Corten House, Kensal Rise
by Sean Hill on Nov 21, 2025
A Low-Energy Retrofit for Modern Living in Kensal Rise Some houses whisper their limitations the moment you step inside. Corten House was one of them. A classic Kensal Rise property with solid bones but a layout shaped for another era: tight rooms, minimal daylight, disconnected livin …
Cold Water, Clear Thinking → What a Dawn Swim in the Serpentine with Zoe Birch Taught Me About Passivhaus
by Sean Hill on Nov 21, 2025
There’s something quietly surreal about walking through Hyde Park before sunrise. The city hasn’t committed to the day yet. The air is cool, the light is grey-blue, and you get that first whisper of what am I doing? as you approach the Serpentine.
A Shift to Credibility: Why Net Zero Buildings Demand More From All of Us
by Sean Hill on Nov 21, 2025
There was a quiet honesty in the seminar I attended, led by the sustainability consultants Eight Versa, on the new UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard. Behind the charts, targets and timelines was a simple call to action for our industry:
Rewriting the Future of New Homes: What Whole Life Carbon Is Really Telling Us
by Sean Hill on Nov 20, 2025
Every few years, a piece of research lands that quietly resets the direction of an entire industry. The latest benchmarking study on embodied and whole life carbon in UK new homes does exactly that. It offers something we rarely see in housebuilding: grounded, comparable, sector-wide …
Building Wisely: What Self-Builders Really Pay For When They Hire An Architect
by Sean Hill on Nov 17, 2025
When you decide to extend, renovate or build a home from scratch, you are not just buying drawings. You are building a small company around your project.
Rethinking Summer: Why Overheating Homes Are London’s Quiet Crisis
by Imran Jahn on Nov 10, 2025
London’s climate is shifting faster than its buildings. The city traps heat like a vast stone valley, accumulating warmth long after the sun has set. What used to feel like the odd heatwave now lands as a yearly pattern, pushing homes into temperatures that disrupt sleep, health, and …
Brutalist Concrete Architecture and the Courage to Build for People
by Sean Hill on Nov 10, 2025
In every city, some buildings feel less like objects and more like invitations. They ask us to slow down, to look again, to question how we gather as communities. Brutalist concrete architecture, at its best, carries that kind of presence. It is unvarnished, honest, and built with a c …
A new tennis pavilion shaped around community, comfort and low-energy design
by Imran Jahn on Nov 10, 2025
Across the UK, tennis clubs are asking a pressing question: What should the next generation of clubhouse look like? Many clubs are working with ageing buildings, rising energy costs, and growing memberships. The need for a modern, sustainable tennis pavilion has never been clearer.
Why a VAT cut for retrofit is the lever we need
by Sean Hill on Nov 5, 2025
As London prepares to host the NLA Retrofit Summit on 12 November 2025, the urgency could not be clearer: by 2050, roughly 80 % of the city’s existing building stock will need retrofitting if we are to hit net-zero. This creates a twin opportunity - for climate and for the UK construc …
