Month: August 2023

Oak framing, Oxfordshire

Posted on by Thinking Buildings

Not all of our work is large scale. We work on smaller scale projects where our skills and experience add value to the process for our clients.

This image is a traditional oak frame for a new bay window and French doors on a listed cottage close to our Bloxham office. Whilst small in scale, this type of project requires a great deal of technical resolution, and our oak framing knowledge, to coordinate the framing with the ashlar stone plinth and glazing systems. The new bay will transform the kitchen/dining area providing more space but more importantly connecting the room with the lovely rear garden.

Thinking Buildings have managed all aspects of the listed building approvals and tender process. We are excited to see the slate roof go on plus the direct glazing panels and the oak cover boards. Oak frame by Stuart Dunbar Carpentry and building works by Andrew Pinfold Builders.

National Park Barn Conversion

Posted on by Thinking Buildings

This project is for a new dwelling in a National Park to replace an existing ramshackle agricultural barn. It’s one of two really exciting projects we are currently developing with a large landholder as part of a strategic masterplan for the Estate. The architecture is landscape led, discretely designed to reflect the shapes and materials of modern agricultural barns but with a modern, minimal rural aesthetic.

A key feature of the design is how the building has been designed to address the National Park’s Dark Skies planning policy, with the larger areas of glazing set back under the overhanging roof and flank walls. Hit and miss vertical timber frames form the overhanging flank walls, and the rhythm is continued to the façade and cladding detailing, to create a sense of depth and texture. 

Education, Education, Education….

Posted on by Thinking Buildings

We have some fantastic education projects in the pipeline including three new sixth form buildings. This particular scheme is for a new sixth form building at a London secondary school.

It will provide a new focal point for the sixth form on the site with a fantastic new social space with café and outdoor dining area, study areas, and eight seminar rooms. The three storey design is connected to the existing sixth form building and a new roof terrace is proposed to maximise outdoor space on a very constrained site. The project is located in a sensitive site alongside the Metropolitan Open Land (MOL) and we have worked with Miriam Owen & Olamide Adenugba at Edgars Planning Consultants to develop robust justification for the proposals.

The scheme is currently in the planning system and we are hoping for a positive response and feedback.

New Offices For Falklands

Posted on by Thinking Buildings

We’re delighted to once again be working with a company in the Falklands to design them a new office building.

Thinking Buildings have been working with Consolidated Fisheries Limited since 2018/19, looking at options for building a new office building. Outline planning approval was granted in 2019 for the development of a new site on the outskirts of Stanely. We’re now back working with CFL to prepare detailed plans for a reserved matter planning application.

The company is very sustainably minded, and so we’re looking at a very low energy building design. We’ll be using a well insulated timber frame, triple glazing, PV panels and an air source heat pump for space heating.

The project also has a number of other constraints. Most of the building will be transported from the UK in shipping containers. We need to consider how the timber frame can be built in parts to fit within the containers.

We’ll keep you updated as this unusual, but very exciting, project develops.

The Thinking Buildings Summer Social 2023

Posted on by Thinking Buildings

The Thinking Buildings team work very hard, but we can also play hard too!  At the end of last month we had our annual summer get together and we took ourselves off to Wales for 2 days.  

First up was a very memorable trip to Zip World in Bethesda.  The intrepid team (minus Amanda, as she is not intrepid enough!) whizzed over Penrhyn Quarry, at approximately 70mph, on the fasted zipline in the world.  The head cameras do not contain appropriate content, but there’s a few nice photos, as you can see!  

Afterwards we headed to the luxurious Ffarm Country House in Betws-yn-Rhos, where Susan and Stewart were our wonderful hosts for the evening.  The succulent Welsh lamb was a big hit at dinner and we all enjoyed an evening in each others company with plenty more food and drink and a somewhat competitive evening of pool.

We were then up bright and early the next morning to tackle climbing Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon).  Unfortunately, the weather was really against us and we were denied any sort of views, although we hear they’re spectacular.  It was a tough climb, but all in all, we made good time and if we didn’t all enjoy it as such, we all have an immense sense of achievement.  Some crazy team members even went swimming in the lake!

We’ve put together a short montage of our trip highlights which you can watch here.

It’s always so nice when we all get together, and really important to us with our hybrid working arrangement and we are already making plans for the Christmas get together, where I’m sure we’ll have just as much fun.