October at the Town and Country Planning Association. The twenty Chinese delegates, largely from Guangzhou’s Zengcheng District, are local government officials working in the areas of water, planning, land resources and environmental bureaus.
The presentation will focus on the Practice’s specialist expertise of designing with water. BACA projects that will be discussed include:
The Practice is delighted to have been asked to present to a group of visiting Chinese officials on Monday the 27th of October at the Town and Country Planning Association.
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We are pleased to announce that the practice has been shortlisted for One off house Architect of the Year – sponsored by Duravit.
Ours feature new homes this year include Serenity House (an ambitious passivehaus for lottery winners), The Amphibious House, Forest Mews and Brook Street.
We are pleased to announce that the practice has been shortlisted for One off house Architect of the Year.
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The impressive hardback book, by Lisa Baker, showcases some of the best in innovative designs that demonstrate different approaches to dealing with water as an architectural element.
BACA’s The Crown floating village with WaterStudio, floating racetrack concept and Amphibious House are all impressively presented with illustrations and accompanying explanations.
The timing of the book’s release coincides perfectly with the appearance of the Amphibious House on Channel 4’s Grand Designs show at 21:00 on Wednesday the 15th of October 2014.
Built on Water is available for purchase via the following link
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/episode-guide
Three water-related projects from BACA feature in a stunning new book, ‘Built on Water’, that has just been published by Braun.
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The Amphibious House will be unveiled for the first time at 21:00 on Wednesday the 15th October on Channel 4’s Grand Designs show this week. It has been a challenging design and even more challenging build.
What an amazing project to work on. We are pleased to see it nearing completion.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/episode-guide
The Amphibious House will be unveiled for the first time at 21:00 on Wednesday the 15th October on Channel 4’s Grand Designs show this week.
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November’s issue of Grand Designs Magazine is on the shelves now, featuring the story of the UK’s first Amphibious House, designed by BACA architects.
The article tells the clients’ story from planning through to construction of the special amphibious design and recalls the floods of 2014 which held up construction.
The success of the design of the house, as well as its pioneering flood-resilient nature, is captured in the stunning photography accompanying the article.
This forward-thinking project will hopefully form the benchmark for other amphibious properties around the country as people seek to protect their homes from flooding.
Further details can be found on p61-67 of November’s Grand Designs Magazine.
November’s issue of Grand Designs Magazine is on the shelves now, featuring the story of the UK’s first Amphibious House, designed by BACA architects.
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Presented with the seemingly simple proposition of designing a house that was streamlined, soft and luxurious like their cars, the client challenged London-based BACA architects to create a substantial new home that followed the same philosophy.
Detailed designs and working drawings for Serenity in Nottinghamshire are now fully developed and the project is ready for the important tender stage, the formal process of issuing plans to pre-qualified building contractors to gather competitive quotes for the construction work.
Designed using state-of-the-art computer modeling software and rethinking conventional approaches and tools used in environmental housing design today, the result is an exuberant property that stretches the boundaries of design, structure, and environmental thinking. It also reconciles a difficult combination: a home that is low in energy use but high in aesthetic aspiration and luxurious qualities.
Serenity delivers a reconstruction of formal and private rooms set in wings typical of large 18th century houses, but reconstructed within a continual loop around a central sunken courtyard and garden. Achieving the Passivhaus energy standard was extremely demanding for an organic form with high energy and water demands, such as a cinema room and swimming pool.
Replacing the drawing room, parlour, ballroom and smoking room of yesteryear are a state-of-the-art home cinema, games room, acoustic music pod, grotto swimming pool, home gym and connected office, all seamlessly wired to incorporate the latest digital technology, security surveillance equipment and triple A-rated appliances.
A sweeping roof appears to float above the undulating building, enclosing four wings, or hubs including a formal entertaining hub, a family hub, games hub and an annex. The ceramic tiled roof is perhaps the most striking feature and also provides shading, privacy and screening; it also harnesses enough solar energy to generate the majority of renewable power required to run the property.
The house is designed to create a seamless flow of activity, with the grand entrance hall cascading down to the kitchen, which flows in to the family living room and on through the orangery and pool house. The central courtyard creates a protected outdoor formal garden and the free-flowing plan, stepping inside and outside, will enable contained entertaining and also informal family leisure.
Designer, BACA architects, best known for innovative water-based architecture (“aquatecture”), has woven water through the scheme. Rainwater is collected in a reflecting pool at the centre of the house before cascading to create a gentle but dramatic waterfall or ‘water curtain’ in the courtyard whenever it rains, and providing a soft refreshing mist during drier periods. This fascinating outdoor feature also has a very practical application, helping to reduce run-off water and provide cooling for the house.
Serenity is uncompromising luxury, underpinned by sustainability; it borrows from history, preserves those elements that work, evolves others that don’t and frames it unapologetically in the 21st Century – one might suggest the true spirit of the English Century House in the 21st Century.
Presented with the seemingly simple proposition of designing a house that was streamlined, soft and luxurious like their cars.
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The exquisite design for the mesh facades of forest mews are completed. Now the architecture of the landscape is taking shape in this lovingly crafted urban oasis.
The exquisite design for the mesh facades of forest mews are completed. Now the architecture of the landscape is taking shape in this lovingly crafted urban oasis.
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The UK’s first amphibious house passes the float test with flying colours. Water from the neighbouring Thames was pumped into the dock in order to float and balance the concrete hull of this groundbreaking building.
The float test was recorded on camera for a forthcoming TV show of the pioneering design, located in Marlow. Members of BACA and the engineering team from Technicker watched as the dock in which the house will rest was filled with water to simulate flood conditions, and the concrete hull the building will rest on tweaked, to perfect its balance and test the waterproofing.
The UK’s first amphibious house passes the float test with flying colours.
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Aquatecture, a new book authored by BACA Directors, Robert Barker and Richard Coutts, is now being advertised on the RIBA bookshop website.
Due to be published by RIBA Publishing, the specialist book incorporates the Practice’s considerable knowledge and research experience in designing with water, from building to masterplanning levels.
With water playing such a vital role in our lives and societies, the book lays out the case for the importance of designing for water, now and in the future, in order to best prepare us to adapt to the uncertainties of future climate change.
Historical cases of issues with water and innovations in designing with water are examined, along with measures to mitigate the threat posed by water in the form of shortages, such as droughts, and excess, in the form of flooding.
Aquatecture, a new book authored by BACA Directors, Robert Barker and Richard Coutts, is now being advertised on the RIBA bookshop website.
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BACA architects are runner-up in an ambitious plan to build a floating village in London’s Royal Docks, as part of the Mayor of London’s Vision. The team, led by Hadley Mace, developed plans for a floating village conceived as a ‘Crown’ in the Royal Docks. It would form the head of a future necklace of floating settlements that could extend throughout the Docks along a watery ‘Champs Elysee’ boulevard.
A fundamental approach to BACA’s plan was that the development should not be an extension of the dock edge. Rather, it should be set away from the dock edge and surrounded by a ‘blue belt’, to provide space to breathe and express the unique ‘aquatecture’. The village design has the bold ambition of the original dock builders and would be innovative, inspirational and iconic: a legacy that future generations could be proud of.
Designed and built in Britain, the HM team’s approach was to make a uniquely British floating village, both bold and playful. Their floating village design contains all the components one would expect from a quintessential British village but on water, with small local stores, a village hall/gallery, and even a floating village pub set on the edge of the village blue.
‘The village is set in a giant blue park, where water is the public realm. We envisage all sorts of events to cater for everyone; like dragon boat and rowing races, carnivals, boat shows, gondolas, floating weddings and there is space for people to just sit and look out.’
‘Though, sadly, the public were not invited to comment on the shortlisted proposals, hopefully there will be a chance to input into this important new London landmark in due course.’ BACA still plan to build a British floating village somewhere else in the UK.
The Director stated that ‘he wished the winning scheme every success and hoped that this pilot floating village would be the catalyst for more floating development throughout the UK.’
BACA architects are runner-up in an ambitious plan to build a floating village in London’s Royal Docks, as part of the Mayor of London’s Vision.
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BACA director, Robert Barker, has received two shortlists for his own house, Forest Mews.
Not only did the judges recognise the scheme in the best housing development category but they also recognised the complexity of building the delicate brick piers and shortlisted the scheme for the Innovative use of Brick and Clay Products. If you think it is worthy of winning the Architect’s choice award, please cast your vote here:
http://www.brick.org.uk/best-housing-development-1-5-units/
http://www.brick.org.uk/innovative-use-of-brick-and-clay-products/
BACA director, Robert Barker, has received two shortlists for his own house, Forest Mews.
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Pre-application plans have been submitted for a flood-resilient home on an exclusive stretch of the Thames. This replacement house will not only create a beautiful residence with panoramic views of the river, but it will also add more space for water thus helping to reduce flood-risk to neighbouring properties.
The house is designed around an existing willow tree, which frames the entrance, and a new cutting for boats to pull right up to the house. The main house is lifted high above the flood level allowing the entire ground floor to flood without damaging the house. A bridge back to the mainland allows safe access to the house even during a flood.
Pre-application plans have been submitted for a flood-resilient home on an exclusive stretch of the Thames.
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