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Journal

Offsite manufacturing: building better, faster, lighter

Inside a light industrial factory, workers build and assemble timber-framed modular building units and closed panels for offsite construction, with stacks of dimensioned timber and a gantry crane, under a large steel-trussed roof with rooflights. RISE Design Studio.

The way we build most homes hasn't changed much in decades: assembled piece by piece, outdoors, in the weather, by trades working in sequence. It works, but it is slow, wasteful and hard to control for quality.

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Retrofit or rebuild? How developers should decide

A retained red-brick building with tall arched steel-framed windows and a gabled roof, extended with a contemporary slate-clad addition behind, above a stone-paved terrace and steps rising through a densely planted garden of grasses and perennials. RISE Design Studio.

One of the questions we are asked most often, by developers especially, is whether to retrofit an existing building or knock it down and start again.

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A new pavilion for Sutton Churches Tennis Club

A long, single-storey weathered timber-clad tennis pavilion with a rusting corrugated-metal roof, small windows and overgrown planting climbing one end, set behind a tarmac forecourt under a blue sky. RISE Design Studio.

We have been appointed to design a new pavilion for Sutton Churches Tennis Club, and it is exactly the kind of project we most like to take on: modest in scale, serious in intent, and rooted in a community.

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11 things we consider when designing an eco home

A low, contemporary pale-brick house with a timber-screened upper storey, deep roof overhangs and full-height glazing opening to a paved terrace, set among trees and reflected in a natural planted pond, with a boulder and a dog on the near bank. RISE Design Studio.

A good eco home isn't a matter of bolting on green features. It comes from a set of decisions made in the right order, from the orientation of the building down to the last junction.

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Stone, durability and reuse: a conversation with Artorius Faber

Title card for a conversation on natural stone: two men, Sean Ronnie Hill of RISE Design Studio and Edward Smith of Artorius Faber, stand against a wall of large raw quarried stone blocks, with the Artorius Faber logo. RISE Design Studio.

The materials we choose say a lot about how we value what we build, and few of them repay that attention like stone.

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Reinventing Timber: A New Chapter in Sustainable Building

A detailed view of three stacked Superwood planks in varying warm tones, showcasing the fine grain and engineered density of this sustainable, high-performance timber alternative developed for low-carbon architectural applications.

One of the quieter shifts happening in construction materials research is worth paying attention to. Superwood, a bio-based material produced through a process that works at the cellular level of timber, is beginning to demonstrate properties that challenge the assumption that strengt …

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A ruin, a lake, and the case for a Kent replacement dwelling

Exterior render of a proposed rammed earth barn-form house in rural Kent by RISE Design Studio, showing a gabled roof with brick chimney, timber front door and covered outdoor dining area, with a family walking a gravel path beside a lake at dusk and a couple rowing a boat on the water.

On site, we saw both things at once: a ruin past saving, and a rare chance to show what a rural home in Kent can be when you start again properly.

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How to find the right architect for your London home

Sean Ronnie Hill, Director at RISE Design Studio, talking with a client in the architect's studio, with clay walls and black metal stair

Designing or renovating a home in London is a chance to change how you live and how lightly the house sits on the planet, and getting it right starts with choosing the right architect. There are plenty of architects in London, but not all of them share your priorities or understand wh …

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Do I Need Planning Permission for a Shed or Garden Office? A Guide to Building Sustainable Outbuildings

Aerial view of The Bunker, a semi-subterranean garden studio in Kensal Rise clad in rusted weathering steel, its low roof set into the rear garden of a terraced house near the railway, surrounded by planting and paving. RISE Design Studio.

At some point many of us outgrow our homes, not in spirit but in space, and the answer is often at the end of the garden: an office, a studio, a proper shed.

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Why an architectural feasibility study matters

Hand-drawn cutaway section through a three-storey house, annotated with passive design strategies: yellow arrows tracing winter sunlight, external blinds to limit overheating, blue cross-ventilation arrows, a dual-aspect loft with reading nook, a green roof over the kitchen, and a lowered floor connecting to the garden. RISE Design Studio.

Every project begins long before anyone digs. It starts with an idea and a site, and the sensible first question: is this actually possible?

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