Architect’s Advice

Last month, Oliver wrote about the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s plans to restrict basement development and why we think it’s a short-sighted and counterproductive knee-jerk reaction. Long story short: basements provide an uninstrusive and convenient increase of floorspace and value, while – thanks to advances in technology and design – being just as…

The number of us working from home is growing by the year. According to the latest figures, almost 14% of UK workers have given up rainy mornings and crowded commutes for the comfort of a home office. We can expect that number to grow as technology continues to ease business communication and customer reach, making…

Alan from Surrey asks, “For some years, I’ve been sitting on a rural site with tremendous potential but its proximity to a Green Belt makes it risky for development. I understand Paragraph 55 grants exceptions in cases such as mine but how does it work?” Building a new home in the countryside is desirable because…

Amongst widespread resident concern, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea have frozen development on 120 applications for basement extensions while they examine a new policy to be finalised in December. If passed, the proposals will ban basements extending below one storey underground and limit the extent to which they can expand beneath the garden.…

When you think of the skills required to be an architect, communication probably isn’t at the top of the list. At Dyer Grimes Architecture, it is. As you know, we’re residential architects – a little more specifically, we create homes. Nothing we do is mass produced, designed by committee or recycled. Our projects are personal…

Linda from Wimbledon asks, “My husband and I are weighing up our options for a new family home. Where we live, prices have shot up as much as 20%. It’s making building our own home very tempting, but is inflation any less of a factor for a self build?” House price inflation dominates the headlines…

Richard from Richmond asks, “I’m considering a self build and I’m trying to familiarise myself with building regulations. I’ve discovered my borough uses the Code for Sustainable Homes. Just getting to grips with basic regs had been hard enough – can you clear up CFSH for me?” The Code for Sustainable Homes sits separately from…

Many of our Richmond clients are concerned by Affordable Housing Contributions, and with good reason: they can add tens to hundreds of thousands of pounds to your development, even if you’re a self builder after no more than a family home. After recent questions about what an Affordable Housing Contribution is and whether it can…

Dream homes rarely come cheap, especially when costs seem to sneak up on you. Most of our clients are well prepared for tangible expenditures like materials, contractors and consultants but often forget the regulatory charges that can make or break a build. Over the next two weeks, I’ll be covering two of the most potentially…

The Telegraph Garden by Tommaso del Buono and Paul Gazerwitz Gardens are a quintessential part of London living. While rural areas get to enjoy vast space and fertile scenery, a patch of green feels all the more precious in the city. Gardens have become a primary outlet for creativity in the urban home. For one,…