Vintage shop opening at Gaarder Gård

Thibaut Devulder
March 9, 2025

All construction work and upgrade of the annex building at Gaarder Gård is now completed, and the new 7th Heaven Vintage shop — hosted in the transformed listed building — opened its door to the public this weekend!

facade of the newly converted building — The space is now converted and open to the public, with minimum changes to the historical facades of the listed building

We were responsible for converting this unused garage space into a commercial space in a listed building in the centre of Eidsvoll. Despite stringent conservation requirements for the facades and being located within the flood zone of the Vorma river, we successfully collaborated with our client and Eidsvoll municipality to secure planning permission, infusing new life into an otherwise abandoned urban space.

Opening day at the vintage shop — Opening day at Vintage 7th Heaven (photo © Chriss Brohaug)

Hands-on with traditional arch masonry

Thibaut Devulder
September 14, 2021

Thibaut standing on the completed dry stone arch — A dry stone arch built during the course, under testing!

While working on the restoration of century-old stables in central Oslo, I was invited to take part in a practical workshop on traditional arch masonry. The course was organised by the Norwegian Heritage Association (Fortidsminneforeningen) for mastermasons, handworkers and architects who are involved in the restoration of old masonry buildings in Norway.

We explored the complete process of building traditional stone arches, using both dry stone techniques and traditional brick and lime mortar masonry, Over five intensive days, we built from scratch five different types of arches, starting with the design and fabrication of the formworks, the preparation and mixing of traditional lime mortar, the shaping of natural stones and, finally, the erection of the arches themselves.

This was a fantastic opportunity to learn new practical skills to develop our continued interest in historical buildings, as well as to network with talented craftsmen from all over Norway, for future collaborations.

You can admire the completed arches in Oslo’s Medieval park (Middelalderparken), next to the ruins of St Mary’s Church.

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Portfolio project
Vertical living in a former boiler house

Tom Hughes
July 15, 2020

A pod-like extension provides services, daylight and ventilation.

This intriguing little project is now under construction in Nottingham. Our client’s town house occupies part of a former builder’s joinery workshop in a Conservation Area. Entry to the main house is through the ground floor of a free-standing former boiler house, complete with an 11m high brick chimney. Our challenge was to re-purpose this special, tiny building to contain a home working office and guest accommodation.

We stripped out and redesigned the boiler house interior to fit a mezzanine level under the opened-up roof structure, and used ‘space saver’ stairs to maximise the floor area. The tiny floor plan is offset by an impressive vertical connection between the levels- with everything needed for occupation accessed off a vertical circulation route culminating in the bed platform.

Careful organisation of the section creates space for a mezzanine level

The temptation is to cut lots of holes in an existing building to let in light, provide ventilation and create new service routes, but in this case we decided to preserve the integrity of the boiler house by adding a highly-serviced pod to the exterior. This provides the necessary service connections, and brings light and ventilation to the interior. The addition is anonymous, in keeping with the industrial heritage of the building whilst creating intrigue and mystery of its own.