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Journal

What a Sketch Taught Me About Leadership, Sustainability and the Non-Linear Path

A Career Path As It Actually Looks - diagram presented at an IWD lecture showing a winding route with dead ends, a reminder that progress is never linear

Published for International Women's Day 2026

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Scallop House: A Rear Extension in Stoke Newington

Close-up of curved pink lime render columns flanking a tall arched window, Scallop House Stoke Newington. Kitchen visible beyond. Victorian terrace extension by RISE Design Studio London.

Stoke Newington is a neighbourhood that wears its layers lightly. Victorian terraces line streets that have absorbed wave after wave of change - yet the area retains a quiet coherence. Gardens are generous. Brickwork is warm. The pace of life is slower than the city that surrounds it.

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The Rules Have Changed. Is Your Application Ready?

Architectural site plan with approved stamp showing contemporary sustainable home design with planning permission documentation

What the April 2026 planning appeals reforms mean for homeowners and developers

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Arches House: what happens when you start with the right question

Two-storey brick side and rear extension in West Hampstead with arched steel-framed windows opening onto a landscaped garden terrace, designed by RISE Design Studio for contemporary family living.

Project completed 2023. Two-storey side and rear extension with full internal reconfiguration of a Victorian semi-detached house.

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Notting Hill EnerPHit Retrofit - Reimagining Victorian Homes for a Low-Carbon Future

The full rear composition - a social firepit terrace anchors the outdoor space, with the glazed extension drawing the interior and garden into a single continuous environment in Notting Hill

London's Victorian housing stock is extraordinary. Generous proportions. Handmade brick. A civic confidence baked into every facade.

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A Padel Court in a Notting Hill Garden Square

Padel court concept by RISE Design Studio in a Notting Hill garden square, with a green court and net, pale mesh walls in a timber frame, a pitched roof of exposed glulam trusses, and a glazed gable wall framing a pink cherry tree, lawn, and white stucco terraces beyond.

Notting Hill keeps its best spaces out of sight. Behind the long terraces of white stucco, screened by railings and a locked gate, sit the communal gardens of the Ladbroke Estate. They were laid out in the middle of the nineteenth century as shared private greens, lawns and mature tre …

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AI and the Planning System: What Does It Mean for Your Home?

Exterior view of a London home extension with sliding glazed doors, exposed concrete and timber, warm evening light, architectural drawings in the foreground on a garden table.

The government is introducing AI into the UK planning system. If you're thinking about an extension, renovation, or retrofit, it's a reasonable thing to wonder about. Here's an honest view of what's changing, what isn't, and what it actually means for your project.

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What If Nature Is the Architect?

Close-up black and white photograph of a mollusc shell showing intricate surface corrugation and spiral geometry, the structural principles behind Tonkin Liu's Shell Lace architecture technique.

Anna Liu and Tonkin Liu on designing with living systems, not against them By RISE Design Studio There is a question that sits quietly at the centre of serious architectural practice: what does a building owe to the world beyond its walls? Anna Liu ARB RIBA FRSA, co-founder and direct …

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A Padel Court Behind the Terraces in Crouch End

Padel court concept by RISE Design Studio on a Crouch End backland, with a green court and net, pale mesh walls in a timber frame, a barrel-vaulted roof of steel and glulam arches, and a full-height glazed gable wall framing a wild meadow and gabled red-brick terraces beyond.

Crouch End has always felt like a village that wandered into the city and decided to stay. No Underground station, which keeps it quiet. Long runs of red-brick Victorian terraces with gabled roofs and bay windows. The Parkland Walk threading green through the back of it all, an old ra …

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Modular Construction & Net Zero: Why Whole-Life Carbon Thinking Is the Future of New Build Architecture

Contemporary timber-clad house overlooking a natural pond at sunset, featuring minimalist architecture, large glazed openings, sustainable design principles and reflections across the water in a rural landscape.

A Sector at a Crossroads There are moments in an industry when direction becomes destiny.

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