Graham Ford Architects

29/08/2024

“The 5 best ways to renovate your home.

I’ve worked with dozens of home owners over the years.

In all that time, I’ve noticed that there are 5 key ways to make sure your home renovation runs smoothly.

These 5 things are the areas I think you should focus on if you want a successful outcome.

The 5 things are:

Write down your brief before you speak to an architect.
Hire an architect with experience in home renovation.
Don’t hire builders recommended by friends and neighbours and make sure your architect does due diligence on all builders and helps you select the right one.
Look at magazines and images and create an image board physically or on pinterest so you can communicate what you like and don’t like.
Hire a quantity surveyor to help manage your budget and make sure you don’t overspend.

If you want to know how successful you are in these 5 areas, click the link and take the 3-minute quiz.

https://homedesign.scoreapp.com

Answer approx 30 questions and get your personalised score along with a free report on what you can do to improve.”

30/04/2024

New book published with lots of information to help you get your project off the ground. You can download for free from our website or buy on Amazon. www.grahamfordarchitects.com/book-the-total-environment-master plan/

06/01/2022

A Guide to Sustainable Retrofit
Are you ready to meet your statutory obligations on emissions through retrofitting your building?

Having returned to work, your customers will no doubt be worried about returning to your offices given what we have lived through during the last 18 months. Now is the right time to reassess your buildings and consider if they are enhancing your brand as well as the wellbeing of your staff & customers.

New EPC regulations and emission targets are important to consider and you will need a strategy to meet your statutory obligations in 2025 when by law, all buildings will require an EPC and by 2027 when you must have a rating of C or above in order to lawfully lease it.

To learn more about sustainability and how we have tailored our Heals development project to focus on this, you can read the full article on the GFA blog http://www.grahamfordarchitects.com/project_item/guide-sustainable-retrofit/ or read our ‘Sustainability’ e-book http://www.grahamfordarchitects.com/sustainability-ebook/ . You can also complete our scorecard https://sustainablebuildingrenovation.scoreapp.com/ which is a benchmarking tool to help you decide what is needed on your journey to future proof your office.

Feel free to comment below any ideas, thoughts or experiences you may have.

10/09/2021

NEW DINING PAVILION GAINS PERMISSION IN HARROW

We are pleased to announce that earlier this week at Brent Council planning committee meeting our project for a 350 seat dining hall, flexible meeting spaces, new kitchen, bar and reception spaces for the Harrow District Masonic Centre was granted permission. This is a result of detailed and constructive collaboration with the planners and conservation officer at Brent Council over the last 18 months.

The project, an extension to the existing building, is located in a conservation area in Harrow, North London. We navigated the project through the planning process with the considerable skill of a great team consisting of Adam Beamish of Beamish Planning Consultancy, Laura Fitzgerald of Mode Transport and Sara Davidson of HCUK group.

The design comprises two new pavilions designed to maximise views into the landscape with a glazed link between them. We were able to achieve this design due to the skill of our structural engineers Seamus Maguire from Davies Maguire and our mechanical and environmental engineer Alan Arnott of Studio 9. Alan designed a natural ventilation strategy which allowed us to keep the roof build ups low so we could achieve our heritage aims and not block the existing pavilion. This natural ventilation strategy is a powerful tool to help combat the current pandemic and provide a healthy and sustainable environment for future building users.

07/05/2021

Based on our years of experience we developed a scorecard to test how well you are translating your design project into a successful building. To do our scorecard follow the link on our bio or visit https://designprojectscorecard.scoreapp.com/

08/04/2021

Have a look at our recently completed project, a new facility for Leiths School of Food and Wine.

David Churchill Photography

08/04/2021

09/03/2021

Do you have a project in mind?
Take our scorecard to find out 'How far are you from achieving an amazing building?'
The report will give you helpful insights and tips on how to improve your score in working towards an amazing building.

The report will give you helpful insights and tips on how to improve your score in working towards an amazing building.

18/07/2019

Harrow Masonic Centre, Brent. The aim of the project is to expand the existing centre and create four dining spaces for 320 members of various Lodges to come and meet, socialise and dine.

24/05/2018

Have a look at the completed Belsize Park Project! It involved a full house renovation including the addition of a large 107m2 basement under the existing house. If you want to find out more, please visit our website: http://www.grahamfordarchitects.com/project_item/howitt-road/

This project involved a full renovation of an existing house in Belsize Park including the addition of a large 107m2 basement under the existing house. If you want to find out more, please visit our website.

16/02/2018

Let’s applaud this new development from the Mayor as a possible change in policy where small players such as builders and boutique developers in the our city are able to develop land that has been subdivided into smaller development parcels..

Great news from the Mayor of London small publicly owned sites, many owned by Transport for London (TFL) will be brought forward to help increase the supply of new homes. The key thing will be to get

14/02/2018

The classroom and books never prepare you for the construction site or for the physical presence and power of historic buildings.. Read more on:

The classroom never prepares you for the construction site. Books never prepare you for the physical presence and power of an historic building. Some buildings make a contribution to an ongoing progressive cultural discourse and have cultural ambition… …they are a reflection of society’s value...