Northgate — Civic & Residential Architecture, Since 2011
Eleven completed buildings across Scotland and northern England. Two more on site.
01–08
Rammed concrete walls, poured on site with aggregate dug from the adjoining quarry.
Roof pitch set to match the byre the hall replaced.
Reclaimed London stock brick, laid in the terrace's original Flemish bond.
New openings sized to the coursing, not the other way round.
Larch cladding left unfinished, greying with the weather it stands in.
The pavilion sits below the waterline of the reservoir it overlooks.
Cross-laminated timber frame, left exposed on every internal wall and soffit.
No plasterboard anywhere in the building.
A single-plot infill between two Victorian terraces, built to their eaves height and no higher.
Brick colour matched from a demolished chimney found on site.
Block inner leaf, harled render outer leaf, the finish used on every farm building within four miles.
Waiting room faces north, away from the car park.
Fourteen units around a shared yard, no unit further than nine metres from the gate.
Brick outer leaf, blockwork party walls, timber floor joists throughout.
Oak frame salvaged from a barn demolished four miles away, re-cut and re-jointed by the same contractor.
Glazing kept to the north wall only.
01–04
A material does the job it is suited to and nothing else. Brick is not painted to look like stone; timber is not stained to look like brick.
A building answers its site before it answers its client. We measure the neighbours' eaves heights before we open a drawing file.
Remove whatever the building does not need. A detail earns its place by doing structural or environmental work, never decorative work alone.
We draw for the building's fourth owner, not its first. Everything is specified to be repaired, not replaced.