Construction is well under way in Kensington and Chelsea for the renovation of a grand Victorian property overlooking a Grade II listed garden square. The proposal restores the building to its former glory, with planning consent granted for an additional mansard extension providing incredible views over private communal gardens in Notting Hill whilst creating a multi-generational family home. History of the Ladbroke Estate: Much of what we know today as Notting Hill was undeveloped farmland up until the start of the 1800s. The development of the estate occurred during a time of great residential expansion in London. The architect appointed for the development of the estate was also a specialist in landscape design who utilised the undulating land around Notting Hill to propose three large paddocks constituted of 2 crescents and one triangular lawn. Development of the estate was slow and taken on in a speculative manner by various builders,…

A garden room outbuilding, single-storey rear extension and Juliet balcony have been granted planning permission in the Chelsea Park / Carlyle Conservation Area within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC). A sensitive approach was taken to design this scheme in the conservation area, preserving the character of the Elm Park Road terraced and outbuilding typologies. The location and size of the new garden room minimises the harmful impact of a large neighbouring outbuilding, providing a more pleasant private garden for the future occupiers. The proposed green roofs and planting, which wrap around the perimeter of the garden, soften the existing tall garden walls, extensions and outbuildings thus maintaining the pleasant green setting of the existing garden. The semi-sunken courtyards were proposed in order to minimise massing impact of the rear extension and new garden room. The landscape has been designed with a variety of textures, preserving the feel…

RDA team. Welcome to Nkesi and David.

Rodić Davidson has completed the refurbishment of a Grade II listed apartment located in the heart of Westminster’s Covent Garden Conservation Area. The property sits on the streets neighbouring Covent Garden built by the fourth Earl of Bedford in the 17th Century. Covent Garden was previously called ‘Convent Garden’, aptly named as the vegetable garden for the convent at Westminster Abbey. The land was subsequently granted to John Russell, the first Earl of Bedford, in the 16th century. One hundred years later, the fourth Earl of Bedford commissioned Inigo Jones to design the square we know as Covent Garden, London’s first piazza. New Row, formerly New Street until 1937, was built between 1635-1637 replacing an existing alleyway connecting St Martin’s Lane to King Street and Covent Garden Market. The Earl of Bedford received a license to build many new houses in the area surrounding the recently constructed Covent Garden which…

Planning permission has been granted on appeal for demolition of an existing three-storey dwelling and its replacement with a four-storey (ground plus three upper floors) contemporary dwelling with a single storey basement level. The new dwelling is located in a multi-faceted backstreet site on the periphery of the Boltons Conservation Area within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC). In our analysis of site, we have identified the solitary nature of the existing building within a varied urban context without a predominant building scale, material or style. We have taken this stand-alone quality as a positive and tried to play to its strength by developing a design with its own unique identity. We have identified ‘cascading’ site character as an underlying contextual commonality that the two immediate neighbours create; one ‘ascending’ away from the site in its massing and the other with its windows ‘ascending’ towards the site.  This…

We are extremely pleased to confirm that our team is back in the studio continuing our ongoing work on current projects as well as undertaking work on new enquiries. As a practice, we continue to maintain the high level of service that our clients are familiar with, while continuing to follow all government advice and ensuring that the health and safety of all of our staff remains paramount. We continue to attend meetings and workshops via telephone or video conferencing including MS Teams and Zoom for the foreseeable future. The office number 020 7043 3551 remains the central and primary point of telephone contact, however, the direct dial numbers and email addresses of our senior staff are: Ben Davidson: 020 7993 5802 [email protected] Siniša Rodić: 020 7043 3553 [email protected] Andrew Watson: 020 7242 5514 [email protected] Nikolas Ward: 0560 003 0365 [email protected] Emily Osler: 020 7831 8882 [email protected] We hope you, your family and…

Out of sight of the Google’s satellite imagery, an extraordinary subterranean world is growing underneath central London. A fascinating study, Mapping Subterranean London: The Hidden Geography of Residential Basement Developments 2008-2017 conducted by University of Newcastle students Sophie Baldwin and Elizabeth Holroyd has identified the scale of the development. 4,650 basement development projects in central London were granted planning permission between 2008 and 2017 . Of the 4,650 consent basement projects, 376 of these applications propose swimming pools, the majority (224) being located within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. With above ground space so limited and planning controls so strict, a new basement is also often the only way to enlarge a central London house. Originally largely unregulated by planning authority, the rules and regulations are now very strict. Despite the increasing regulatory control, it is still possible to create wonderful voluminous spaces that can transform living accommodation and…

It started with Woolworths a decade ago and lots have followed: BHS, Evans Cycles, House of Fraser, Littlewoods, Maplin, New Look, MFI, Borders, JJB Sports, Comet, Blockbuster, Phones 4 U, Staples, Toys R Us, Mothercare, Habitat, Cath Kidson. These failures were all pre-Covid-19. Even worse news is likely yet to come. The impact of our changing shopping habits is deep and structural. There are only so many coffee shops that can fill the voids. The inevitable result are the vacant units and boarded-up shop fronts that are increasingly visible in High Streets throughout the country. With the boarded shops comes redundancy - both human and physical. Social problems increase inline with the decline in our sense of locality and community. Changing economic circumstances forced textile mills to close 100 years ago and in more recent years similar forces have caused factories and docks to shut down. All have left a…

Over the past weeks, Rodić Davidson Architects, like architects and designers around the world, have moved to working remotely from home. Although lockdown measures may be easing soon, some aspects of the shift may well stay with us for ever. We would like to share some of our learning experiences. Zoom & Teams: As a practice we very rarely used video conferencing as part of our day-to-day communication. It is amazing how quickly we, and the world, has adapted. Zoom has made us realise that face to face meetings are no longer a necessity for all meetings. However Zoom cannot replace some aspects of our working interactions: particularly site visits and design crits. Lockdown has had a severe impact on both. Social distancing obligations means site access has be difficult and we have found that it is impossible to effectively translate the creative interaction that takes place in a design…

Post-Pandemic Trends in Residential Architecture At the time of writing, a coronavirus - or more specifically Covid-19 - has swept across the world, leaving only a handful of remote territories unaffected. Covid-19 is having a huge impact on all aspects of our lives. With so many of the world’s population now isolated at home, it brings to the fore the impact of the disease on residential architecture and construction. As a result of the pandemic, we predict a shift in the general consciousness of the public to adapt the way they live in urban, suburban, or un-urban areas. With that in mind, below are our predictions of potential trends to evolve from a life in temporary isolation and the fear of a similar event occurring again in the future.   De-Urbanisation (or Re-Ruralisation of the Urban?) The past century has seen a majority of the world’s population move from the…

Antoine Amphoux, a member of the Rodić Davidson team, was recently involved in the exhibition of research works at the Milano Triennale @triennalemilano as part of the State of Art of Architecture exhibition alongside Mathieu Bujnowskyj and Titouan Chapouly, all former students from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). The research envisions the future of architecture in an over-connected world. Smart territories in a data-driven society where informational ubiquity will progressively become the norm. Characterised by dense yet invisible electromagnetic forces that suggest the emergence of new health and cryptographic concerns. This vision is to extend architecture’s role to the spatial management of invisible electromagnetic signals as it was historically done with temperature, light or sound over the last centuries. It is a call for a fullspectrum architecture and the exploration of its related new programs and typologies. This work called A Fullspectrum Architecture, On connectivity and electromagnetic landscapes, is part…

Given the rapidly evolving situation regarding the COVID-19 virus and recent government advice, we are determined to serve our clients to the best of our ability throughout this crisis and to emerge, with them, as normality resumes as it surely will. During this unprecedented time, we continue to review the way in which we work and to adapt, as best we can, in order to protect the practice and our staff in order to do the best for our projects and our clients. All Rodić Davidson employees are working from home. The office number 020 7043 3551 remains the central and primary point of telephone contact. The direct dial numbers and email addresses of our senior staff are: William Adams: 020 7831 8882 [email protected] Ben Davidson: 020 7993 5802 [email protected] Siniša Rodić: 020 7043 3553 [email protected] Andrew Watson: 020 7242 5514 [email protected] Nikolas Ward: 0560 003 0365 [email protected] We continue to attend meetings…

Planning permission has been secured for nine self-contained residential units within the former grounds (now carpark) to the west of Grafton House in Cambridge. Grafton House is a Building of Local Interest and situated within the Kite Conservation Area to the east of the historic city centre of Cambridge. Our client has already completed the conversion of the house to create 16 self-contained apartments. The carpark development now forms the second phase of development. The  house was originally built in 1830 and set within extensive landscaped grounds. Historic maps from 1886 show this landscaping. However, the setting has been eroded over time, firstly with the development of houses along the north of the site to Maids Causeway in the late 19th Century and latterly the development of the Grafton Centre in the 1980s. The architectural design and landscaping has developed from close collaboration between Rodić Davidson Architects and Robert Myers…

Works continue on an elegant townhouse dating from the mid-19th Century on Hyde Park Gate, located south of Hyde Park within the Queensgate Conservation Area in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (RBKC). Hyde Park Gate has historically attracted famous residents including, Sir Winston Churchill, Virginia Woolf, Sir Jacob Epstein, Sir Roderick Jones and Robert Baden-Powell. While it retains many of its original exterior features and decorative elements, the building has experienced numerous internal renovations and alterations over the years, and the rear facade has undergone similar reconfiguration including a series of extensions from lower ground through to second floor level. The client has asked Rodic Davidson to assist with the house’s complete refurbishment and restoration. This includes the incorporation of modern services installation throughout, to ensure the finished property will contain all the functionality and service provision typical of a house of this stature. Rodic Davidson is providing…

Rodic Davidson Architects, working with Eight Associates, are seeking to achieve the first ever BREEAM Outstanding for a Grade 2* Listed Townhouse in Central London.  Sustainability is at the forefront of our generation‘s agenda with the European Parliament declaring a climate emergency back in November 2019. Awareness is increasing: Greta Thunberg has motivated and inspired the young and her actions have shone a light on the urgency of change. There is now a scientific consensus that the terrible bushfire tragedy currently playing out in Australia is a direct result of climate change. The construction industry counts for around 38% of energy emissions and the built environment makes up 40% of the UK’s carbon footprint. Much of our practice's work involves the refurbishment and repurposing of existing buildings, many of which are in conservation areas and/or are listed. Listed buildings are given wide-ranging exemptions from environmental compliance. In the past, with lesser…

Corner Cottage, is featured in the Don’t Move, Improve! 2020 showcase of London’s best home renovations. The spectacular site with long south easterly views encountered developmental and construction challenges involving a radical rethink to the spatial organisation. To see further details and images of the project please click here. To find out more about the Don’t Move, Improve! Awards, visit the free public exhibition at New London Architecture on Store Street from 11th February 2020, and view our featured project, Corner Cottage.