,

Latest news from Living Space Architects 01/03/2019

We are extremely excited to announce that we will be working on a new project with the Salvation Army in Exeter!

A brief history of the building and the Salvation Army

The Salvation army was set up in 1865 by William Booth. William Booth was an evangelist who wanted to offer practical help to the poor as well as preaching the gospel to them. Mr Ernest Stear was a local Methodist preacher who ran the Temperance Chapel in Friars Walk, he offered the church to the Salvation Army for their use. The branch was a huge success and in October 1881 William Booth visited the City expressing his pleasure with the activities to date. He announced from the platform that they would buy the Temperance Chapel and convert it so that 2,000 people could be accommodated, and it would now be known as Exeter Temple.

The Temperance Chapel was extended to its present form, providing seating for 2000, and ancillary rooms. The front of the building in Friars Gate was built as a “citadel” with its tessellated features.

The image below (taken from Google Maps) shows the current building from the outside 

Whilst we are still in discussion with the community, we have been thinking about potentially adding a cafe and charity shop to the site whilst also making additional repairs and improvements.

Planning permission granted for a unique location in Haldon Forest

We have been able to secure planning permission for a beautiful location in Haldon Forest, using the Class Q barn conversion legislation. The property will be converted from a disused barn into 2 stunning properties. Keep an eye out for our next blog post, which goes into more detail about Class Q barn conversions!

Below are some amazing images of what the project will look like upon completion

Planning permission won for property in St Leonard’s

To find out more about the details of this property and how we managed to obtain planning permission, have a look at our recent blog post.

Planning Permission Won for House Extension and Alterations, North Devon

This project entails the re-positioning of this property’s kitchen to the new extension, opening out onto the garden. The design presents an exciting opportunity to design an extension which will have a strong aesthetic connection to the original house, re-using materials from the site.

/by
,

Why we use BIM and why it’s great news for you!

What is BIM?

BIM stands for Building Information Modelling. It is a broad term that describes creating and managing digital information about a building. Essentially, it’s the way in which architects now design buildings.

It’s purpose is to have all the information about a project in one place, in order to allow better decisions to be made throughout the design process.

The benefits of using BIM

1. This technology takes about half the time that hand drawn designs used to take, but allows us to delve into much more detail on the plans

2. Communicating the design can be made very creative and exciting. Using Virtual Realty technology you can virtually step inside your future home!

3. Facilitating collaboration has never been easier, several individuals can edit the design and input their ideas during meetings

 

4. Human error, although inevitable, can be reduced significantly as the design can be checked and corrected much quicker than with hand drawn designs

5. It makes changes to designs much easier. For example changing the size of windows can be altered at the click of a button and the roof height altered accordingly

6. Having all of the information in one place also means that it is much easier to facilitate RFI’s when needed

7. It considers the design as a whole, for example; aesthetics, material selection, access, maintenance and construction.

8. Provides spacial awareness and retains the feel of the original design

 

/by
,

Our Design Process

If you want to find out more detail about our design process, take a look at the PDF below.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.livingspacearchitects.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/LSA-Brochure-new.pdf” title=”LSA Brochure (new)”]

/by
,

Wellbeing and Heritage

The intriguing link between wellbeing and heritage

“Directly or indirectly, well-being, in some shape or other…is the subject of every thought, and object of every action, on the part of every known Being…nor can any intelligible reason be given for desiring that it should be otherwise.”

– Jeremy Bentham, Chrestomathia (1817)

We specialise in bringing historic and listed buildings back to life, we were pleased to hear that according to recent research by Historic England  living in historic buildings makes you healthier and happier.

What is wellbeing?

‘‘Wellbeing can be understood as how people feel and how they function, both on a personal and a social level, and how they evaluate their lives as a whole.” New Economics

How does heritage impact on our mental health?

  • Historic sites often require volunteers to run. The act of volunteering over time makes us feel happy and fulfilled within ourselves
  • Visiting heritage sites gives us an opportunity to spend time with family and friends whilst being immersed in culture and meeting new people with similar interests
  • We feel pride in the historic buildings in our area, they give us a sense of place e.g. In Exeter our historic buildings such as Exeter Cathedral and Exeter Castle give us a sense of pride where we live

Image result for Exeter Cathedral

The Results

“People who visit heritage sites are happier than those who do not. As noted earlier, between 2010 and 2013, on average, those who had visited a heritage site in the previous 12 months, reported happiness scores 1.6% greater than those who had not.” – Heritage Counts 2016 Report

In summary, heritage sites can help combat issues of isolation, exclusion and lack of identity, by building relationships between people and places.

/by
,

How we obtain planning permission for an extension to a listed building

St Leonards, Exeter

The Brief:

  • The client requested a major ground-floor extension, replacing the conservatory and bay window, extending into the garden and creating an extended kitchen and living space

The Problem:

  • The property is a listed building within a unique style of buildings in the area.
    • Regency style architecture – spanning the first 30 years of the 19th century and showing a natural progression from the Georgian style that preceded it
  • There was a need to ensure that the new extension did not obstruct the light to the neighbours property

The Solutions:

  • The pictures below show a “butterfly roof” whereby the 2 sections of the roof (one slightly raised with a gap between them) allow light into the extension itself as well as not obstructing light to the neighbouring property.
  • Having a very positive relationship with the planning officers meant that collaboration and feedback from them was able to be taken into careful consideration and implemented in our design.
  • The extension is very contemporary and contrasts to the Regency style architecture surrounding it. This is key to the design as it allows us to tell a story of the time period through architecture.

Pictures of the final drawings:

/by
,

What are the benefits of using 3D scanning and point cloud integration in architectural work?

A point cloud is a set of data points in space. Point clouds are generally produced by 3D scanners, which measure a large number of points on the external surfaces of objects around them.

Living Space Architects have become one of the only architects in Exeter using this new technology.

Example of a point cloud of a model Stegosaurus

How does the 3D scanning work for buildings?

Using the ReCap Pro mobile app, the scanner streams the image and point cloud data to the iPad. The app filters and registers scan data in real time. After capture, ReCap Pro enables point cloud data transfer to a number of applications. The integration of BLK360 and Autodesk software dramatically streamlines the reality capture process.

Leica BLK360 Scanner in action

CLICK HERE – Point Cloud Video

 

What are the benefits of using this cutting edge technology?

  • It provides immediate 3D data for all our design drawings
  • It creates virtual reality images that we can immediately begin work on
  • The detail and accuracy of the images produced are second to none
  • The process of gathering information from the site is much easier and quicker

The results

By uploading the scans into Recap Pro, we can then create the existing 3D model. Here are some examples:

 

/by

What you weren’t told about owning a listed building

Read more
/by