What a lake teaches you about a building

At 6am this morning I was waist-deep in the Serpentine with a client and friend, Zoe Birch of Physio Motion. The water was 23.7°C. London is in a heatwave. The air was already warm before we got in.

6am at the Serpentine, Hyde Park. Sean Ronnie Hill and Zoe Birch, Physio Motion, after this morning's swim. Water temperature 23.7°C. In January it is closer to 4°C. Same lake. Completely different proposition.

I swim here all year round. In January the water is around 4°C. Nearly twenty degrees colder than this morning. Same lake, same rope, same jetty. Completely different proposition.

In January you get in slowly. That is the hardest part. Every instinct tells you not to. The cold is immediate and total, and the mental effort to stay in, to keep breathing, to not just turn around, is unlike almost anything else. You do not swim far. But you come out changed. You are aware of the environment in the way you are only aware of things that are costing you something.

This morning was different. The water was cool enough to feel like relief after the heat on the bank. But warm enough to settle into. You could stop thinking about the temperature and just be in the place. The treeline. The light cutting low across the water. The city not quite awake yet.

The best buildings work the same way. You stop noticing the environment because it has already taken care of itself.

Performance you can feel

We talk about thermal performance in buildings in numbers. U-values. Air permeability. PHPP outputs. These are the right tools for design. But they are not what a person experiences when they walk through the front door on a cold morning, or open a window on a day like today.

What they experience is whether the building is working for them or against them.

A Passivhaus-standard building in a London heatwave should feel like the Serpentine did this morning. Cool without being cold. Calm without feeling sealed. You are not fighting the fabric. The fabric is doing its job quietly, and you get to just be in the space.

A building that fails thermally feels like the January swim. You are always aware of it. Draughts. Cold walls. Overheating in summer. The fabric is costing you something, every day, whether in energy bills or in discomfort or both.

Why we swim with clients

The best conversations I have had about architecture have not happened at a desk. They happen when people are out of their ordinary context and the senses are switched on.

This morning, standing at the water's edge with Zoe Birch, who runs Physio Motion in Mayfair, we talked about what it means to design spaces that genuinely feel good to be in. Not just certified. Not just compliant. Good.

That is the conversation worth having. And sometimes it takes getting into a lake at 6am to get there.

If you are thinking about a project where performance and atmosphere need to go hand in hand, we are happy to talk. That is exactly the kind of brief we work best with.

→ Email us at architects@risedesignstudio.co.uk
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