client: Cannock Mill Cohousing Colchester (CMCC)
Completed October 2022

Cannock Mill Cohousing is a mutually supportive community, living in low energy homes, with some shared facilities, encouraging social interaction. The residents own and manage the site as well as their houses, everyone contributes to the upkeep and smooth running of the community.

Consultation and consensual decision making were a key part of the development process with Anne Thorne Architects and continue in the final project. CMC forms a community of 26 households, with a mixed accommodation schedule, ranging from one-bedroom flats to three-bedroom houses. The houses are designed to lifetime home’s standards with a space for a future lift and wide staircases to accommodate a stairlift.

The scheme is 25 minutes walk from the centre of Colchester, near public transport, but also adjacent to woodland and the Bourne stream which flows to the nearby river Colne.

The site has a delightful Grade II listed Mill building which houses the shared facilities. The three-storey building has been made fully accessible with the addition of a new lift and with accessible WCs. The guest bedrooms are on the lower ground floor, large dining/meeting room and kitchen on the middle floor and a large living room on the top floor. There is a shared washing machine and dryer in the laundry room.

The new houses form a contour hugging terrace overlooking the 50m mill pond. There are extensive shared gardens with a kitchen garden as well as private outdoor space, all flats and house have balconies or an outside terrace. The scheme houses have deep green roofs and the whole site is designed to current Sustainable Urban Drainage standards with no surface water going into the main drains.

Members of the community run their own car club with operates with an online calendar booking system and balances costs against membership fees.

The houses are designed to Passive House Standards and currently energy bills for the 3 bedroom houses for heating and hot water are approximately £250 per year excluding standing charges, VAT, etc.

Passivhaus in Hickling continued…..

2 new three bedroom passivhaus houses are currently on site, using the Passivhaus Homes PH15 timber framed kit, which is particularly well detailed for airtightness and thermal continuity, see  http://www.phhomes.co.uk.

The houses are designed to sit well in the village street. Brought together as a semi-detached pair,  each L-shaped house encloses a sunny courtyard with french doors opening out from both living room and kitchen. The asymetric gable end faces the street, characteristic of houses in Hickling, and each house has a sheltered garden. 

The timber frame, lime rendered walls and clay pantiled roofs are combined with triple glazed windows, solar thermal water heating and heat recovery ventilation, in a synthesis of low impact and high tech building.

The houses are positioned to maximise passive solar gain and are designed to achieve the low energy Passivhaus Standard. Water conservation, economic use of material resources, low toxicity and waste minimisation are also carefully considered.

The houses are built for early private sale, so that the fitting out can be designed to suit their owners.

contact:hicklingpassivhaus@gmail.com

Purpose built in 1983 as 15 flats for single people, North Camden Housing Co-operative wanted to solve the serious environmental problems this seemingly simple white cube of a building had aquired. Damp, mouldy and cold, with terrible ventilation problems, ATA with Alan Clarke, service engineer, Corbett and Tasker as structural engineers and Peter Gittings, cost consultant, set about designing the solution With serious input form residents and Co-op, Enerphit, which is the passivhaus standard for retrofit, was used to design the ow energy well ventilated flats.

The building team, HA Marks were chosen through a 2 stage tender process, and contributed to ensuring buildability of the design.

The concrete block cavity walls and hollow beam floor construction were riddled with cracks, which were assessed for long term stability, and some propping and lots of stitching carried out. Airtightness was the critical issue, and the airtightness envelope the most challenging part of the design work. It was only on completion of the initial tests, when results of 0.38 airchanges per hour were achieved, (target for Enerphit is 1, final test results were 0.6) that the team knew just how well we had done. MVHR and PV for immediate use and feeding water heaters, mean bills are very low, and the original well daylit and spacious design of the flats can now be enjoyed.

Residents have moved back into their flats, and are contributing to post occupancy evaluation.

client: LB Lambeth
completion sept 2016

The three new Passivhaus standard large family houses, as well as the six flats retrofitted in a large victorian villa and adjoining terraced house, are part of LB Lambeth’s radical new programme to develop their own new housing over the next 5 years.  ATA  worked with partners in our new low energy architecture collective 15-40,  to deliver this scheme.

The scheme is located within a conservation area, the three new-build large four-bed family houses are timber-frame construction using the Passivhaus homes PH15 system.

The three houses knit together an existing Victorian terrace in Lambeth, where the site has been vacant since bomb damage during WW2.

The six flats are a major sustainable, low carbon refurbishment initiative which demonstrate realistic aspirations to reduce energy from existing buildings by 70-80%

‘We realise that there are many positive attributes to the scheme including reinforcing and defining the street frontage with terraced buildings of similar plot widths to the existing terrace. Based on a number of other successful schemes by Anne Thorne Architects in the borough the Urban Design Officer is confident … that the development will be of a very high quality architecture and very distinctive’.

A new straw-bale house in Hickling, Norfolk with a thatched roof. The steeply pitched roof allows for an asymmetric gable, an economic section with bedrooms under the roof, and single story store rooms under the extended roof.
Eyebrow windows to the south overlook the garden. Timber triple glazed high performance windows, lime rendered and limewashed walls and a Norfolk reed thatch roof, accompany the ‘Passivhaus’ standard low energy design.

client: Haringey Council
completed autumn 2012

RICS awards 2013 Highly Commended in the community benefit category

Shortlisted for a Builder & Engineer Award 2012 sustainable project of the year

Read the RIBA Journal article here

ATA have designed a multi-purpose building at Lordship Recreational Grounds, part of the redevelopment works of this Haringey park.

This building is an exemplar of sustainable building techniques, requiring the minimum amount of energy to run, and producing part of its own energy. Inspired by leaves, the Environment Centre was developed with sustainability at its core but it was only at detailed design stage that it adopted the Passivhaus methodology. Built with an FSC certified timber frame with community built straw bale walls and covered with a green roof, the building will be robust with a ‘skirt’ of gabion walls, decorative security screens and planting. Renewable energy is generated by roof-mounted photovoltaic panels, and rain water harvested for irrigation purposes. Volunteers from the local community received training in straw bale construction and participated in the assembling of the straw walls.

The Environment Centre accommodates a cafe with external seating space near the playground and lake, a multi-purpose community room, a teaching room, small offices and a kitchen. The project involves a number of local green companies and Friends of Lordship Recreation, amongst others. The project and the wider park regeneration has received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Greater London Authority, the Environment Agency and the London Borough of Haringey.

One of the most innovative aspects of the building is its use of straw bale wall construction, a waste product of the agricultural industry. As well as providing a valuable opportunity for the local community to be involved in the buildings construction as volunteers, straw is super insulating, and locks in CO2 absorbed during its growth period. Along with gabion wall protection, the straw bale walls are a robust but friendly building element.

private client
completed in 2015

This new Passivhaus, located in a conservation area, uses locally sourced clay bricks (9 miles away to be exact) by Yorkshire Handmade to provide a delightfully textured and simple aesthetic. Masonry wall wide-cavity construction uses details developed with the Green Building Store, based on their experience at Denby Dale.

Issues concerning privacy and not being overlooked was a significant design constraint, which was overcome with the simultaneously decorative brick fins, adding dynamism to the facades’ finish. A key challenge was to make the roof-lights work as part of the PHPP; monitoring energy consumption and temperatures will tell us all how well this design strategy has performed.

Meeting House has been featured as a case study on the Ecology Building Society’s website. See Jenny’s story: A simple, beautiful, and light urban Passivhaus

client: L B Barking & Dagenham
contract value: £1.7m
completed: 2008

The project was an initiative of LB Barking & Dagenham Sure Start to build on and develop existing school, community and childcare provision at Furze Infants School.

The new building demonstrates a sustainable approach to construction using honeycomb clay blocks and insulation standards well above current building regulations. Solar thermal panels heat water for the kitchen and for the underfloor heating.The school has a nighttime cooling system, which uses natural ventilation to cool the school in summer. Natural materials and finishes were chosen for floors and walls.

The project houses four new classrooms for year 2 children with cloakroom facilities, a new hall and kitchen for the school, an extended Nursery linked to the existing, providing 40 places for full day childcare for under 3 year olds, 15 places for babies, a new home for Sure Start community activities, creche, shared staff base Sure Start offices and facilities and a new playground on the roof.

The rooftop playground is made safe with a stainless steel net which covers the roof and walls of the playground and rubber floor surface. The existing School has been made more accessible so that children, community and after school services are better served.

Extensive consultation has been a key part of this project to enable parents, governors, teachers and neighbours to participate in developing the project.

Photographs by David Spiro.

The Catch landmark sculpture, its image now a 2012 Olympic symbol, is a 9 meter high sculpture which was realised from concept images by artist Loraine Leeson of Cspace. Located on a roundabout in Barking and Dagenham, the fish symbolise the heritage of fishing in Barking; they celebrate the fact that Barking Creek used to be the place where the herrings were landed by the main fishing fleet for London. The Celtic knot pattern of the net refers to the early settlement of the Danes in the area.

The net is made in rolled aluminium and the fish are made of segments of epoxy resin which allow them to move on the central rubber spine in the wind. Local students and schoolchildren participated in its creation, and it is intended to inspire plans for regeneration and hope for the future. Little now remains of Barking’s maritime and fishing industries, but strategic links are planned between the town centre and the Roding to improve access to the historic riverside.

client: Metropolitan Housing Partnership
contract value: £3.1m
completed: 2007

Winner of Smaller Housing Project at Inside Housing’s Sustainable Housing Awards 2008
Winner of The Mail British Homes Awards Affordable Housing Development of the Year 2008
Finalist Constructing Excellence Legacy Award for Sustainability 2008
Building for Life Gold Standard

Nine terraced, timber-frame family houses with gardens curve around parking and play areas shared with council housing. On a tight backland site, the strategy was to design using natural materials around existing mature trees. ATA proposed that this new street was named after the great writer Angela Carter many of whose novels and short stories are set in this area of South London.

The houses are of prefabricated timber frame, finished in a combination of renderboard and chestnut slats. Recycled newspaper insulation, sedum green roof and timber glazing reduce u-values and 90% of all timber used is Forest Stewardship Council Certified. Natural paints and low energy lighting were used throughout. Passive stack ventilation and A-rated boilers are supported by flat-plate solar collectors for hot water. Gardens are planted in native species like leadwort, and include lavender roofed bicycle sheds, bird and bat boxes.

Also part of this scheme was a masonry ‘villa’ adjacent to this site, which houses six new build flats built on this derelict and wooded backland site part of a conservation area.

client: Metropolitan Housing Trust
contract value: £900,000.00
completed: 2009

RIBA Award 2010

Five family houses make the most of a pocket site behind the back gardens of the grand victorian villas of Cubitt’s Clapham Park, Lambeth. The houses sit amongst mature Sycamores, Willows, Ashes and a Chines Privet and the early stages of the design took advantage of the wooded quality of the small site to create a ‘huts in the garden’ feel. Timber framed and clad in timber shingles and part render, with green roofs, timber windows and external shutters the houses achieved Ecohomes ‘Excellent’. A shared garden to the south-east is also part of the development and is enjoyed by the 23 children living on Bateman Mews.

CABE Building for Life chair Wayne Hemingway MBE says: This is a highly distinctive and pleasing scheme on the type of site that often produces mediocre and unimaginative responses.

“Rooms of our Own is an exciting new social enterprise planning to build a beautiful, green and fully accessible centre on this site in St James Str, Walthamstow. There will be a café open to all, hotdesking, meeting rooms, a creche, gallery space, performance space, spaces for women’s charities and support for women’s businesses. We also plan to grow food on the roof!

We want to move away from the grant-funded models of the past, and to construct housing to fund the women’s centre. Once the project is built it should be financially self-sustaining and we hope that the model will be copied across London and even the UK. The main capital receipt will be generated once the project is completed.

Meanwhile we are still fundraising to help us raise a “small” initial deposit towards buying this site. All suggestions and donations gratefully received. Our Patron is Stella Creasy MP” RooO 2015

client:LB Lambeth
completed: 2006

ATA had a long involvement with the redevelopment of the Angell Town estate, retrofitting over 60 units at Holles and Warick Houses and designing a new block of flats. The sustainable refurbishment resulted in 50% less CO2 use, and the block was replanned to increase safety. (See ‘angell town)

Also at Angell Town is a new build block of Eighteen flats in a three storey block of FSC timber. The design of Boatemah Walk was developed in close consultation with residents. It uses rainwater recycling to flush WCs and generates electricity though the photovoltaic film metal roof. The scheme received a CABE Building for Life gold award.

“It’s our experience that you can’t impose sustainability [on people], but you can encourage it and develop people’s understanding of it,” says Bradshaw. “We felt that the environmental concerns were coming from the residents. Through the process of the meetings, we came together as a tight group which became very engaged [in the design].”

“The residents weren’t technical experts,” says Congreve, “but there were some things they wanted, such as space, that the architects listened to. Perhaps it made them more receptive to what the architects said about sustainability.”

client: Holmewood Nursery, Lambeth
completed: 2006

ATA have a long term relationship with Holmewood Nursery, Lambeth, and have been involved in a number of retrofit and new build works, including this Head teacher’s office. Renovations to Holmewood nusery’s existing building included new larger staff and headteacher facilities, a new reception area and a separate entrance for the younger children.

The scheme uses natural organic materials and healthy building solutions to help minimise allergies.

client: Barratt Metropolitan LLP
contract value: £1.3 million
completed: 2011

The eight family houses on the Pilot scheme, a terrace on Sorrel Mead and a semi-detached pair on Cool Oak Lane, are the first to be completed as part of the large West Hendon regeneration scheme. The design was developed through a series of workshops led by ATA, and discussions, models, site visits with the local residents, as well as workshops about how to read architectural drawings were part of the consultation process. As a result, the houses are made with local red brick and the coloured external render emphasizes each individual home. Internally, the rooms are well lit by large windows and rooflights on the top floor’s open ceilings. Downstairs, kitchens overlook the street and open onto to living rooms. The site slopes towards the Welsh Harp Reservoir, in the past a popular sailing and boating area, and the repetitive triangular geometry of gables and bay windows is a visual play on that history.

With a focus for low energy design, construction included high thermal envelopes with 225mm fully filled cavities, Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery, high performance windows and good air tightness. Construction paid close attention to thermal bridging to reduce heat loss. The roofs, which follow the natural slope of the site have an uneven roof pitch, with one of the eaves at a 30 degree towards the south to allow for use of solar collectors. The houses were built to Lifetime Home Standard and easily achieved Level 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes.

client: South Kilburn New Dear for Communities & South Kilburn Sure Start
contract value: £2,150,000.00
completed: 2006

Winer of Building Magazine sustainable building of the year 2006

This first building for the New Deal for Communities programme, made up of simple timber boxes clad in a variety of green materials piled up like children’s building blocks, forms a new south wing and entrance to the Granville Centre. The new extension provides nursery spaces and Sure Start offices. The reception hub faces 3 ways; to the new main south entrance, to the refurbished Granville Centre, and across an internal courtyard to the north entrance, which has a new welcoming canopy onto the street. The exhibition space provides an opportunity to explain and demonstrate the sustainable approach to construction.

A priority for sustainability is that those using the building were consulted and involved in the development of the design, including the Sure Start Board, Carlton Nursery, groups using the Granville Centre, and the youth service. Children and young people helped to design the printed external tiles, developed in collaboration with graphic designers Thomas Matthews. Even the very young children, participated in the development of the design.

I have been very impressed by the great skill shown by ATA in negotiating and communicating ways forward.They have been calm, thoughtful, and with a high level of integrity in all aspects of their work… Perhaps most significantly, we have been given a building that incorporates the heart of what we wanted. ATA listened to, understood and designed for our curriculum ethos, even though some aspects of this were new to their thinking, to give us a coherent set of spaces,and a building that lifts our spirits when we are in it.Granville Nursery manager

client: L B Lambeth
contract value: £4.07m
completed: 2000-2006

RIBA Housing shortlist 2001
Best housing and regeneration initiative award, from the Association of Public Service Excellence 2006
Constructing Sustainable Communities Award 2006

ATA’s pioneering work at Angell Town Estate, Lambeth from 2000-2006 established a methodology of working with residents to
transform the fabric, appearance and perception of the estate. ATA’s sustainable approach to both refurbishment  and newbuild targeted and attained new goals for LB Lambeth.

Refurbishment work at Holles and Warwick House reduced energy consumption and fuel bills by 50%, and improved levels of comfort.  Measures included extensive insulation works, new low emissivity double glazed timber windows and douglas fir clad breathing wall panels insulated with recycled cellulose.  Cold bridging of the existing concrete structure was reduced. Environmentally friendly paints and finishes were used reducing the carbon footprint of the buildings.

Sixty-seven bedsits were converted into one bedroom flats and staircases which were causing serious security problems were removed.  The new arrangement allows kitchens to overlook the walkway which originally had no ‘eyes’ on it.

‘Angell Town no longer feels like an estate – it’s become a place’, says Matt Prescot, environmental projects officer at Lambeth council, talking to the Guardian.

‘ATA delivered a very professional service for us as client and provided architectural services which addressed our very specific requirements on environmental sustainability, to which they brought their own substantial expertise. They also ensured in depth community consultation was undertaken on their phases of work.’

Photographs by David Spero

client: Guildhall University, London Development Agency
contract value: TBC
completed: 2002

In 1999 ATA were asked by Metropolitan/Guildhall University to discover why the new centralised library on Commercial Road was not being used by students, especially after dark. Metropolitan/Guildhall University was spread over several buildings throughout the Aldgate area, all of which had originally had independent library facilities.

The study – through detailed urban analysis of the area, including surveys, mapping and observation of pedestrian behaviour, set off a train of work which culminated in a scheme for the redevelopment of the entire 28 exit Aldgate subways network.

In exploring the problems and developing the scheme ATAP co-ordinated a Steering Group which included all the relevant stakeholders, the Corporation of London and LB Tower Hamlets, the Guildhall University, the Metropolitan Police and Transport for London, Highways and street camera departments and staff and students from Guildhall university. A conference was held at the shopping centre in the middle of the subway complex to focus on solutions. An interactive computer presentation was issued to a number of local organisations for their comment.

A consultation and participation programme was developed which included subway user surveys and studies, one to one interviews with local businesses, homeless people who visited the daycentre at St Botolphs Church and other local services.

A survey was designed and taken to the entrances and exits of the subways, to ascertain user issues with the 28 exits and to establish use patterns. A major problems related to wayfinding in a maze of identical tunnels, entrances and exits, and an identifiable character was given to each area through new signage and art works.

A competition was held to identify a team of locally based artists who were brought together to work with local people to produce art pieces which became part of the new installation in the subways, including a word artist, and sculptor.
Communication designers worked with them and redesigned the wayfaring and signage installations throughout the subway network.

client: Holmewood Nursery, Lambeth
completed: 2006

ATA have a long term relationship with Holmewood Nursery, Lambeth, and have been involved in a number of retrofit and new build works, including this Head teacher’s office. Renovations to Holmewood nusery’s existing building included new larger staff and headteacher facilities, a new reception area and a separate entrance for the younger children.

The scheme uses natural organic materials and healthy building solutions to help minimise allergies.

client: Albemarle primary School & L B Wandsworth
contract value: 485,000.00
completed: 2010

Albemarle School Family Learning Centre was a joint LA and school project to provide facilities for both community and school use. ATA were asked to tackle a scheme (designed by others) that had been tendered and had come in significantly over budget. ATA brought the family learning centre within budget and quality requirements, through careful negotiation with School and Contractor.

The remodeled design was developed in close consultation with the school team, retaining all facilities, and improving details. Local Community consultation held within the school, was also part of the programme, and local people were leafleted to obtain their views and to inform them of proposed work and timetable.

Sustainability issues were targeted through the specification, and 25% over Building Regs energy improvement was achieved.

ATA were appointed as Employers Agent for the management of the contract, which resulted in an excellent building, built on budget and to programme, and a satisfied client. Programme, working on an occupied site issues as well as general H&S matters were monitored closely during the construction works and problems arising dealt with speedily.

client: Metropolitan Housing Partnership & Ekya Housing Association
contract value: 2,000,000.00
completed: 2009

The scheme comprises eight one-bed supported flats for young people, especially young women leaving care. It includes an office for the support worker, and nine flats for general needs clients with referrals sought from the London Borough of Lambeth. Both schemes are owned and managed by Ekaya Housing Association. The supported housing is a service for 16-21 year olds with staff on site providing help with independent living and access to employment and training.

The scheme which is within a Conservation Area, was developed on the redundant Parks Depot and garages of Tulse Hill Estate overlooking Brockwell Park and the design was developed with active input from residents, who also benefitted from improvement works to the Estate. Young people living on the Estate worked with artist Loraine Leeson ofCSpace to develop art work which was incorporated in the entrance wall, a tiled mural based on an oak tree, the oldest tree in Brockwell Park. construction and services are at the heart of the design strategy; deep and well insulated masonry walls and high performance timber windows give beautiful views of the park. Solar thermal collectors are hidden behind the parapets and green roofs help to extend the park’s biodiversity.

‘We have worked with Anne Thorne Architects on a number of projects in recent years and have found them to be practical, pragmatic and extremely knowledgeable. Their expertise and interest in sustainable building methods has been of particular value as it has assisted us in achieving our client’s sustainability objectives in a cost effective manner. They are one of the few architects’ practices we have worked with, who have the knowledge and understanding to design to Code for Sustainable Home/Eco Homes standards from the outset.
I can recommend ATA as a practice that you can partner with on an open, friendly and co-operative basis working together to ensure that the project is both well designed and buildable.’ 
Richard Garland Sandwood Construction Ltd (Contractor)

client: LB Hammersmith & Fulham
contract value: 1,200,000.00
completed: 2004

Coningham Sure Start is a low energy building in Cathnor Park for children, parents and carers. The building, which houses the sure staff centre was designed in consultation with local people. Ecological materials and finishes, a green roof and breathing wall construction were used.

Pre-school playgroup/drop-in 32 children. Sensory play space 15 special needs, adults activity space and staff. Timber frame/masonry building with green roof and using environmentally friendly paints and finishes. 

Consultation with client team representing staff disciplines, parent consultation meetings throughout the project, including neighborhood residents and local community police representatives.

Wind generator sculpture developed with the Art of Change and Proven Engineering, in collaboration with Wymering Public Art Project. Lighting is wind powered and determined by the wind direction.

Centre 404 is a registered charity dedicated to working towards a world where people with learning difficulties and their families have the support they need and enjoy the same rights, freedom, responsibilities, respect, choices and quality of life as people in the wider community.

In close collaboration with the board of trustees and users of centre 404, ATA developed a brief and design, centred on altering the basement to create a new entrance and inviting foyer accessible to all, adding a lift serving all levels, extending the building to create a better connection to the garden, internally refurbishing the existing centre and creating a new 'changing places' WC.

“Centre 404 is more welcoming now. It is a lot friendlier and it feels like home. It’s not just an office, it is homely and somewhere we want to come. Our children love the new building.” Jackie Branch – Family Carer

Client: Centre 404 board of trustees

Design Team:- Architect Anne Thorne Architects LLP, Structural Engineer Engineers HRW, Services Engineer King Shaw Associates, Quantity Surveyor Peter Gittins and Associates

Main contractor:- Borras Construction Ltd

Contract value: £595,000 Completed: Summer 2012