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Journal

Listening, Learning, and Leading Together: Reflections from This Week’s Brent Agents Forum

A contemporary red-brick infill home on Hazel Road in Kensal Green, designed by RISE Design Studio. The Red Arches House features arched windows, zinc roofing, solar panels, and a contextual form that complements its surroundings while showcasing sustainable urban living.

This week we joined fellow architects, planners, and development officers at the Brent Agents Forum — and it turned out to be one of the most constructive, energising planning discussions we’ve experienced in years.

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Building Regenerative Cities Through Public Housing

Exterior view of a sustainable public housing project by RISE Design Studio featuring low-carbon brickwork, natural timber detailing, and green communal spaces that promote community living and environmental regeneration in London.

In every era, public housing has reflected the spirit of its time - a mirror of how society defines progress. Today, that reflection must be sharper than ever. As cities expand and populations rise, the real challenge isn’t how many homes we can build, but how we build them.

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Big Roof Park Pavillion

A timber-clad tennis pavilion and café designed by RISE Design Studio, featuring a striking cantilevered roof that provides shade and shelter beside clay tennis courts in a landscaped park setting — showcasing sustainable, community-focused architecture in North London

At RISE Design Studio, we take our roofs seriously — perhaps a little too seriously. Our latest Pavilion proves that when it comes to shelter, bigger really can be better.

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Why most building problems are decided before planning is submitted

Construction site above ground contrasted with cracked stacks of rejected planning applications and denied building permits below, illustrating how early planning and design decisions create long-term risk, cost overruns, and project failure before construction begins.

By the time a building problem becomes obvious, it’s usually too late to fix cheaply.

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Could harvesting rain reshape how the UK uses water?

Architect-designed garden extension with integrated rainwater harvesting system, featuring a water butt, planted landscaping and curved glazing. A sustainable UK home demonstrating water-efficient design, climate resilience and low-energy living.

Water rarely features in conversations about sustainable homes in the UK. Energy dominates the narrative. Carbon takes centre stage. Yet quietly, and increasingly urgently, water is becoming the next constraint shaping how we design, build and live.

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CarbonLite, Clearly: How AECB’s Standards Help Us Design Low-Energy Buildings That Actually Work

ribbon-house-low-energy-home-renovation-queens-park-london

What is CarbonLite? CarbonLite is the AECB’s practical framework for creating buildings that are genuinely low-energy, comfortable and healthy. It takes Passivhaus thinking (modelling with PHPP, focus on fabric, ventilation and airtightness) and packages it into standards that UK desi …

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My Queen’s Park: A Community of Quiet Trailblazers

Interior of Queen’s Park House by RISE Design Studio, featuring an open-plan kitchen and dining area with exposed brick walls, natural timber cabinetry, a polished concrete floor, and large skylights that flood the space with natural light, blending sustainable design with timeless craftsmanship.

When Domus Nova came calling to explore the people and places shaping Queen’s Park, we were honoured to be featured alongside some of the neighbourhood’s most inspiring voices. Their piece, My Queen’s Park: The Trailblazers at the Heart of the Neighbourhood’s Soul, captured the unique …

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Hopefield Avenue, Queen's Park - Arches, Light and Living with Nature

Interior of a Queen’s Park Victorian home reimagined by West London architects RISE Design Studio, featuring arched glazing, a lightwell, and garden views that bring biophilic design into the heart of the living space.

Victorian terraces in Queen’s Park carry a quiet dignity. At Hopefield Avenue, our proposal reimagines one such home with respect and invention, accentuating existing character while introducing architectural gestures that look to the future. Rear garden view of Victorian terrace in Q …

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Sutton Churches Tennis Clubhouse – A Pavilion for Sport and Community

Every so often, a project arrives that is more than a building. At Sutton Churches Tennis Club, the new clubhouse is conceived as a striking pavilion — an ambitious piece of architecture that redefines how a community experiences sport, spectatorship, and togetherness. This is not onl …

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Why Walkable Cities Are the Future We Can’t Ignore

Illustration of Norman Foster delivering a keynote speech on sustainable, walkable cities at a design conference. His words highlight the importance of compact urban design that prioritises people, health, and the environment.

Urbanisation is accelerating at a pace that will reshape the world. Within just a few decades, humanity will add the equivalent of multiple new global capitals to the map. The question that matters is not whether we will build, but what kind of cities we will choose to create.

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