Category: Thinking Buildings

The Use Of Zinc For Homes & Houses

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At Thinking Buildings we often use zinc elements in our residential projects. It is a versatile material suitable for various architectural styles and design applications. It can be used in contemporary, traditional, and historical building projects, looking equally appropriate and attractive in various contexts.

Zinc has a long history of use in construction. Zinc’s earliest known use is by ancient civilizations for decorative purposes, as its corrosion-resistant properties made it valuable for architectural embellishments. Later in the 17th to 19th centuries, technology allowed zinc to be used more widely. Zinc is highly resistant to corrosion, making it an excellent choice for roofing, cladding, gutters, and downspouts. It can last for several decades without significant degradation. Such was its popularity, it formed the character of cities like Paris, where it was used extensively in the late 19th century. 

Zinc’s continued popularity in contemporary architecture stems from the combined properties of a sleek, sharp appearance, while being incredibly low maintenance, long lasting, and sustainable. 

Zinc has an attractive appearance that evolves over time. Raw zinc starts with a shiny, metallic finish and gradually develops a matte grey patina, which many people find appealing. For a more consistent finish, zinc and be pre-patinated, with the addition of colour to tint the zinc into a variety of attractive shades. This evolving aesthetic can blend with the character of a historic building, or give depth to a contemporary project. 

Zinc is a very environmentally friendly material. When properly installed and maintained, zinc can have a long lifespan, often exceeding 50 years. This longevity contributes to its cost-effectiveness and minimises its environmental impact over the lifespan of the building.  It is also fully recyclable at the end of its life, and the recycling process requires significantly less energy compared to primary zinc production, further reducing its impact.

While zinc has many advantages as a building material, it is essential to consider factors like initial cost, regional climate conditions, and specific project requirements when deciding whether it’s the right choice for a particular construction project. However, for many applications, zinc is indeed a good building material due to its combination of durability, aesthetics, and sustainability.

Berkshire Farm Diversification

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Our next farm diversification project is confirmed, and it involves the restoration and conversion of this beautiful and interesting listed building. The wider project involves a strategic masterplan and option appraisal for a courtyard of existing traditional barns; the project will explore and consider conversion to offices, holiday lets, a wedding venue and potentially a blend of uses.

We have had great success in this sector helping farm owners and Estate holdings make best use of their buildings to increase revenue streams. It’s great to be working alongside Alexander Moss at Dudley Peverill Associates in what is developing into a great collaboration. 

10 Reasons To Build a Passivhaus

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Building a Passivhaus, also known as a Passive House, offers several benefits:

1. Energy Efficiency: Passivhaus design principles prioritise high levels of insulation, airtightness, and high-quality windows/doors. This leads to significantly reduced energy consumption for heating and cooling, resulting in lower utility bills.

2. Comfort: Passivhaus buildings provide consistent indoor comfort throughout the year, with minimal temperature fluctuations and drafts. This leads to a more pleasant living or working environment.

3. Health: Superior indoor air quality is a key aspect of Passivhaus construction. Effective ventilation systems with heat recovery ensure a constant supply of fresh air, removing pollutants and allergens, which can positively impact occupants’ health.

4. Sustainability: Passivhaus buildings have a smaller environmental footprint due to their reduced energy consumption. They help lower greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to sustainability goals.

5. Long-Term Cost Savings: While Passivhaus construction may have a higher upfront cost, the long-term savings on energy bills often outweigh the initial investment. Over time, the energy-efficient features pay for themselves.

6. Resilience: Passivhaus buildings are designed to withstand extreme weather conditions more effectively, providing increased resilience against climate change-related challenges.

7. Market Value: Passivhaus certification can enhance the market value of a property, making it more attractive to environmentally conscious buyers or renters.

8. Future-Proofing: As energy regulations become stricter, Passivhaus construction positions a building to meet or exceed future energy efficiency requirements, reducing the need for costly retrofits.

9. Government Incentives: In some regions, there are financial incentives and tax credits for building Passivhaus-certified structures, further encouraging their adoption.

10. Contribution to Climate Goals: Building Passivhaus structures aligns with global efforts to reduce energy consumption and combat climate change.

Overall, constructing a Passivhaus is a forward-thinking and environmentally responsible choice that offers numerous benefits, both for occupants and the planet.

Contact us for more information here – https://thinking-buildings.co.uk/low-energy-houses-and-homes/

Cotswold Barn Conversion

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We’re happy to be able to share that this scheme near Fulbrook has recently been granted planning permission. The complex of existing barns are proposed to be converted to a four bed house, with a two bed guest suite, home office or gym space, and extensive garage and storage space. The main house benefits from a single storey extension, providing a wing of bedrooms, which helps emphasise the existing courtyard structure.

As is often the case in barn conversions, the client is currently carrying out some enabling works, including building a bat loft for bats that are currently nesting in the existing buildings. Once that is in place, it will be great to see this project come to reality.

Steel Frame Underway At John Port School

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Work continues at John Port Spencer Academy School in Derby, where we are involved in the expansion of the sixth form provision.

John Port is undergoing an expansion to increase its capacity for both 11-16 and sixth form students. The sixth form works involve the construction of an extension to the existing sixth form building and other internal works to create additional capacity. The extension will provide new ICT, seminar and study rooms, along with an expanded social and dining area.

It’s great to see the steel frame going up. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the phrase goes, but for us it’s a significant milestone and is a great thing to see.

The project has needed to overcome a number of hurdles. One of these is that the site is subject to archaeological interest. We’ve been working alongside Derbyshire County Council archaeologists to develop a plan for monitoring and recording any artifacts which may be in the ground. Also, with the building being of the 1950/60’s era, asbestos was used quite readily. We have taken the opportunity to remove as much as possible within the existing building.

We’re working alongside Adair Cost Consultants, ABA Structural and Civil Engineers, and Triangle Consulting Engineers to deliver this exciting project. The main contractor is B+K Property Services.

Oak framing, Oxfordshire

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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

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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….

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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

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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

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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.