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Journal

Rethinking Summer: Why Overheating Homes Are London’s Quiet Crisis

Imran Jahn, sustainability architect stands with two homeowners inside a London house under renovation, reviewing overheating mitigation options using a digital tablet. The space shows stripped-back walls and early retrofit preparation.

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 …

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Brutalist Concrete Architecture and the Courage to Build for People

Wide exterior view of Sesc Pompeia’s concrete towers linked by dramatic footbridges, framed by brick buildings and public walkways. The image reveals the strength and clarity of Lina Bo Bardi’s brutalist concrete architecture. Photo by Maria Gonzalez.

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 …

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A new tennis pavilion shaped around community, comfort and low-energy design

Angled view of the pavilion’s deep canopy and expressive CLT structure, opening to landscaped seating and the surrounding tennis courts at Sutton Churches Tennis Club.

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.

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Why a VAT cut for retrofit is the lever we need

Contemporary rear extension to a London brick house featuring simple arched openings, large glazed doors, natural stone finishes and landscaped garden, creating a calm, light-filled connection between the home and outdoor space.

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 …

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Sustainable by Design: Building Better Futures

A detailed BIMx model created in Graphisoft Archicad showing an exploded digital twin of a sustainable building, illustrating how coordinated 3D modelling connects structure, services, and envelope for low-carbon, efficient design at RISE Design Studio.

Purpose-led design for a changing world Sustainability isn’t a box to tick - it’s a mindset. It’s about designing buildings that do more than simply meet regulations. They must endure, perform and inspire - today, and long into the future.

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To Gap or Not to Gap: The Quiet Decision That Shapes a Retrofit

Detail of internal wall insulation panels fixed tightly against a solid brick wall, showing a full-contact installation with no gap. Image demonstrates best practice for moisture-safe, low-energy retrofits and highlights why avoiding voids is essential for long-term performance.

Every deep retrofit begins with a moment of courage: the decision to give an old building a new life. But hiding inside that decision is a question that seems simple, yet has undone countless projects:

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How to Manage Costs in High-End Architecture Without Losing the Soul of Your Project

Contemporary London house with large arched stone entrance, timber pivot door, stone paved garden path, mature palm planting and two timber chairs set within a lush planted courtyard setting.

Every project starts with a number. The ones that end well start with a conversation about what that number actually needs to achieve.

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Digital Twins: Building Smarter, More Sustainable Futures

Architect holding iPad showing 3D BIM architectural model with section views, alongside timber scale model and material samples on an oak desk in a concrete and glass studio interior.

A digital twin is a virtual model of a building or site that's connected to real-world data and updates as conditions change. It's not a static 3D render or a BIM model in the conventional sense. It's a live representation of a physical asset, populated with information about how that …

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How to Design a Paragraph 84 Home in the English Countryside

Single-storey contemporary countryside home beside a lake, featuring dusty pink precast concrete walls, zinc roof, and full-height glazing reflecting in the water, designed for sustainability and harmony with nature.

Every great home begins as an act of belief To design and build a Paragraph 84 home is to take a leap of faith. Faith in your vision. Faith in the process. And faith in the power of design to move people – and planning officers – beyond what they thought possible. A low-energy Paragra …

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Reflections from the Brent Agents Forum

Contemporary pale stock brick infill house by RISE Design Studio on Hazel Road, Kensal Green, with a tall arched first-floor window, zinc roofline and clipped hedge frontage, set beside a traditional pitched-roof terrace, with a Hazel Road street sign in the foreground.

We attended the Brent Agents Forum this week, and it turned out to be one of the more useful planning conversations we've had in some time.

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