June - Images of the month

June - Images of the month, a set on Flickr.

Check out our new Flickr account

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kpt-architects/sets/

May - Images of the Month

May - Images of the Month, a set on Flickr.

KPT News May 2012

• At the 15^th Century Hall House in Essex, the red clay peg roof tiles are on, and all the structural repairs to the crown post roof have been completed by R J Hogg. We have done the construction drawings for the house renovations, which will commence soon.
• The kitchenette at Bush End church has now been fitted, the glass balustrade is in place, the floor tiling has been finished, and the project is edging closer to completion.
• The Rotunda now has its spiral metal staircase with oak treads, and the mint pebbled flooring looks stunning in the shower room.
• At the Grade II Listed former public house in Essex, the exterior is being lime plastered by John Izod, and Simon and John Iliffe are starting to fit the bathrooms and floors. KPT Interior Designer, Sarah Aylmer, is planning the interior decoration, which involves a contrast of historic patterned and contemporary wallpapers.
• The restoration of Finchingfield Guildhall continues to offer surprises.  As Tony and his team (Fairhurst Ward Abbott) have exposed the later 17^th Century bays, they discovered exciting ghost lines, shutter groves and mortises of five 17^th Century mullioned windows in the old school room bays. These match exactly the salvaged window that came from the 50s restoration. Interestingly the 17^th Century mullions have a different ovolo moulding to them, while the 15^th Century mullions are scalloped. The oak frame has been repaired, and the split oak laths and bullnose render stops are being fixed to the outside, ready to start the lime plastering.    
• A beautiful oak dresser, hand-made by the carpenter Charlie of R. J. Pinnock and Son has been installed in one of our new kitchen design projects.
• Works are continuing on a 15^th Century house in Suffolk with Rose Builders, with the complete removal of the asbestos lagging, put in during the 20s, and the replacement of the plumbing throughout. 
• Radwinter Church works are on-site with Lodge and Sons Builders. They are making the oak panelled joinery for the new WC walls, which incorporates a saffron crocus motif we have designed. 
• Kay, Sibyl, Peter and Nicola attended the “RICS 2012 East of England Awards” ceremony, and were thrilled when it was announced that KPT had won the Building Conservation category, with our entry of Spains Hall! This means we now go National!
• We have also been awarded Highly Commended in another Conservation Award, announcement coming soon!
• Peter hosted a fabulous garden party in celebration of his birthday.  Instead of giving Peter presents, guests gave donations to the Carver Barracks’ Injured Soldiers Fund and raised thousands for this important charity.
• Monica attended the Green Register two day course on Sustainable Building and Services.  It has provided her with no-nonsense information regarding energy and water conservation, specifying sustainably as well as de-mystifying renewable energy sources, and when it is appropriate to use them.  She now joins Sibyl on the official Green Register, check out their website http://www.greenregister.org.uk/about.php.
• Anthony attended a very informative sustainability course on the Responsible Resourcing of Materials, at the Smartlife Centre, Cambridge.
• Gareth Davies, a well-known Photographer, renowned for his portfolio of celebrity photography has taken some beautiful photographs of a recently completed Swimming Pool building we designed, and which was built by Collins and Beckett. We will be uploading this onto the project page soon for you to see. Check out Gareth’s website: http://www.gdaviesphoto.com   

KPT News April 2012

April News at KPTA

• The starry night sky ceiling has been completed by Howell and Bellion at St. John the Baptist, Leytonstone, and makes a wonderful feature upon entering the church.
• The fabulous circular staircase has been fitted into the Rotunda.
• KPT and SMC were Finalists at the CEDIA 2012 Awards with our joint entry of a Home Cinema.
• The Chancellor of the Exchequer shocked us all with his announcement that VAT would be charged on alterations to Listed Buildings. This will affect all projects not completed by October, 2012.
• Chestnut lath has been competed on a Regency house.
• Bush End Church are seeing their oak cabinets going in for the new kitchen, and the oak staircase for the balcony has been inserted.
• The C15th Hall House in Uttlesford has had its oak crown post roof and rafters repaired by R J Hogg, where the rafters had pulled about from the plates, and a valley beam had to be repaired where it was rotten from water ingress. The new roofing insulation and handmade peg tiles are going back on.
• Works to a Country House in Suffolk have started on-site this month, with the removal of all the asbestos which was put in during the 1920s to lag all the plumbing pipes. We are about to start completely re-plumbing the house with Rose Builders.
• The building works at the Church of St Mary The Virgin, Radwinter started this month with Lodge and Sons Builders. This is our local village church, and one close to our heart. We are creating a new WC and Kitchenette in the Victorian Vestry. The vestry already contains some lovely cupboards by Temple Moore, the famous Victorian Architect, so we are going to compliment the simple flower carving on his cupboards with new carving details on our own panelling that will continue the floral theme perhaps with a crocus flower instead. The vestry already has some old delft tiles in the fireplace, so we are hoping to design some new hand painted delph tiles with scenes of the village. The rather less fun job of digging the drains and excavating the floor have commenced this month, but we have found an old vault outside, which was an exciting surprise!
• We reached Final Completion on the new brick indoor swimming-pool building near Dunmow. We’ll be taking photographs soon for you to see. The design complimented the adjacent Victorian stable-block with red brick and large oak and glazed doors which have heavy boarded shutter doors to the outside. We built a pitched oak glulam roof over the pool itself with a central glazed rooflight. The vaulted ceiling was then dotted with Swarovsky crystal lights, to create a spectacular night sky above.
• Finchingfield Guildhall is an immensely rewarding project on-site at the moment with Fairhurst Ward Abbott. The roof repairs have all been completed by Tony and his team with new straps where the tie beams have pulled away from the top plates, and oak slice repairs where the plate was rotten. The replacement of the 50s softwood frame with oak frame is taking shape. Most interestingly we found lots of old 15th and 17th century mullioned windows. The 15th century are of a scalloped design and the 17th century are ovolo moulded. We are reinstating all the oak mullioned windows we have physical evidence for, so the windows will reveal the different periods of build through their style and progression. They’ve also made up a sample plaster pargetting pattern which is the same as the Victorian photographs of the building we have in the archive. This will be used on the new lime plastered exterior, which replaces the cement render we removed.
• We’ve reached practical completion on the refurbished pool building, new orangery and basement cinema/games room in Chelmsford. This work was completed by Cubbitt Theobald Builders, and the new facilities to this elegant townhouse have provided the family with some really fun and enjoyable rooms, which have been designed to compliment the Georgian style of the house.
• Peter celebrated a rather special birthday at the start of this month.
• An early News Bulletin for May – KPT are very proud to announce we won the RICS East of England Awards 2012 Building Conservation for Spain Hall!

KPT News March 2012

March News at KPTA

• We have entered one of our Wedding Venue Country House projects into the RIBA 2012 Regional Conservation Awards.
• We have also entered one of our Country House projects into the HHA/Sotheby’s Restoration Award 2012.
• We are very pleased that our January submission to the RICS Awards has been shortlisted.
• We are very pleased that the joint SMC/KPT CEDIA Awards 2012 entry of a home cinema has been shortlisted.
• At Finchingfield Guildhall, we exposed a 15th Century crown post and wattle and daub panels, hidden under a temporary tin roof.  We discovered, in a wall, 15th century Mullions with “high status” scalloped profile.  A wrought iron casement window has been found, and confirmed as being 17th century.
• The Round House is nearing completion.  The installation of hand-made oak doors and windows have turned this into a very pretty building.  Floor tiles are being laid.
• Permission has been granted allowing building and roofing works to a 15th century moated Hall House.  These works have now commenced.
• An application has been submitted for the conversion of a fine group of Listed farm buildings – including two Grade I Listed barns – to a wedding venue, set in beautiful Essex countryside.
• An application has been submitted for conversion work to a find Regency farm house – including a ‘Regency’ veranda and orangery extension.
• The Chancellor of the Exchequer stunned us, our clients and our contractors with his shock announcement, in The Budget on 21 March, that the VAT relief which currently applies to alterations to listed buildings is to be withdrawn with effect from 1 October 2012.
• Nicola has completed the final unit of her MSc Timber Building Conservation course.  This included Consolidation and Surface Finishes and Non-structural repair and treatment, and was held at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum.  Nicola now has to carry out her dissertation to complete her course.
• Muriel attended a seminar on “Successful marketing of your practice in difficult times” at the Smartlife Centre in Cambridge.
• Monica and Maria attended the Ecobuild Event in London, a day of seminars, exhibitions and displays on sustainable design, construction and the built environment.
• After many grueling lunchtime runs, Monica successfully completed the Cambridge Half Marathon in 2 hours 4 minutes, and raised £328 for her chosen charity, Cancer Research

KPT News January 2012

• This Specialist decorative paint scheme by KPT and Howell and Bellion at Leytonstone Church continues. Historic painted gold leaf stars been uncovered above the font and, by sheer coincidence, these match the proposed scheme for the new painting onto the vaulted porch ceiling, which is to have gold stars on blue night sky!
• KPT, in collaboration with SMC ( a communication/entertainment installer), have entered a new home cinema they designed into the Cedia Awards 2012.
• We have also entered Spains Hall into the RICS 2012 Conservation Award.
• Thatching of the Rotunda has been completed.  The vertical, wide board oak cladding is currently being fitted to the exterior and the oak windows are also being installed.
• Architect Monica Corcoran passed the Construction Skills Managerial and Professional Health and Safety Test with flying colours.
• The works at Finchingfield Guildhall with Fairhurst Ward Abbotts are at an exciting stage. Some of the modern windows and cement render have been removed at the rear, exposing the frame. We have found two more ovolo moulded, 15th Century windows in the Guildroom and a high status 15th Century oriel window on the front façade! This is fantastic news, as the Guildhall is revealing more of its history and past use every day.   
• The new Kitchenette, WC and Balcony building works at Bush End church, with R J Pinnock, are continuing and the new breather floor has been laid.
• The re-roofing of a C15th moated Hall House, with R J Hogg, is underway, with the stripping of the clay peg tiles. This will expose the beautiful crown-post roofs and later C16th purlin roofs, which we’re looking forward to seeing.
• The complete renovation works of a Regency house/former pub in Essex, with Illife & Sons, is still on-site, with the cement render removed and the frame exposed. This has revealed an elm frame, which will be repaired like-for-like with British elm. The new breather perimeter floors have also been laid, which will ensure the old frame stays dry. 
• We received Planning permission/Listed Building Consent for a new pitched roof (replacing a flat roof) over a swimming pool in Fulbourn.
• We received Listed Building Consent for internal alterations to a 16th Century house in Saffron Walden
• The glass/oak screened room in the South Aisle at Great Chesterford church is complete.  Pop in and have a look!