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Journal

A different kind of map: the architecture of Notting Hill

Trellick Tower in North Kensington against a clear blue sky: a tall Brutalist concrete residential block with a separate slender service tower linked by walkways, balconies along the main façade, and green treetops at the base. RISE Design Studio.

Notting Hill is one of the most architecturally mixed parts of London. Walk from Westbourne Grove to Ladbroke Grove and you'll pass Georgian terraces, Victorian townhouses, hidden mews that were once stables, post-war social housing and the odd modernist insertion, often within a few …

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How to design a modern tennis clubhouse: inside RISE's new pavilion for Sutton Churches

Plain timber-coloured architectural study model of a tennis clubhouse with a sweeping pitched roof, a tall glazed gable opening, an internal bench and a covered terrace with tables and chairs. A latticed court fence runs along the left. RISE Design Studio.

Every clubhouse starts as a conversation before it starts as a drawing. At Sutton Churches Tennis Club, that conversation began with a straightforward question: what does a tennis club actually need from its building today?

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Building with earth and fibre: the case for bio-based architecture

An aged eighteenth-century engraved plate showing earth and timber building techniques: two gabled house elevations with round openings and exposed framing, arch geometry studies, and detailed drawings of timber formwork and a rammed-earth wall. RISE Design Studio.

Some of the most useful ideas in architecture aren't new. We tend to assume progress means adding complexity, when often it means going back to something that already worked and bringing modern rigour to it. Building with what the land provides, soil, stone and plant fibre, is one of …

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A museum for David Hockney: a concept

Concept interior of a contemporary David Hockney museum featuring minimalist architecture, reflective water channel, natural daylight from rooflights and colourful artworks inspired by landscape and colour studies, designed as a sustainable cultural building by RISE Design Studio.

This is a thought experiment rather than a commission. We set ourselves a question: if you were to design a museum for David Hockney, what would it need to be? He's an artist who keeps reinventing how he works, from photo-collage to the iPad, so a building to hold that work can't be a …

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Clarity beats creativity: what clients actually need at the start of a project

Architect reviewing a physical architectural model alongside planning documents, cost plans, measured survey drawings and energy strategy diagrams in a minimalist studio, illustrating how clear decision-making and project understanding shape successful architecture from the outset.

One of the most common conversations we have at the start of a project goes something like this.

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Sustainable Architects in London | RISE Design Studio

Contemporary sustainable home in London featuring a corten steel façade, deep window reveals and a landscaped garden. Designed as a low-energy building with a fabric-first approach to comfort, durability and long-term environmental performance.

London is a city built in layers.

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Architects' fees in the UK: what they cost and what drives the price

rise-design-studio-directors-architects-fees-uk-barbican-london sean ronnie hill and imran jahn

Architects' fees in the UK usually fall between 8% and 17% of construction cost, depending on the type of project, how complex it is, and how involved you want the architect to be.

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London Homes Are Overheating - But We Can Design Our Way Out of It

Video still of Sean Ronnie Hill of RISE Design Studio being interviewed by BBC London about overheating in homes. He gestures mid-sentence against a dark interior, with a BBC London caption naming him. RISE Design Studio.

I sat down recently with BBC London's Alice Bhandhukravi to talk about a problem that's quietly shaping homes across the capital: overheating. Only a small part of that conversation made the broadcast, but we spent the best part of an hour on why so many London homes are now too hot i …

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Backland development: building on the plots people overlook

A contemporary three-storey red brick house at dusk, with stepped gabled forms, chimneys, recessed windows and small balconies. A lower brick wall with perforated brickwork screening, an integral garage, clipped hedges and flowering planting front a block-paved drive. RISE Design Studio.

Behind houses, between gardens, down forgotten lanes, there's land in our towns and cities doing very little. Backland development is the business of bringing those overlooked plots into use, usually for housing. Done badly it's just squeezing a house into a gap. Done well it adds gen …

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Why feasibility is the right place to start

Front cover of RISE Design Studio’s Stage 2 Feasibility Report, featuring a minimalist gold design with the studio’s logo and key early-stage planning and sustainability considerations.

Most projects are decided, for better or worse, in the first few questions. Can we extend? Will the council wear it? What are we actually dealing with on this site? We treat those early questions as the real start of the work, not a formality to get past.

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