Thinking Buildings

A Guide to Your Self-Build Home

Building your own home is an exciting and rewarding process, offering the chance to create a space tailored to your needs and lifestyle. However, “self-build” doesn’t necessarily mean physically constructing the house yourself. Instead, it involves managing the process, making key decisions, and employing professionals and contractors to carry out the work. One of the…

Stunning Cotswold Kitchen

Modern minimalist lines meets traditional Cotswolds country house in this recently completed project. The house was significantly remodelled and enlarged with a new sleek zinc and glass extension. The combination of sharp, elegant geometric lines contrasts beautifully with soft limestone walling and traditional detailing of the existing house, and the fantastic kitchen by Kitchen Architecture fits perfectly…

Dining Building Submitted for Planning at John Port Spencer Academy

Exciting developments are underway at John Port Spencer Academy in Derbyshire, as plans have been submitted for a new dining building, marking the final phase of a five-phase expansion project. This addition will support the secondary school’s growth from a 360 published admission number to 420. The new facility will provide a dining space for…

Why is Choosing the Correct Orientation for your Building so Important?

When designing a building, one of the most crucial factors influencing energy efficiency is the site orientation. This refers to the positioning of a building in relation to the sun, wind, and surrounding environment. It determines how the building interacts with natural elements, which influences its energy performance throughout the year. Careful consideration should be…

Planning Application Approved For New Home

After a number of months in the planning process, with much back and forth with the planners, we received confirmation that a new house we’ve designed for a client in Derby has been granted full planning approval. The new house is a two-storey, replacing an existing bungalow. This is generally acceptable, but care is needed…

Planning Approval For Heyford Park School

Planning approval has recently been received to provide a new primary school building at Heyford Park school, freeing up space to expand the 11-16 secondary accommodation at the main campus. This is great news for the project, which has been developed for Oxfordshire County Council and the EPA Trust to provide additional pupil places to…

Oxford City Sponsorship

We have been sponsors of the Oxford City girls under 13’s football team this season, with our logo proudly displayed on their training tops. One of the Thinking Buildings family trains and plays for the team, who compete in the Oxford Youth Girls Football League. Often dubbed “the beautiful game,” football has historically been dominated…

Cotswold Kitchen Garden

This is an usual scheme for a private client in the Cotswolds. The client was lucky enough to have a Victorian walled garden on their land, and this scheme was developed to make the most of that asset. On the inner side of the walled garden, an extensive greenhouse was planned, to support the food…

Mixed Use Development Case Study

This mixed used redevelopment for an existing commercial site is currently submitted for planning consent. While we wait for a (hopefully positive) determination we’ve added a more in depth look at this exciting scheme to our website, so that you can learn a bit more about it’s development and principals. The project has been developed…

Planning Applications In Areas With Housing Shortfalls

Thinking Buildings have recently been commissioned to assist with developing a planning application for a residential site which is outside, but on the edge of, a village settlement boundary. Ordinarily, this would be sufficient to deter most from submitting an application, but with increasing pressure to build more houses, the balance is tilting in favour…