Low energy house nearing completion

Tom Hughes

It's great to see our house design in a North Nottinghamshire village beginning to emerge, fully formed on site. The oak, brick, slate and zinc materials palette is looking good... But most of all, this project demonstrates that low energy housing can be built even in sensitive planning contexts.

Update: The building is finished and occupied. See our portfolio piece for the latest.

We designed the house, in its village conservation area setting, using the PassivHaus Planning Package, a method that uses tried-and-tested approaches to reducing energy use in buildings. Now the house is nearing completion under executive architects Parsons + Whittley and builder Nick Martin of Hockerton Housing Project fame — testament to a dedicated client and team.

Trapeze off a balloon

Thibaut Devulder

We were contacted this summer by a French circus collective to develop a large-scale inflatable venue. One of the artists, Katrin Wolf, sent us this photo of her former trapeze act off a helium balloon. Lovely!

Photo by Katrin Wolf

Photo by Katrin Wolf

Into the void: 1920s house remodel gets off the drawing board

Tom Hughes

A remodel project is usually a messy thing when it starts on site — plenty of dust and disruption as things get worse before they get better. However, the first steps of this project have presented a glimpse of how much better the house will be when the work is complete: with the removal of the stairs and jumble of storage rooms at the core of the house, new views have opened up from ground level to the underside of the roof.

The creation of a new heart to the house is a key part of our design, reconnecting rooms on each side of the building and linking-in a new loft space above. It's rewarding to see evidence of the value the design will bring at such an early stage. 

For the background to the design, see our previous post about upgrading a 1920s house.

Prag uthus

Thibaut Devulder

The original brief for this project was to create an outbuilding to an existing family house designed by renowned Norwegian functionalist architect Rolf Prag. This outbuilding would accommodate garage space and a small apartment for rental.

We designed a simple single-story building that echoed the typology of the main building, but keeping it visually more compact to respect the functional hierarchy between the main building and its servant outbuilding.

However, a year after the outbuilding was completed, the client decided to sell the main house and suggested moving to this outbuilding. Originally proposed as a joke by the client, this rapidly became an attractive option to temporarily accommodate the family, whilst their new house was being designed and built. The move, however, required a partial remodelling to accommodate a family of four...

The outbuilding then went into another iteration of design, the plot being subdivided to allow the sale of the main building. The area was also relandscaped to cater for this new use.

We merged the existing garage and storage space into the living quarters, creating two more bedrooms and a utility room. With minimal changes to the external appearance of the building, a new garden space and carport were fitted onto the tight plot, framing the entrance to the house and providing a low maintenance outdoor play space.

Planning permission has been granted and the remodelling of the outbuilding and hard landscaping work are now underway.

Aalto campus competition entry submitted

Thibaut Devulder

The competition was for design of the new School of Art, Architecture, Design and Media (50,000 sqm), together with the masterplanning of the central square for the largest university campus of Finland, close to Helsinki. The site is surrounded by iconic modernist buidings designed by Alvar Aalto, who originally also masterplanned the campus.

We submitted the entry last week and it was great fun collaborating on this project with the team at Various Architects — with whom we are now sharing an office space in Oslo. The competition is anonymous, so it is not possible to show images of our entry yet, but the shortlisting for phase two of the project should be announced in November 2012.

New office space for our Oslo branch

Thibaut Devulder

Our Norwegian office is now sharing an office space in Oslo with Various Architects.

I originally got in touch with Various Architects via Snøhetta, who we met at the World Architecture Festival Awards 2011 — they were shortlisted in the same category as our LaM pavilion and they won!

Ibrahim Elhayawan, partner at Various Architects, worked with Snøhetta for 13 years before creating his own practice in 2008. He kindly offered me to join the new office space they were moving in to, on the top floor of Sommerrogata 17, right in front of Oslo's National Library.

The team (clockwise from top left): Jon Iversen and Asgeir Ljøen (of Modus Arkitekter), Isabell Adamofski, Ibrahim Elhayawan and Birgitte Haug (of Various Architects) and me.

The team (clockwise from top left): Jon Iversen and Asgeir Ljøen (of Modus Arkitekter), Isabell Adamofski, Ibrahim Elhayawan and Birgitte Haug (of Various Architects) and me.

Holding a creative space

Thibaut Devulder

The participatory arts magazine Mailout has published an article about our collaboration with artist Marcus Rowlands for our Lost Cuckoo public art project.

Written as a dialogue between Marcus, Tom and Thibaut, the article explores the role of artists and architects in the creative process and the idea of holding a creative space for public participation.

You can read the article on Scribd.

The full version of this issue of Mailout is also available online for purchase.

A Design Vision for our neighbourhood

Tom Hughes

I've been heavily involved over the last few months in the creation of a Neighbourhood Design Vision for Sneinton, the area of Nottingham where 2hD are based. I'm delighted to say that the Vision has now been launched to the public, with its own website and a downloadable PDF document.

In June last year I picked up on a letter from the UK Chief Planner, which set out the role of Design Council CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment), in giving advice on good design for neighbourhoods

The UK planning system is in the process of a major overhaul aimed at giving local communities a greater input, part of the Government's "Localism" agenda. I was interested in how Sneinton might be able to put together a grass-roots vision of its own future, to ensure that Localism works as intended for the area.

The essential problem was how to set out a strong set of ideas to resist poor development, but to encourage good developers by letting them know what local people would support. If resisting the bad is hard, encouraging the good is even more difficult.

As a director of Sneinton Alchemy, a non-profit company run by local people for the benefit of Sneinton, I wrote to Design Council CABE with a copy of the Chief Planner's letter. I asked the question: "What can you do for us?"

The upshot of this was a sucessful joint bid for Design Council CABE funding with OPUN (the architecture centre for the East Midlands), and a 6-month long project to develop the Sneinton Design Vision. You can read the story of how the Vision was created on the Sneinton Alchemy website.

One of the most rewarding parts of the process was the involvement of students from the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment at Nottingham Trent University, where I'm a part-time lecturer. Second year architecture students put forward designs for three high-profile sites in Sneinton, the best of which then went forward to an OPUN design review. This saw a panel of industry experts reviewing both the student's designs and a draft version of the Sneinton Vision. 

Developing the Vision has been involved and tough for the local community to support, but the outcome is something we can be proud of. The hope is that this will form the basis of a Neighbourhood Design Plan for Sneinton, which can have real teeth in the planning process.

Tune house

Thibaut Devulder

We converted a derelict building on the bank of Mjøsa, Norway's largest lake, into an artist home with a large integrated workshop.

Reusing the concrete structure — an usual asset in Norwegian housing! — we created a focused work space, linked to a open plan apartment that takes in the beautiful views to the lake and its surrounding hillsides.

More articles about this project:
Tune house
Tune house
Tune house nearing completion
Tune house nearing completion
Tune House on site

LaM article in the TensiNet newsletter

Thibaut Devulder

We have just received a copy of the latest newsletter from TensiNet, the European network for the design and realisation of tensile structures. This issue features an article about our award-winning inflatable pavilion for the Lille Museum of Modern Art (LaM).

The curvature of our double-skin inflatable structure, for the Lille Museum of Modern Art

Nice to be involved with the TensiNet people again. It's been a long time since I co-authored the chapter on the environmental design of tensile structures, in the European Design Guide for Tensile Surface Structures they published in 2004.

Tune house nearing completion

Thibaut Devulder

Our house conversion project on the bank of Mjøsa lake, 90km north of Oslo, is nearing completion. Interior work progressed well these last few weeks and, with the winter now receeding, the exterior insulation and landscaping will soon start. Great work by our client and builder Chriss Brohaug.

Lost Cuckoo workshop at NTU

Thibaut Devulder

Furthering our exploration and experiments using the cardboard module developed for the Lost Cuckoo project, Marcus Rowlands and 2hD Architects ran two "lectures" at Nottingham Trent University.

Images by Marcus Rowlands and Matthew Mouncey

With the participation of staff and students from the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment, and in a lecture hall setting. This was, however, not your standard lecture format: the starting point was for each person to build a module, then to team up and build an assembly, and finally to bring everything together to create a space-within-a-space... in which the 'lecture' would happen.

March 2012. Workshop run by Marcus Rowlands and 2hD Architects using the cardboard construction module developed for the Lost Cuckoo project. With first year Interior Architecture student, at Nottingham Trent University's School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment. Marcus Rowlands: http://marcusrowlands.com 2hD Architects: http://2hd.co.uk

Video by 2hD

Self-build timber structure

Thibaut Devulder

The interior restoration of our two-century-old barn in southern France is almost completed, with all its stone walls repointed and the ceiling of the new insulated roof painted. Credits to our self-builder clients for their amazing work!

The erection of the internal timber structure has also started. We planned the layout of the converted barn so that interior work could be organised in three independent phases: after this initial phase, our clients will be able to start inhabiting the barn, while continuing to work on the rest of the internal structure. Eventually, this first part of the structure will serve as a bedroom for their future guesthouse.

We designed this self-supported structure to be easy to construct by the self-builder couple, without requiring any special equipment or tools. As our clients had no previous experience in carpentry, we produced a package of user-friendly construction drawings that clearly explained how things fitted together. 

More photos of the project on our clients' blog...

VM Spark Utfor 2012

Thibaut Devulder

Now a proud resident of the Kingdom of Norway, I see it as my duty to take part in all the crazy outdoor activities that the locals so enthusiastically tell me about. So, after just five months on Norwegian soil, I took part with my father in this year's Downhill Kick Sled World championship, as the only French representatives of the competition...

Called Spark in Norwegian, the Norwegian kick sled is a beautiful balance between utter flimsiness and aggressive ice carving, between old style traditional craftsmanship and modern minimalism.

So, with basically no training, we flung ourselves on a spark down 4.5km of icy winding roads on the hills of Hurdal at up to 40km/h, an honourable speed considering how little control we could exert on our trajectory. Here's an overview of our performance in all its helmet-cam glory:

2hD director Thibaut takes part in the Norwegian downhill Kick-sled World Championship, as the only French representative of the competition...

Glad to have survived this trial, we will be starting the training for next year's championship as soon as the first snow hits the Norwegian hills.

Portfolio project
The Lost Cuckoo

Thibaut Devulder

We have put together this short video about our Lost Cuckoo project with artist Marcus Rowlands from the DVD produced by the Lakeside Art Centre, who hosted the event last year.  The project was great fun and we are looking forward to developing this concept in other art festivals this year!

A public art and participation project by Marcus Rowlands artist and 2hD architects, involving pupils, parents and staff from Brocklewood, Melbury and Portland schools in Nottingham. Funded by The Arts Council, Lakeside Arts Centre and Nottingham Education Improvement Partnership, with support from Faspak and Staples. Original footage and sound by Vent Media. 2011.

The Lost Cuckoo project was commissioned and supported by the Arts Council England and Nottingham Lakeside Arts.