Paws Project : Doggy wellness centre in an agricultural barn conversion

Tom Hughes

Our conversion of a former cow shed into a canine wellness centre for The Paw Project is complete.

We opted to keep the new development low and spreading to create a welcoming outdoor sheltered space for owners and their dogs. This lack of formality reduces stress for the dogs, giving them space to mingle and to see where they are going.

Two main enclosed spaces house an office and acupuncture studio, and a grooming and treatment area. An open barn-like space is hidden behind a sliding gate for use for agility and behavioural classes.

A seating area and sales point/event space are located under a protective canopy, creating an intimate scale under the soaring barn roof. These features, along with the enclosed spaces, screen the rear of the barn from view.

A phased development plan means that there is space to expand the facilities in the future, whilst presenting a complete environment to visitors in the short term.

Client: @the_pawproject Design & build contractor: Sheltered Spaces

Creative solutions for plastic waste

Tom Hughes

Plastic is a material that we’ve tended to avoid, put off by our awareness of the environmental problems that its irresponsible use has created. The reduction in plastic use, finding more ecologically friendly alternatives, is still a great idea. But what about the mountains of plastic waste that already exist? Can we contribute in some way to preventing these carbon-intensive materials from ending up in landfill, or in the gullets of turtles, fish and sea birds?

At Future Makers, a creative hub in Nottingham, we’ve been learning about plastic waste and helping set up facilities for turning it in to useful recycled (and recyclable) products. Adding value to a waste product makes the process of collecting and recycling it worthwhile and cost effective. The Future Makers ethos is to approach these problems in a creative way; they bring together the infrastructure required with the expertise and knowledge that enables artists and designers to explore new ways of working.

Importantly, there is an economically sustainable approach. New ideas aren’t just conceived as one-off experiments, instead they build the knowledge and experience required to create viable commercial opportunities. In this spirit we were commissioned to work with the initial, terrazzo-style production run from Future Makers’ industrial sheet press, to create some simple-to-build furniture pieces.

Using the HDPE sheets, made with waste left over from artist Joshua Sofia’s 2001 Regulated Exhibition at Backlit, and in collaboration with Marcus Rowlands (Sheltered Spaces), we designed a slot-together furniture system for an armchair and coffee table. Easy to assemble and disassemble, without fixings or complex brackets, this can be transported to exhibitions and events. As a product, it could be mass produced and shipped, flat-packed to customers. As a single type plastic, it is recyclable again at the end of its useful life as furniture.

In itself not THE solution to the problem, but hopefully another piece of evidence that plastic waste has value. And a thoroughly rewarding project to be involved in!

 

Canine Wellness Centre under construction

Tom Hughes

We are very pleased to see our Canine Wellness Centre project under construction by Sheltered Spaces.

Can’t wait to see it come to life (our dogs are looking forward to a spa day too!).

 






Switzerland field trip

Tom Hughes

I have just spent 5 days in Switzerland with 3rd year students and colleagues at NTU’s School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment

Our journey took us from Basel to Zurich and Chur (with brief visits to France and Germany), where inspiring buildings and places were not a rare sight — quality around every corner!

The Gotheneum, designed by Rudolf Steiner in 1923.

The highlight of the field trip for me was our visit of the Notre-Dame du Haut in France, a surreal environment where we learnt that a building can be both elegant and brutalist at the same time. Curved concrete ceilings and walls made for a fluid atmosphere, the interior filling with a green and blue light, as the sun moved through the stained glass.

Notre-Dame du Haut and all the other incredible sites we visited definitely opened the students’ minds to the endless ingenuity of architects. I am almost certain that a new level of creativity will be seen in the design studio and Tech & Environment modules from now on.

Other highlights included a tiny 1953 petrol station by Jean Prouvé at the Vitra campus, Chipperfield’s exquisite Kunsthaus in Zurich (2020) and seeing my colleagues try to get their heads round Rudolf Steiner’s extraordinary Gotheneum (1924-28).

The students were confronted with the culture shock of Switzerland’s meticulous city planning, so different to many urban environments in the UK. Seeing children safely playing in accessible and well maintained parks and sports facilities (without overbearing adult supervision) helped the students realise that good architecture and urbanism create healthy and safer environments.



Portfolio project
Care Leavers' Accommodation

Tom Hughes

In August 2022, 2hD was involved in the early stages of a project for new care leavers’ accommodation, collaborating with Simon Middlecote Architecture. Our contribution was focussed on the research process and feasibility stage; with the ultimate aim of developing the design brief.

One of the several diagrams we produced for the study, here illustrating alternative accommodation types

Care leaves are young people aged 16 - 18 who have previously been in foster care, but have now chosen to live more independently. Care leavers’ accommodation acts as a bridging space where these young people can be self-sufficient and live alone, whilst being supported.

We researched case studies of many accommodation types, both past and present and found that most existing models have been found wanting.

One important issue in particular was that many are excessively institutional because of the way they foreground security, whilst others sacrifice safety measures to provide a more adult, independent environment. It was essential that we move on from these established patterns, in order to pinpoint the design challenges in the context of today’s social care.

Timeline for care leavers

Diagram illustrating the layering of security in accommodation

Their housing needs to have a careful balance between public, shared and private areas to provide security without seeming institutional.

Furthermore there is a wide range of support needed within this group that adds further complications. For example, some care leavers need provision that is similar to that of a childrens’ home, and on the other end of the spectrum some need near-total independence.

We arranged visits to existing care leaves’ accomodation to have meetings with staff and care leavers themselves to understand their needs and their views on how the accommodation could be improved. All the stakeholders of this project (such as the care leavers, social workers, staff and the local community) were consulted on their opinions and lived experiences.

The outcome of our work was a briefing document for Simon and his client that clearly identified the needs of the project stakeholders and the current context in which the project design will develop.

 

Oslo study trip

Tom Hughes

The UK office of 2hD took a short trip to Oslo this month to study some of the city’s new building projects as fresh inspiration for our own practice. We teamed up with Simon of Simon Middlecote Architects — a long term collaborator, both in teaching at NTU and more recently on the Care Leavers’ Accommodation project (more on this to follow).

 
 

Some highlights included the Oslo Public Library by Atelier Oslo and Lundhagem Arkitekter. This huge building somehow feels inviting and warm, and people really seem to feel they belong there. The top-lit atrium connects spaces into a seamless experience without dominating the small scale and intimate areas that surround it. Facilities that we couldn’t dream of having in a public library in Nottingham, such as 3D printers and makers’ spaces with sewing machines and large format printers support locals to be creative. The books meanwhile are everywhere — within touch as you journey around the building but the shelving never dominates.

The overall impression is that you are likely to find interesting books by chance, whilst a digital navigation system guides you when you are looking for something in particular.

 

On Simon’s suggestion, we took a ferry across the harbour to visit the Norsk Folkemuseum and its collection of timber historic buildings salvaged from around the country. It was a great counterpoint to the fast-paced development around the harbour. Beautifully crafted and functional farmsteads, churches and civic buildings gave a sense of a more peaceful time, but also a reminder of the rapid development the country has undergone since the exploitation of its oil resources began.

 

Oslo is a unique mix of fjord-side port, with thriving, dynamic urban communities and peaceful suburbs enveloped by well-used and highly valued areas of natural environment.

Whilst not without its problems, there is a lot we can learn from the city about making workable, humane and happy urban places.

3D-printing models

Tom Hughes

Although 3D software are essential tools at 2hD, we also love to make physical models — which have proved invaluable for communicating ideas to clients. Unfortunately, they can be time-consuming to make and we have recently missed using them as part of our design process. Could 3D printing be a solution?

I bought a Prusa MINI+ 3D printer, using a recent teaching award from Nottingham Trent University. The NTU architecture course has a real emphasis on hands-on making and craftsmanship, in conjunction with digital skills. Learning how to use the printer will bring benefits to both my practice of architecture and my teaching, allowing us to explore a range of ideas that we couldn’t before!

One of the Capybara trial prints…

The results of our initial trials to learn the technology were interesting, to say the least, but after a few slightly strange capybara models made for my youngest daughter, I think I was getting there!

2hD is also part of a team brought together by Tristan Hessing of Future Makers, looking into the recycling of waste plastic in design and architecture. We don’t believe in creating waste, so we are very interested in using recycled filament in our model making.

Following on from my award for innovative ideas in construction, one of the things we are considering at the moment is the 3D-printing of complex junctions in buildings. And if we can use construction industry plastic waste to create these building components, we’ll be part of a truly circular economy.

Tom's teaching awards

Tom Hughes

I am a senior lecturer on the architecture course at Nottingham Trent University and am proud to say that I’ve been nominated for and won a few awards there recently.

The last couple of academic years have created enormous pressure for the staff and students as we’ve all had to adapt to Covid-19. It was great in 2021 to have my work on the integration of online learning and teaching techniques recognised with a Teaching and Support award from the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environments (ADBE).

I learnt later this year, in April 2021, that the students had nominated me for a Student-Led Teaching Award, and, in July, I was awarded a second ADBE Teaching and Support award, this time specifically for my pastoral support and coaching of students.

This last award recognised the pastoral support system I put in place using Microsoft Bookings to create a “virtual open door” for students. It turns out that returning to face-to-face education has created almost as many pressures as did lockdown, so I’m happy to have helped in some way to mitigate the problems for some of our students.

Portfolio project
Vertical living in a former boiler house

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

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

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.

Design Team:

Need some creative input to transform an old historical building into a living space?

Portfolio project
A birdwatching 'eyrie' to hover over Wicken Fen

Tom Hughes

We recently achieved Planning Permission for a new birdwatching hide and observation deck for the National Trust at Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire.

Set at the edge of the fen, the structure was inspired by the singular setting of the SSSI site. The fully accessible birdwatching hide is nestled like a cocoon inside a screen of undulating timber battens. The observation deck above gives view over Sedge Fen, roosting site for Marsh and Hen Harriers. A final eyrie-like observation level gives 360° views ,which take in the whole of Wicken Fen nature reserve and the big skies for which it is famed.

The building nestles into the Carr (tree scrub) at the edge of the Fen.

The highly sensitive eco system of the site is based on 3 meters depth of peat soil, so the structure is designed in collaboration with Canham Consulting Engineers to “touch the earth lightly”, elevated above the Fen on piles so that the habitat can flow underneath. A gently ramped boardwalk, designed for wheelchair accessibility, connects the hide to the existing boardwalk footpath some 30m away.

A fully accessible bird hide at the entry level floats 1.5m above the fen, upper levels can be explored via a triangular staircase to the rear.

Wicken Fen is the National Trust’s oldest nature reserves and one of the most important wetlands in Europe, supporting over 9000 species including a spectacular array of plants, birds and insects. 2hD won the commission via a competitive interview in partnership with Sheltered Spaces, with whom we went on to design the timber cladding and the public consultation process. It is a great privilege to be entrusted with such a sensitive site and to be supported by a client keen to think afresh about how visitors might experience and understand the Fen’s sense of place.

Project team:

Timber screen experiments with Marcus of Sheltered Spaces

Renergising visit to the low energy house

Tom Hughes
The New House, Maplebeck

The New House, Maplebeck

I visited the North Nottinghamshire village of Maplebeck today with a group of 1st year students architecture from Nottingham Trent University. We were there to visit the New House, as guests of 2hD's wonderful clients Roger and Sue Bell. The students also visited the new Maplebeck village hall by Marsh Growchowski Architects and the nearby Hockerton Housing Project.

The students are learning about sustainable building design as part of their first year technical studies, so these three real-world low energy projects will be a boost to their understanding. For me personally it was great to return to Maplebeck and hear how well the house is working and how happy Roger and Sue are with the design. As the sun came out during the day we watched as the solar array pumped out nearly 7Kw of electricity, meeting the house's tiny energy demands with ease, charging the Tesla battery and exporting the excess to the National Grid.

Perhaps the only sad point of the day was to reflect on how unusual low energy housing still is considered in the UK. When I was taught as an undergraduate student in the early 1990s by Brenda & Robert Vale, they were completing their own house in Southwell, itself the culmination of research dating back to their 1975 publication "The Autonomous House". Four decades after that book, and a quarter century after the autonomous house in Southwell, we are still looking to the NEXT generation of architects, builders and developers to make sustainable housing the norm rather than the exception.

Let's hope today's visit has inspired some of the NTU students to integrate sustainable principles seamlessly into their creative processes!

Kudos to Roger and Sue for hosting us, to Derek Sayer of the Maplebeck Village Hall committee for tours of that building and to Chris Marsh, my NTU colleague for arranging the visit.

2hD Director Chris Heuvel appointed RIBA Fellow

Tom Hughes

Our director Chris Heuvel is one of only 15 architects to be awarded Royal Institute of British Architects Fellow status in the 2018 list. The RIBA says of the award that "Fellow Membership gives us the opportunity to recognise our inspirational Chartered Members, the sometimes unsung heroes of the profession, who have made a real contribution to architecture, and the community."

Chris3.jpg

Chris' full citation reads as follows:

"Chris is a Director at 2hD Architecture Workshop and a lecturer at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), where he delivers the professional practice elements of both the undergraduate and postgraduate architectural programmes, in addition to acting as Professional Studies Advisor for students in practice. He also runs the Design Studio module followed by first year undergraduates.

Chris champions architectural education as an integral aspect of professional practice, and is currently undertaking a major research project on behalf of NTU into how practitioners’ engagement with their local communities can be compatible with their business development objectives. All his teaching is substantially informed by a lifetime of active involvement in community engagement projects – previously in Norfolk and now in Nottingham, where (in conjunction with 2hD Ltd) he is currently helping a local group develop a business plan for the revival of their recently closed community centre."

Congratulations Chris, the recognition is thoroughly well deserved!

Portfolio project
Mission Control: an experimental hairy micro-office

Tom Hughes

Nicknamed "Mission Control", our broom-clad micro-office is an exercise in teleportation, designed to take us from the everyday hurly burly to a another world — one of calm, quiet and focus. 

 

The inception of Mission Control

Our UK office was a home office — not squeezed in to a back bedroom but occupying a large ground floor room with direct access to the main entrance and the garden. For some years this served us well, but the arrival of children led inevitably to a loss of separation. As any home-working architect will testify, the room with all the paper and colouring pens is a kid magnet!

To some extent, the injection of informality improved things — collaborations became looser, more relaxed and more creative — but we were left with the need for a ‘cave’ to complement our increasingly lively ‘commons’.

Our working practices have always involved two very distinct modes. The first is highly collaborative and semi-structured, requiring large surfaces, space and materials for analogue production of drawings and models. The second, as a counterpoint, requires periods of immersion in focussed digital design and production work. Our existing home office provided ideal conditions for the former, but creating the conditions for the latter was always extremely difficult.

 

The new office matches the exact volume and footprint of this old shed

Crafting a solution

In the garden was glazed shed, built by the previous owner from repurposed corrugated iron, old windows, offcuts of vinyl and pieces of timber. Rickety in the extreme, we nevertheless blessed it with the name “Mission Control” because it was a great place to retreat to when setting off fireworks on bonfire night.

We decided the replacement for this shed would become our garden office.

 

 

The rise of the garden office has been met by a multitude of packaged solutions, and some truly wonderful bespoke designs. But nothing we could find in the market met our slightly odd needs. 

We also felt the urge to make, at 1:1 scale and with our own hands, something that we had designed from scratch. So we decided to embark on a highly personal journey into design and build.

We designed Mission Control as a sort of antithesis of "the contemplation space with landscape views and flowing inside-outside space". We needed a cell, removed from physical context and worldly distraction, where we could retreat to immerse ourselves in brain work.

Our intention was that the building should create three totally separate experiences: an enigmatic exterior, a serene interior and a ceremonial commute to work...

 

An inscrutable box in the garden

Without any visible door or window the outer facades are entirely clad in natural coco-fibre broom heads: details and junctions are largely concealed, as the broom bristles interlock to provide a continuous and visually diffuse surface. Thus giving no clue as to its status as occupied or empty, the structure existing merely as an object of intrigue.

This is a reverse Tardis: much smaller on the inside than it appears from the outside. The difference in volumes results from the simple shed-like pitched roof hidden behind the parapet. The polycarbonate surface of the roof only pops through the brush cladding to divert — yet eliminates familiar details like fascias and gutters, which would make the box readable as an archetypal shed or garden office. 

The mysterious object, as seen from our collaborative office space

Corner detail of the coco-fibre broom cladding

 

One of the two focussed workstation inside Mission Control

A serene enclosure

The space within is a comfortable and calm isolation chamber for undisturbed concentration. Two back-to-back desks are nested under the low ceilings, reminiscent of the containment created by the sloping ceiling of an artist’s garret. 

Interior walls and ceilings are clad with whitewashed plywood, which adds to the calm and natural feeling environment. The breathable walls, wrapped with sheep’s wool insulation, create a healthy internal environment that is easily heated by body warmth and waste heat from computers.

Daylight and ventilation are provided by a single hidden skylight that perforates through the reflective roof surface. 

View into the garden through the open sliding door, clad in brooms

 

A ceremonial commute

Commuting to work in Mission Control is an important symbolic process: the full experience of ‘going to work’ is here in condensed and enhanced form.

Leaving the house, and travelling the 4 metre journey to the door of the office, provides just enough time to calm and focus. 

Entering the building requires interaction: finding the ‘secret panel’ broom head, sliding back the heavy screen door and pushing through the solid leaf behind...

This is a little ritual that requires concentration and creates distance from whatever else is on your mind. As the door clunks shut behind you, the box seals itself and the separation is complete. Let focus begin.

The boom cladding, momentarily shifted to reveal the space within

How to enter our broom-clad office...

Update: Mission Control has been featured on architecture magazines and websites around the world, including ArchDaily, designboom, TreeHugger, New Atlas, inHabitat and Dwell.

More articles about the Mission Control micro-office
designboom
Mission Control in the architecture press
Photos of Mission Control
Photos of Mission Control
Mission Control: Tom Hughes adjusting a broom head on the facade
546 brooms: the making of Mission Control
Mission Control: an experimental hairy micro-office
Mission Control: an experimental hairy micro-office
Design broom!
Design broom!
Mission Control tops out
Mission Control tops out

Portfolio project
A sensitive contemporary extension

Tom Hughes

How to extend a 1930s 'Arts and Crafts' style detached house? One approach would be to mimic the original building, but that's not always the most sensitive or responsive solution.

The proposed extension takes a back seat to the original house

Our clients asked us to extend their house over a dilapidated single storey 'lean-to' garage, to provide a couple of new bedrooms. They also needed more ground floor space to connect properly with their garden.

Looking at the street scene, it was immediately clear that development pattern was characterised by detached houses with relatively low-key side extensions, containing garages, porches and sheds. To extend with a typical two-storey pitched-roof building would change this pattern and detract from the prominence of the 1930s house. Instead we proposed a subservient, low pitched roof that would sit below the existing building's eaves and drop down into the slope of the land. This would be clad in dark-stained vertical timber boarding, reminiscent of a number of 1930s modernist buildings - a different style but still contemporary with the original.

The extension sits into the sloping site to protect neighbours' views and daylight

Having consulted neighbours and the planning officer, we carefully explained this strategy through our planning application drawings and Design and Access Statement (DAS). This latter document is often seen as a bit of a token gesture on small scale project like this, but we see it as an opportunity to explain the care we have taken in our design and the various options considered along the way.

Massing options considered during design development

We were successfully able to make a case to go against the planning officer's pre-planning advice to use a pitched roof —  it was a sensible suggestion and not one we rejected out of hand, but by careful analysis of the particular setting of this building we arrived at the conclusion that in this case, a pitched roof would not be the best way to go.

The end result will be a sensitively designed contemporary extension that extends the living space and amenities of the home without impinging on the neighbours or detracting from the proud character of the original house.