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Journal

Building Regenerative Cities Through Public Housing

Sustainable courtyard housing development in pale brick with timber louvred balconies, planted communal garden, stone path and flowering trees. Low-carbon residential architecture demonstrating design-led public housing.

The UK has a target of 1.5 million new homes. The debate around that number focuses almost entirely on how to reach it. The more important question is what those homes will be like to live in, what they'll cost to run, what they'll be made of, and what they'll do to the neighbourhoods …

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Big Roof: A Tennis Pavilion and Café in the Park

Architectural render of a pale brick tennis pavilion and café with a long cantilevered flat roof projecting over a paved terrace, full-height glazing, café tables and chairs, clay courts on both sides, mature trees and cherry blossom, with a Victorian building beyond. RISE Design Studio.

A roof is rarely just the thing that keeps the rain out. At its best it becomes the architecture itself, shaping the climate inside, defining the space, and pulling people together underneath it. Our tennis pavilion and café in the park started from exactly that idea: one very large r …

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Why most building problems are decided before planning is submitted

Construction site of a new build mid-build, with grey concrete blockwork walls, an exposed timber stud frame, a pitched slate roof and chimney, scaffolding, an excavator, stacked blocks and timber, and a waterlogged foundation under an overcast sky. RISE Design Studio.

By the time a building problem becomes obvious, it's usually too late to fix it cheaply. That's uncomfortable to hear, but it's one of the more reliable truths in the work. Most projects don't fail because of bad construction or poor workmanship, or even because costs ran away. They f …

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Could harvesting rain reshape how the UK uses water?

Rear garden of a Victorian brick house with a contemporary curved white extension and full-height arched glazing. A wooden water butt on the left collects rain from a white downpipe, beside a paved terrace, lawn with stepping stones, an olive tree and planting. RISE Design Studio.

Water rarely comes up when people talk about sustainable homes in the UK. Energy dominates the conversation and carbon takes the headlines. But water is quietly becoming the next real constraint on how we design and build. We've built our homes to do one thing with rain, which is to g …

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CarbonLite, clearly: how the AECB's standards help us design low-energy buildings that work

Architectural render of a contemporary low-energy extension to a Victorian brick house, with a deep oxblood-red rendered frame, full-height glazing to an upper room and a glimpsed lower-ground living space, black vertical screen, paved terrace and planting. RISE Design Studio.

CarbonLite is the AECB's framework for buildings that are genuinely low-energy, comfortable and healthy. It takes Passivhaus thinking, modelling in PHPP with a focus on fabric, ventilation and airtightness, and turns it into standards that UK designers and builders can actually delive …

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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

Rear garden view of a Victorian brick terrace in Queen's Park with a contemporary white-framed extension featuring tall arched and U-shaped glazing. A curved pond sits in the lawn, with an olive tree, ornamental grasses and planting along brick walls in evening light. RISE Design Studio.

The Victorian terraces in Queen's Park have a quiet dignity to them. At Hopefield Avenue, our proposal reworks one of these houses with that character intact, keeping what's good about it and adding a few clear moves of our own. Rear garden view of Victorian terrace in Queen’s Park - …

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Sutton Churches Tennis Clubhouse: a pavilion for sport and community

Architectural render of the Sutton Churches tennis clubhouse: a timber pavilion with an exposed glulam roof structure and red fascia cantilevering over a glazed clubroom and terrace. Players are on red clay courts beyond, with people seated at tables under the canopy in evening light. RISE Design Studio.

The new clubhouse at Sutton Churches Tennis Club does more than store rackets and pour drinks. It's a compact timber pavilion of around 100 square metres, lowered into its site and designed around the social side of a tennis club as much as the playing of tennis. The structure is cros …

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The case for the walkable city

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.

The world is going to keep building cities whether we plan them well or not. The UN expects around 2.5 billion more people to be living in urban areas by 2050, taking the urban share of the global population from roughly 55% to about 68%, with close to 90% of that growth in Asia and A …

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Crafting with earth: Sean Ronnie Hill in conversation with Adam Weismann of Clayworks

Adam Weismann of Clayworks sits on a low ledge against a curved pink wall, between two tall textured green clay artworks resembling layered sediment, speaking to two people seen from behind in the foreground of a gallery space with a cobbled floor. RISE Design Studio.

Clayworks makes clay plasters we've used on a number of projects, including Birch & Clay Refugio, Douglas House and Herbert Paradise. Adam Weismann founded the company with his wife Katy, and also makes work as an artist through Claymoon Studio. We sat down to talk about how they …

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