The nature of the work that architectural companies like Building Tectonics are asked to do has changed. Once upon a time, we would be asked to design an extension, prepare drawings for a loft conversion, alter the facade of a house, or more occasionally, change the interior layout. Sometimes there would be a joint focus on changing the layout of the property at the same time as extending it, but this was only a small portion of our work.
The type of work we’re being asked to do has fundamentally changed, and most of it is now not only thinking about how to enlarge a client's house but also re-organising the space in a major way. We don’t think that any of the phrases popularly used to describe what we do are adequate in getting across this process, so we like to describe it as “redesigning”.
In my opinion, words such as modernising, renovating, refurbishing and even extending don’t quite cut it, an extension may be a part of the project but I don’t think it’s descriptive enough for even the simplest of projects. It’s not a good idea to add another room or enlarge an existing room without considering the effect this work will have on the space you already have. Quite often, we find that this will leave the existing room as a dark unused corridor into the new space; this is why some thought should always be given to the changing dynamics of the existing house as a whole. We think about these aspects every time potential clients come to us with an idea for their “new extension”, that’s why we prefer the all-encompassing term “redesign”.
Written by Tony Keller, Building Tectonics.
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