Cowper Griffith appointed to restore Calverley Old Hall

Cowper Griffith Architects are delighted to have been appointed to develop plans to restore Calverley Old Hall, an exceptional medieval manor house between Leeds and Bradford.

The Landmark Trust held an international design competition for the project to rescue the derelict manor house, which received 75 entries. Cowper Griffith’s proposals have been selected, with our winning design creatively reinventing the original pattern of use in the house including the Great Hall & Solar.

The project is highly significant given that the Grade 1 house was built and inhabited by the Lords of the Manor of Calverley from c.1250 to the late 18th century, placing it in the top 2.5% of all listed buildings in the country.

The Landmark Trust is a charity that rescues extraordinary buildings at risk of being lost, restores them and makes them available for short holiday breaks.  The director Anna Keay said:

“We saw a really exciting and imaginative range of proposals for the revival of Calverley through the competition. However, the winning design stood out, and won the unanimous support of the panel, for its marriage of real sensitivity to the Grade-one listed building with an ingenious approach to creating wonderful, uplifting spaces within and around it.”

Chris Cowper, partner & design director at Cowper Griffith Architects, added:

“CGA are delighted to have won such a prestigious and rewarding project. Calverley Old Hall presents exciting opportunities, challenging us as designers to resolve a history of continuous change and invention, expressed in ruinous but rich detail. We are very aware that the success of the project will depend upon our ability to make the social history and architectural detail of the development of the Old Hall discernable & legible, through the expressed evolution of the masonry and worked timbers already exposed. We hope to create distinct but contemporary form and detail, subservient to the historic building, whilst enhancing the setting by drawing out and celebrating the tension between the new use and the architectural iterations visible in the historic fabric. We feel privileged to have been chosen by Landmark to take the Old Hall forward into the next phase of its history”.

Permission granted for Park House extension & outbuildings

Planning permission and Listed building consent have just been granted for a modern kitchen extension, pool house, garage and extensive landscaping scheme to a grade II listed house in Cambridgeshire. We are in the process of preparing construction drawings, and the project is due to start in early 2018.

Construction of replacement dwelling underway at Sandy Ridge

Work is now well underway at Sandy Ridge, on the North Norfolk Coast. The existing bungalow has been demolished, the site has been cleared and the piling has been completed. The CLT panels are due to be delivered in March 2018, after which the dynamic form of the new house will emerge rapidly. The project is due for completion towards the end of 2018.

Voysey House Visit

We recently had the real privilege to visit a wonderfully preserved Voysey house from 1903 in suburban Bushey, Hertfordshire.  Tilehurst was designed as the home of Miss Edith Somers, and is one of Voysey’s smallest houses in the Arts and Crafts style. The house epitomises Voysey’s sure handling of small-scaled buildings with a delightfully simple built form that is almost square in plan. Every detail of the building is carefully considered in a dignified and unpretentious way.

Anglia Lime CPD Seminar

Anglia Lime Company recently presented an informative and enjoyable CPD seminar to the practice, giving an introduction to Lime and it's applications. Following the session, CGA staff members were invited to try their hand with two of ALC's lime based products, by applying them to wooden lath, wool board and brickwork sample panels.

Duxford Officer's Mess Business Centre wins regional BCO Refurbishment Award

The refurbishment and conversion of the Officer's Mess at IWM Duxford has been selected for a regional award. The British Council for Offices (BCO) judges were impressed by the transformation of the listed Officer’s Mess building in IWM Duxford, from its’ previous condition of disrepair and into the vibrant and thriving Officers' Mess Business Centre.

The judges highlighted that a vast central atrium has been created within the heart of the complex in a previously derelict external courtyard, housing a business centre, reception café and co-working facilities. They added that the building now offers well-appointed workspace within an inspiring heritage setting, perfect for serviced offices.

The project now goes forward for a national award in October.

Please follow this link for further information, from the BCO website: http://www.bco.org.uk/Awards/Winners/2017/Refurbished_Workplace_2017.aspx

Work underway at Winchester College

CGA have developed designs for the renovation, conversion and development of a site in central Winchester, for Winchester College. The proposal will create 11 new dwellings, with associated landscaping.

After several months delay due to a comprehensive archaeological investigation, piling work is now underway on site, and the project is due for completion in Spring 2018.

Stonehenge Visitor Centre

We are proud to be working on £2.4m additional facilities at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre, to enable smooth processing and onward transit of the many hundreds of thousands of annual visitors, with up to 10,000 visitors per day. We developed the project from RIBA 2 prepared by another architect. We reworked the shuttle system with new platforms and loops to streamline the visitor flows, and at the same time expanded the coach park and designed a new ancillary building providing group ticketing, audio guides and generous WC provision to cater for coach groups.

The work here has naturally been closely scrutinised by Historic England due to its internationally significant archaeological setting and at the same time the design has had to satisfy the practical day to day requirements of the site team keen to ensure that their significant operational difficulties experienced during the busiest periods are minimised.

Work was completed to programme which opened up the operation of the new expanded coach park and shuttle system for the recent Easter holiday with reports that the new set up is working well. The remaining elements of the project will be completed in the next few months. 

New Visitor Centre for Suffolk Wildlife Trust

The Practice is currently developing the RIBA stage 3 design of a new visitor centre and associated infrastucture for the Suffolk Wildlife Trust at their Carlton and Oulton Marshes site near Lowestoft, Suffolk.

CGA won a competition to design a new building that is to provide an inspirational gateway to the Southern Broads. The building will be highly sustainable built from cross laminated timber and clad in reed thatch walling and a bronze roof.

Two projects shortlisted for RIBA East Awards 2017

The practice is pleased to report that two recently completed projects have been shortlisted for this year's RIBA East Awards:

Westering House, a contemporary private residence on the North Norfolk Coast:

Westering House, North Norfolk

Residential care accommodation at The Great Hospital, Norwich:

The Great Hospital, Norwich

The full shortlist was reported by The Architect's Journal, and can be viewed here:

https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/revealed-huge-shortlist-for-2017-riba-east-awards/10018512.article#.WNTVyBKZBAo.twitter