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Journal

Extending a Georgian Home: Balancing Heritage, Performance and Modern Living

by Sean Ronnie Hill on Aug 1, 2025

Contemporary rear extension to a Georgian brick house featuring large sliding glazing, natural materials and a landscaped garden. The design creates a clear distinction between old and new while improving daylight, garden connections and the home's overall performance.

Georgian houses remain some of the most sought-after homes in the UK.

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Topics: Sustainable architecture Residential architecture Planning permission listed buildings Georgian Extension Low Energy Homes Sustainable Retrofit Georgian House Extensions Georgian Homes Heritage Architecture Conservation Areas Georgian Renovation Period Property Renovation Contemporary Extensions

Tennis in an English garden: reimagining the Elmwood pavilion

by Imran Jahn on Jul 31, 2025

Render of a low single-storey tennis pavilion with pale brick walls and a tiled pitched roof carrying four circular rooflights and a row of sawtooth monitor rooflights. Full-height glazing opens the club room to a terrace, a canopy shelters café tables, set in a wildflower meadow with trees in blossom. RISE Design Studio.

A few streets from our Lexi Cinema project in Kensal Rise, behind hedges and the back gardens of family homes, Elmwood Lawn Tennis Club has quietly served its members for more than seventy years. It's the kind of place you only find if someone takes you there.

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Topics: Sustainable architecture Community Architecture Tennis Pavilion Sustainable Tennis Pavilion Elmwood Lawn Tennis Club Tennis Club Architecture Sports Pavilion Design Low-Energy Buildings London Architects Pavilion Architecture Low-Carbon Architecture Kensal Rise Architects

Which building standard is right for your project?

by Sean Ronnie Hill on Jul 30, 2025

A contemporary board-marked concrete extension to a brick Victorian house, with full-height sliding glazing opening to a gravel courtyard, a timber-lined kitchen with a stone island inside, and a screened upper terrace. Climbing planting and a flowering shrub frame the view. RISE Design Studio.

very project has to decide how hard it's going to work on energy and comfort, and that decision shapes how the building feels and what it costs to run for decades. Choosing a standard isn't only about clearing the regulations.

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Topics: Passivhaus enerphit BREEAM AECB Embodied Carbon AECB CarbonLite Part L Building Regulations Building standards Building Biology Low-energy retrofit

How to retrofit a London home to the EnerPHit standard

by Imran Jahn on Jul 30, 2025

Rear extension to a Victorian London house, featuring textured mineral-render walls, a deep concrete roof overhang, and ultra-minimal frameless sliding glass doors. Warm timber-lined interiors glow in the spring morning sunlight, with a centrally positioned dining table, stone flooring, and a secluded garden framed by soft planting and mature trees. A glazed side door provides a visual connection through the original house, creating a calm and atmospheric indoor-outdoor living space.

London's housing is mostly old: Victorian terraces, Edwardian semis, solid brick and slate. They have a lot going for them, but most of them leak heat, cost a fortune to warm, and fall well short of the comfort we'd expect now. Older London homes are typically two to three times less …

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Topics: Building energy Sustainable architecture enerphit Airtightness Home Retrofit Heritage Retrofit EnerPHit Retrofit Deep Retrofit Victorian house retrofit Low-energy retrofit Passivhaus retrofit

Building on brownfield land: policy, pitfalls and good design

by Imran Jahn on Jul 26, 2025

A terrace of contemporary gable-fronted houses in pale grey brick, with perforated brickwork panels, full-height windows and recessed timber-clad entrance bays, set behind young trees and planting along a cobbled street in blossom. RISE Design Studio.

Behind the hoardings, at the backs of industrial estates and along the edges of railway lines, there's a lot of land that's been built on before and largely forgotten. With the pressure to build more homes, brownfield land has become the obvious place to look.

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Topics: Sustainable architecture Sustainable Affordable Homes Brownfield Development Sustainable Housing Sustainable Housing London Urban Infill Previously developed land Land remediation Grey belt Biodiversity Net Gain

Why MVHR matters in a low-energy home

by Sean Ronnie Hill on Jul 26, 2025

Interior of a low-energy deep retrofit home by RISE Design Studio featuring natural timber finishes, large skylight, MVHR-integrated design, and garden connection through full-height glazing.

A house is only as healthy as the air inside it, and that's often where ordinary homes fall down. The better and tighter we build, the more deliberate we have to be about ventilation, and Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) is how we keep an airtight, well-insulated home …

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Topics: Eenergy efficiency enerphit Airtightness mvhr Sustainable Interiors Sustainable Architect Sustainable Extensions Low Energy Homes Low-Energy Design Deep Retrofit Indoor air quality Passivhaus ventilation Mechanical ventilation heat recovery Healthy homes

How to get planning permission for a new build or self-build home

by Sean Ronnie Hill on Jul 22, 2025

A contemporary new-build house in pale grey brick with stacked, set-back volumes, planted green roofs, deep window reveals and a perforated brick screen, set behind a long reflecting pool and planting, with a period house and willow tree to one side. RISE Design Studio.

Putting a new building on a piece of land is a bigger undertaking than it looks, and most of the real work happens before the first brick is laid.

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Topics: Passivhaus Sustainable architecture Planning permission New build self build low energy home New Build House Passivhaus Architects London pre-application advice New build home Custom Build Planning appeal

Seeing past the plaster: retrofitting a mews house in Maida Vale

by Sean Ronnie Hill on Jul 22, 2025

Dilapidated Maida Vale mews house with faded façade and garage door, symbolising the potential of low-energy retrofits to transform London’s historic homes into sustainable dwellings.

In Maida Vale, one of London's quieter and more characterful neighbourhoods, a crumbling one-bedroom mews house recently sold for around £2 million.

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Topics: Retrofit enerphit low energy home Mews House Retrofit Embodied Carbon EnerPHit London EnerPHit Retrofit Deep Retrofit Conservation area Period Property Renovation Maida Vale

What makes an extension genuinely sustainable

by Sean Ronnie Hill on Jul 17, 2025

Interior of a rear extension with a reclaimed brick pier and wall, a polished concrete floor and plywood joinery, full-height glazing opening onto a planted garden with a terrace and chairs, and a corner window framing a young tree. RISE Design Studio.

An extension is usually about gaining a room or a better kitchen, but it is also one of the best chances you get to make a house healthier, cheaper to run and more comfortable, without moving.

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Topics: home extension low energy home Sustainable Extensions Embodied Carbon Low Energy Homes Rainwater harvesting Passive Design Home extension London Green roof Reclaimed materials Climate resilience

Why the UK needs to license its builders

by Sean Ronnie Hill on Jul 17, 2025

Aerial view of a London terrace mid-renovation, its roof fully wrapped in white sheeting and scaffolding, with a skip and works below, set among neighbouring houses, gardens and rear extensions. RISE Design Studio.

We have seen up close what poor building work does to people: the hidden costs, the lost money, the trust that doesn't come back. And too often it traces to the same thing, that someone was allowed to trade as a builder who had no business doing so.

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Topics: Cowboy Builders Home Renovation Home renovation London RISE Design Studio Federation of Master Builders Rogue builders Construction standards Building quality Consumer protection Builder licensing Choosing a builder Contract administration
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