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Journal

£2bn for Housing: A Start, But We’re Still Falling Short

Modern red-brick affordable housing development with pitched roofs, black-framed windows, timber detailing, and landscaped communal garden, designed to enhance sustainability, natural light, and community living.

☉ RISE Design Studio | Architects + Low Energy Experts

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How to Design an Eco House That Works With Nature, Not Against It

Interior view of a sustainable, open-plan living space designed with Passivhaus principles, featuring natural timber finishes, high-performance glazing, a suspended fireplace, and seamless indoor-outdoor connection for energy-efficient, low-carbon living.

Building for Tomorrow Starts Today At RISE, we believe that the homes we create today shape the way we live tomorrow. The old model of building - extract, consume, discard - has had its day. In its place is something quieter, more considered, and far more urgent: a need to design home …

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The simplest sustainable interventions are the ones we keep designing away

Decorative Gaudí-style balconies on a colourful mosaic façade in Barcelona, showing how balconies blend art, passive cooling, natural shading and urban character, illustrating the balance between architectural beauty, sustainability and community connection in Mediterranean design.

In Barcelona, balconies are so woven into the rhythm of daily life that you stop noticing them. Until you do. Little theatres above the street, each one a buffer between the quiet of a private room and the noise of the city below. Pause on any residential street in the Eixample and yo …

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Grow Your Home, Grow the Future: How Timber Can Help Us Rebuild the Planet

Timber-lined interior gallery with closely spaced rafters and columns, a circular roof oculus open to the sky, and a tree growing through a planted floor opening beneath it. Full-height glazing looks onto a courtyard, with pale timber shelving and a bench along the right wall.

Most of us have made our peace with the idea that a building can be less bad for the planet. Better insulation, fewer draughts, a smaller heating bill. But there is a more interesting question underneath all of that. What if a home could do more than tread lightly? What if it could ac …

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Underfloor Heating: Choosing Between Water and Electric

Interior of a minimalist loft designed by RISE Design Studio, featuring timber-clad walls, built-in storage steps, and a skylight. The uncluttered space highlights how hidden systems like underfloor heating enhance comfort, efficiency, and sustainable living while freeing design possibilities.

At RISE, we often remind clients that the way we heat our homes is not just about comfort - it’s about legacy. A heating system is part of the long-term fabric of a building, influencing running costs, carbon impact, and daily wellbeing. Underfloor heating (UFH) - whether water-based …

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Crafting Legacy in the Landscape → Building a Paragraph 84 Home

Contemporary Paragraph 84 countryside home beside a reflective natural pond, featuring timber cladding, expansive glazing and low-energy architecture integrated into the English woodland landscape.

A Conversation with Planning Consultant Sally Arnold Most planning policies are written to control development. Paragraph 84 exists to challenge it.

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Project Architect at RISE Design Studio

Architect and Director Sean Ronnie Hill with a client in RISE Design Studio clay plaster studio discussing a residential project

London | Full-time | Permanent

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More Than a Clubhouse: A Place to Belong, Built for the Next 50 Years

Exterior view of a sustainable tennis clubhouse designed by RISE Design Studio, featuring timber cladding, deep overhangs, glazed walls, and a shaded outdoor social space integrated into a natural setting, reflecting Passivhaus-inspired design and long-term environmental care.

At RISE, we don’t just design buildings. We design catalysts. Spaces that unlock potential. Places that bring people together—across generations, backgrounds, and abilities. Our work with Sutton Churches Tennis Club is about more than bricks and timber. It’s about creating a legacy. A …

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How a Small Shed at Chelsea Is Inspiring Big Ideas at RISE

Exterior view of the Intelligent Garden pavilion at Chelsea Flower Show, designed by Studio Weave with Tom Massey and Sebastian Cox, featuring a fluted mycelium facade, woven ash panels and lush planting that inspires RISE Design Studio’s sustainable architecture.

Nature’s Quiet Genius This year at the Chelsea Flower Show, we were captivated by the Intelligent Garden pavilion designed by Studio Weave, with landscape designer Tom Massey and furniture maker Sebastian Cox. Their careful craft and material curiosity sparked ideas that continue to s …

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A Thousand-Year Responsibility: Lessons from Japanese Carpentry

traditional-japanese-carpentry-ceremonial-robe-exhibition-japan-house

During the bank holiday weekend, I visited Japan House in London and stepped into a world shaped by hand, heart, and humility.

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