Look into the Future of Home Building with Our Newest Projects

We’re only one quarter through 2017, and already this is one of our most exciting years yet at DGA. What stands out when I take a step back and look at our latest projects is the sheer variety. Below, you’ll find everything from bold new builds to delicate restorations and even an abandoned, half-built house…

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Four Homes That Received Planning Permission in 2016

We Redefined What’s Meant by “Country Estate” At over 8000 sq ft, this country estate in Essex is one of our largest ever designs. Planning approval was a real battle: not only did our new proposal dwarf the existing structure that’s going to be demolished, it’s located in the Green Belt, where planning standards are…

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Four Homes That Went On-Site in 2016

We’re Uniting Three Flats into One House with a Huge Secret Rob wanted to return this Grade II listed terrace house to its former glory by converting it back into one home. The twist was that one of the flats occupied what was once an artist’s studio in the garden. Rob came to us to…

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Four Homes We Completed in 2016

We Raised the Bar for Sustainable Homes in a State of the Art New Build Assad is one of the most ambitious clients we’ve ever worked with. He wanted the best of everything: a self-sufficient house utilising solar power and ground source heat, with a cutting edge contemporary design, nestled in the High Weald AONB.…

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Four Tips to Help You Settle In to a New Home

As someone who moved six times in as many years, I’ve become something of an expert in what it takes to make a house feel like a home as quickly as possible. There’s always a period when you first move into a property where it feels like a hotel or someone else’s house, especially in…

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Why Self Builds Take an Extra Year to be Truly Complete

When is a build complete? As is often the case in construction, this is a simple question with a very complicated answer. Or, more accurately, two complicated answers: the build is complete when the Practical Completion Certificate is issued, or the build is complete when the defects period is over. The Practical Completion Certificate is…

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Paul Interview Part Two: Would the Magic Be Lost?

After years of living in the same Highgate house, Paul and his wife felt love at first site for a house in a quiet cul-de-sac just half a mile away. It was clear that a lot of work would have to be done to bring it up to modern standards, but they didn’t want to…

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