Richard Reid and Associates

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RICHARD REIDURBAN DESIGN AND BUILDING WORKS

1990—2008


1990—2008

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1990—2008

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Whitley FarmIde Hill, SevenoaksKent, TN14 6BS

[email protected]+44 (0)1732 741417www.richardreid.co.uk

RICHARD REIDURBAN DESIGN AND BUILDING WORKS: 1990—2008First Edition — July 2008Published by RRA www.directdesign.co.uk

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CONTENTS

Introduction 4

Urban Design 7

Public Works 45

Commercial Works 59

Housing 77

Private Houses 91

Richard Reid (CV) 122

Client List 123

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INTRODUCTION

For me the journey from teacher to practitioner began early in the 1980’s with a series of collaborative projects exploring the Englishness of English architecture – the award winning Villa Vasone; a competition entry for Kew Gardens, etc. My interest was less about architecture per se and more about building overlaid with an architectural quality, something I had begun to think about many years before as a student in Rome when I fi rst began to study the relationship of the grand design tradition and the vernacular tradition.

The study programme, which I ran for over ten years, was titled Learning from Vernacular Building and Planning. It involved the Universities of Stuttgart, Venice, University College Dublin and the Polytechnic of the South Bank, (now the University of the South Bank). Occupying a term a year, it was a thematic based study programme examining specifi c urban strategies each year, the work presented in a visual and diagrammatic manner. The resultant research work was later used as a basis for a series of design projects.

Looking back on this international study programme, my previous work for the Architectural Review and Casabella and my notebook sketches, I realise how much they have informed the work of the studio today. The studio were masterplanners for the 60 hectare district of Kleinzschocher, Leipzig, Germany, for the City of Leipzig (1995) and are currently masterplanners and architects for the Lower Mill Estate, a development of 575 holiday houses and ancillary accommodation set amongst a landscape of lakes near Cirencester. The studio has also been working on the Masterplan of an 80 hectare site on the edge of Bologna, Italy with Piero Sartogo of Sartogo Architetti Associate, Richard Meier and Partners and Studio Arco, for the City of Bologna and the University of Bologna. More recently we have been working on a Masterplan for the 73 acre site of Northfl eet Embankment, Gravesend for SEEDA, amongst other projects.

A former Rome Scholar in Architecture, I had contributed numerous articles on Townscape to The Architectural Review and Casabella for many years when, in the late 1970’s I was appointed Project Director for a Joint Study Programme between Colleges of Further Education funded by the EEC.

KEW GARDENS COMPETITION VILLA VASONE

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My colleagues and I see the studio as a ‘teaching practice’ offering RIBA training for Part I and Part II architecture students. In addition we are concentrating on providing a hands-on construction course in sustainable building tutored by two long-term colleagues of mine as in-house Design and Construction consultants – Robert Dowling and Roger Huntley. But fundamental is the development of our computer and drawing skills, especially freehand, for it’s not the words but the

drawings that get built and, as Nan Ellin suggests in Postmodern Urbanism, architects, unlike planners, have developed most of the urban trends simply because “they have been the ones to generate visions for change”.

In City Planning According to Artistic Principles, Camillo Sitte made the point that city planning was not merely a road and utilities driven technical matter “but should, in its truest and most elevated sense, be an artistic enterprise”. That’s how I see it also.

There are four key members of the studio amongst many valuable hands – Snehal Patel (Offi ce Manager and Project Director), Mike Beeton (Design Director), Philip Gibbs (Construction Director) and Remus Dariescu (IT co-ordinator and Project Director). All four have collaborated in various forms on Lower Mill Estate, Northfl eet Embankment and other projects, for the essence of the studio work is in its collaborative nature. In some form or another, everybody in the studio works on virtually every project.

We always describe our work to clients as a collaborative process with the client actively involved, a kind of ‘team painting’ (especially the urban projects) but with us holding the paint brush. In a way that’s also how we operate within the studio here – working effectively and dynamically as one big team, where everybody’s individual skills and experiences are greatly valued.

The studio building can accommodate a team of 20, most living nearby, whilst I’m the closest - our family house being attached to the studio - so my library is readily available for studio research.

Whilst the emphasis is very much on our drawing skills as designers, our philosophy is not just about the skill of hands, but of head and heart also, for the work has to have an intellectual foundation as well as a passion and belief in itself.

I like to think I’m the boss, but everybody knows that’s not true for it’s the contribution from the other guys in the studio (male and female) who really make it work.

Enjoy the bookRichard Reid

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URBAN DESIGN

For us, the key to urban design is an understanding of the role of building and architecture in town or city.

Building provides the space defi ning fabric and creates a framework for the monuments (in the Sittesque sense) whilst architecture, often a space occupying building like the Victorian stations, provides a civilised presence in the city. However we are also interested in the relationship between the vernacular traditional and the grand design tradition and the lessons to be learnt from vernacular building and planning.

For us, the urban designer is a moral and ethical agent measured by his/her ability to bring the various interest groups together around a shared vision. We see the process of urban design as a kind of team painting where the urban designer is holding the paintbrush. At the end of the day building and architecture, whilst clearly of great importance, are only a part of the place making process. And whilst the urban designer needs considerable knowledge as well as the wisdom to utilize it they need, above all, to have great teaching skills and the ability to listen and learn.

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URBAN DESIGN Clearwater

RRA are masterplanners and chief architect for Lower Mill Estate, a community of second homes on a 550 acre former quarry site set in the Cotswold Water Park. Planned for the Lower Mill Estate Ltd and Conservation Builders Ltd, the practice is collaborating with Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick, the structural and civil engineers and ecological consultants, and with landscape design by the Landmark Practice; Breeze Landscape and Roger Griffi th Associates.

The site is an open landscape – informal, specifi cally native and with an emphasis on bio-diversity. We were appointed for the third phase and beyond which accounts for 86% of the permitted housing. Our design, whilst more overtly contemporary in character than the earlier phases, responds to the traditional building character of the area with its varied roofl ine and informal, organic-like planning.

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URBAN DESIGN Clearwater

None of the houses has a fenced-in residential curtilage. There are no garages, for all parking is grouped appropriately throughout the site. The buildings are grouped informally, private outside space provided by loggias, two storey galleried gable ends or arcading, projecting balconies, deck terraces and roof terraces, all maximising the views out across the landscape of lakes and meadow lands, and shallow water canals and streams.

There are over 20 standard housing types, which have a number of variants, that create the common “building language” or vernacular for the site. What is particularly unique is that we have forty “landmark houses” to be designed by leading UK and international architects. These houses are the “architecture” of the site and act as focal points within the villagescape, much as the mansions and “polite” houses do in traditional villages and smaller towns.

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URBAN DESIGN Howell’s Mere

The houses and terraces of Howell’s Mere, Lower Mill Estate, have a mix of building volumes and materials with pitch roofs, butterfl y roofs, folded metal roofs and numerous roof terraces, straddling walls of stone, boards and batten or render to create a “vernacular” for the site. But, from the start, it was clear that in order to avoid the proposed plan looking like the archetypal housing estate, some house designs would have to take on a more distinct role, much as the listed Mill building and Mill House did for the original estate. It was felt that a series of “Landmark Houses” were needed. Somerford Villa which stands in the water at the edge of a narrow peninsula jutting out into Somerford Lagoon, was the fi rst of the new houses to be designed specifi cally as a “Landmark House” for one of our clients, to create focal points within the ensemble of “vernacular” buildings. These houses are the equivalent architecturally of what the limestone mansion or vicarage was in relation to the houses of the vernacular tradition. Unlike the other house types with their pitch, mono-pitch and mansarded roofs and similar building genre, the “landmark houses” will generally be more distinct architecturally – sometimes with a fl at roof or with a roof terrace, more elaborate use of decking, sometimes of a ‘grander scale’ but all with a greater concern for spatial and sculptural elaboration and poetical sensibilities. They are intended to “stand out” to be “landmarks” in their own right. If the vernacular for the site is “coded”, these designs are the “code breakers”. One of the fi rst of the landmark houses to be permitted here is the Orchid House by Featherstone Associates. Located in the southwest corner of Howell’s Mere, it creates a strong focal point to the ensemble of houses running south and west along the site boundaries.

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URBAN DESIGN Somerford 9

This is a small development of nine villas, at Lower Mill Estate, aligned along the edge of Flagham Brook with extensive views out eastward across Somerford Lagoon.

As with other phases of the development, Somerford 9 has its own distinct character. The houses are accessed across a narrow canal whilst a curtain wall of stone encloses the southern and western boundary.

A small spa and external pool enclosed by timber fencing are located amongst a small copse of green in a corner by the gate entrance to the close.

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URBAN DESIGN Greenville Masterplan

The Masterplan was commissioned by the Urban Village Group as an urban prototype to illustrate the aims and ambitions of the group to create mixed-use neighbourhoods combin-ing the best of village and urban life.

The location was a 60-hectare site abutting the north side of an existing canal side village in the Midlands. As Trevor Osborne, Chair-man of the Urban Villages Group, wrote, the new urban villages must not be expected to replicate the results achieved over long peri-ods “by the incremental and often accidental development of existing neighbourhoods. The urban villages of the future will each have their own special character, refl ecting the time and circumstances in which they evolved”.

A requirement of the proposed design was the need to restore a sense of belonging and pride in one’s surroundings by the re-introduction of human scale intimacy and a vibrant street life. In order to accommodate the range and scale of uses, building forms and spaces envis-aged, the Masterplan and building land parcels have an inbuilt fl exibility to anticipate change whilst creating a place to work and live within easy walking distance of each other. A crucial aspect of the proposed plan was the need to provide for a range of building and architec-tural designs, both modern and traditional in line with the strategic options.

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URBAN DESIGN Bertalia-Lazzaretto, Bologna

The Masterplan, urban and architectural design for this site was won in an international architectural competition in 2001.

It is an 80-hectare site on the northwest edge of Bologna. Richard Reid & Associates, who are in charge of the Masterplan and urban design for the project, are part of a team including Piero Sartogo of Sartogo Architetti Associati; Richard Meier and Partners and Studio Arco. The client is the City of Bologna and the University of Bologna.

The brief was to create a new district on the edge of the City of Bologna to accommodate an extension of the University. The design provides for a faculty of 7000 staff and students, with accommodation for 1000 students, 1200 residential units and related educational, commercial and retail uses.

The urban design addressed the nature and form of Italian townscape. However, whilst the connecting porticos of the City are an integral part of our proposals, we have opted for a more contemporary “vernacular” in order to avoid the trap of creating a Tuscan pastiche. The plan is a juxtaposition of space defi ning buildings (the traditional building fabric) and space occupying buildings (the large building volumes of the contemporary City). It is articulated by a clear hierarchy of routes, “towers” of student accommodation, connecting walls, porticos and public spaces which together create a coherent and legible urban form.

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URBAN DESIGN Kleinzschocher, Leipzig

The Masterplan of the 60-hectare garden district of Kleinzschocher, ten minutes by tram from the city centre, was won in an international Urban Design Competition organized by the City of Leipzig.

The commission was to prepare a detailed evaluation of the existing building fabric and propose a strategy for improvement and enhancement for the future. In consultation with local community groups, business forums and the local and City authorities, Richard Reid & Associates carried out the project in collaboration with the local engineering practice Kuhn Projektentwicklungs GMBH.

A series of Planning for Real exercises were used to develop a comprehensive image map of the area based on the pioneering work of Kevin Lynch (Image of the City). We then evolved a plan of strategic points or nodes in the district in order to create a framework around which to develop a series of benign fragments of varied scale and design to be developed by other hands through competitions. These evolving and changing elements, making the most of opportunities presented, were set within a stable framework of existing fabric with proposals for restoration and enhancement.

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URBAN DESIGN Holyrood, Edinburgh

Masterplan for a former Brewery Site prepared by the practice in collaboration with Andy Bow and The Burrell Company, the Edinburgh based property developers, for LEEL.

The proposal was to demonstrate how the steeply sloping site to the east of the Royal Mile in the historic centre of the City, could be sensitively developed with existing and new building and networks of new yards and alleyways.

The site was always intended to be developed by a variety of developers and their architects under a selected urban designer. Therefore the Masterplan, whilst acknowledging the sensitivity and urban scale of the historic context of the site also had to anticipate potential changes in plan by developing a strategy of an additive fabric of buildings whilst allowing for the possibility of some stand-alone buildings – in a similar manner to that of the historic townscape.

Whilst much of the building typology envisaged was a traditional one, it was always the intention that any such plan should respond positively to the inclusion of contemporary building “styles” and alternative typologies proposed in a sympathetic and appropriate manner.

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URBAN DESIGN Horn Yard, Gravesend

Working with Lovell Urban Renewal and Carter Commercial we were asked to produce a mixed-use urban design that maximised the development potential of the site, whilst refl ecting the special character of Gravesend by designing new buildings that are in clear sympathy with the old, for Horn Yard abuts the east side of the historic High Street. Whitby and Bird were the structural engineers. The project won fi rst prize in a national developer/architect competition. This is a breathtaking site that slopes dramatically, giving marvellous views out across the river, where the proposal was for a mixed-use scheme with a large residential context.

The scheme, seen as an integral part of the regeneration of Gravesend, makes dramatic use of the sloping site. The scheme provides attractive views of the river and also makes a positive contribution to the prospect from the river. The scheme provides an enhancement to the adjacent High Street Conservation Area and provides the possibility of retaining and developing the Saturday open market which could be relocated within the site.

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URBAN DESIGN Sailbridge, Swansea

This competition was for a 2.8 acre temporary car park site, which links, via the iconic sail bridge, the mixed use development at SAI Swansea Waterfront which has transformed the old docks area in the east, with the city centre fi ve minutes walk away to the west.

A mixed use scheme was proposed, to connect key streets and create an attractive and permeable townscape with 320 residential apartments above 35,000 sqm of commercial space including shops, cafes, small galleries, a crèche, and a major hotel with communal leisure facilities.

The bulk, mass and spread of the new blocks were carefully considered in relation to the adjoining conservation area, and the listed Dylan Thomas Centre. Of major importance, urbanistically, was the connection with the existing town square in front of the Castle.

Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick were the structural engineers.

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URBAN DESIGN Siena Townscape

The proposal, which won fi rst prize in an urban design competition for the city, creates a more legible and coherent link between the station, at the base of the hill, and the city proper terminating along the tree lined Viale Vittoria Emmanuelle at the massive arched structure of the Outer Gate.

The programme includes a new car park, a complex of hotel, shops, cinema, offi ces and a new station square at the lower level, connected to the historic centre by a series of underground travelators and lifts through the hillside. An idyllic zigzagging path stepping up through a series of green terraces allows you to climb towards the buttressed walls and beyond to the monumental entrance gate of the city and the conviviality of the shaded tree lined street.

Work in collaboration with Piero Sartogo and his colleagues.

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URBAN DESIGN Ferry Road, Cardiff

The site is a 100 acre peninsular, jutting out into Cardiff Bay. The site was developed as a joint venture between Grosvenor Waterside and the former Cardiff Bay Development Corporation for the proposed sports village.

The practice was asked to prepare a Masterplan for the site that would provide added value not just to the water’s edge, but also for the inland sites in order for the clients to prepare a re-evaluation of the land value.

Following the re-evaluation, the site was developed by a consortium of developers and their architectural teams selected by the clients.

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URBAN DESIGN Northfl eet Embankment, Gravesend

Masterplan prepared for SEEDA. The site, 73 acres of brownfi eld land to the west of Gravesend, is bounded by the River Thames on the north and a ten storey high chalk cliff along the east and south side. It is also in a fl ood zone. The plan, still a work in progress, is to create an appropriate fl ood defence and masterplan for 1800 residential units (apartments, terraces and semi-detached houses), a new primary school, commercial and retail uses laid out in a series of land parcels to be developed by a variety of developers and their architects. In order to maximise the river frontage and create added value for the inland sites dominated by the high chalk cliff, we have proposed a linear water-park running east/west along the base of the cliffs, creating a valuable amenity for the existing and new community and at the same time creating a visually attractive edge or “buffer” between the cliffs and the proposed new housing. In addition we have proposed a series of connected canal gardens

and landscaped roof terraces as part of a sustainable drainage strategy and biodiversity action plan. The building and architectural design will be by a variety of hands with some key landmark buildings and spaces of special interest to be designed by selected architects.

The intention is to develop a proposal which capitalizes on the bold scale and character of the existing context whilst helping to create a vibrant river edge and townscape vision with its own identity and sense of place.

The work was developed in collaboration with Capita Symonds and Peter Brett Associates

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URBAN DESIGN Paternoster Square

Proposed as part of Richard McCormack’s “Drawing on London” RIBA Conference, the proposal here was to re-examine ways to transform the 1960’s Paternoster Square whilst retaining some of the existing structures in the sense that it seemed such a waste not to make use of it in some way as opposed to opting for the easier route, to demolish. The proposal was prepared by Greg Craig (EPR), Andy Bow and Richard Reid (RRA).

The point was made that the original square never addressed St. Paul’s, nor did the 1960’s square and that if there was an “ideal” relationship it should be with Cheapside. And in providing such a connection it would allow St. Paul’s to have its very own “cathedral close”, and the key to this was the re-use of the existing structures to the north of the cathedral..

Apart from a creative re-examination of the concept of re-using the redundant structures of the 1960’s, the masterplan explores the relationship between space defi ning buildings (the older 18th century fabric) and space occupying buildings (the larger offi ce fl oor plates and the very cathedral itself).

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URBAN DESIGN Hill Village, Nan Sha, China

Masterplan for a hill village on a saddle of land in the hill above the new city of Nan Sha.

Surrounded by two golf courses, the hour-glass like plan has a denser more urban quarter on the higher ground in which narrow terrace streets encircle a green hill from which protrudes a curving square and ‘belvedere’.

An amphitheatre, pergola walk and public garden connects the high density village to the lower less dense streets of villas and a large hotel located along the edge of a promontory with spectacular views out towards the Pearl River Delta.

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URBAN DESIGN Environmental Education,Jersey

What we have carried out with a number of our urban studies is a programme of Environmental Education based around the study of “The Front Door” – the entrance being the key to everything, the way in, the way through and the way out again, whether in a large house or a small town.

This study, conducted with 250 pupils from two primary schools and one secondary school in St Helier, Jersey, was part of an urban study of a 40 acre Environmental and Improvement Area in the city.

Carried out in collaboration with Delphine Geoghan, the work involved a series of Planning for Real workshops, a central feature of which were the studies prepared by the school pupils. The school work was planned with the teachers involved, as an integral part of the pupil’s school curricular.

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URBAN DESIGN Townscape Studies

As with the pupils in Jersey, the townscape drawings illustrated here are very visual and diagrammatic in character. They fi rst describe, then analyse, the object of study – a kind of probing and prodding as I try to make visible the invisible. You can see this quite clearly in the terrace drawings of Bath, the drawing of the Teatro Olympico and the Basilica , Vicenza.

For years, I have spent countless hours sitting on street corners making drawings in this way.

I arrive in a town or village, a complete stranger, but slowly, as the days go by and more wobbly ink lines cross the paper, I begin to ‘possess the place’ in some way. Now no longer quite the stranger thanks to my sketch book observations – it’s a kind of rite of passage each time.

What I have learnt is that, to me, it’s the only way I can reach some kind of understanding about place, a particular sense of place especially. And since buildings are built from drawings (computer or otherwise) it doesn’t seem such a bad place to start from.

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PUBLIC WORKS

Whether they are building or architecture, such structures should have a ‘presence’ – a civilizing presence in the city certainly. The projects in this section are at a variety of scales – the Town Hall, Sevenoaks, more like a large house; Epping Forest Civic Offi ces like a fragment of the local townscape; the new Museum of the Acropolis rugged, like the landscape on which it stands, with the main ‘room’ a sweeping shell to contain the great sculptures; the Museum of Scotland like a castle keep or great tower house.

They are all different and particular to the place and programme.

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PUBLIC WORKS Epping Forest Civic Offi ces

Won in an architectural competition, the building with brick tower, two storey high entrance ‘porch’ with great fore-stair and curving council chamber and public gallery projecting out from the ordered brick main facade, is a fragment of townscape of which Epping Forest abounds. The tower, which gives the building a civic quality and focal point, is one of a pair fl anking the central church tower located at the centre of the High Street. Ove Arup and Partners were the structural engineers and M & E Consultants.

The project was given an RIBA Award.

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PUBLIC WORKS Town Hall, Sevenoaks

The programme, to include offi ces, council chamber and medical centre is contained in a large gabled brick building straddling the entrance to parking at the rear.

A large curving rendered volume provides the main entrance as well as housing the council Chamber and public gallery. Tucked to one side under a grass roofed lawn is the single storey medical centre.

As with the Epping Forest Civic Offi ces, the gable brick façade provides decorum to Ruskin’s ‘changefulness’.

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PUBLIC WORKS OECD, Paris

The Masterplan brief was to prepare a proposal to consolidate 22 offi ces of the OECD which were located on 12 sites throughout this section of the city onto the La Muette site with added conference facilities and updated security proposal.

The clients were the OECD and the work was carried out as part of a team of consultants including Piero Sartogo of Sartogo Architetti Associati; EGW, Ove Arup and Partners and Drees and Sommer AG.

The site, bordered by Belle-Époque style buildings along to the south and east and by the greenery of the Bois de Boulogne and the adjacent Jardin de Ranelagh to the north and west, has a wonderful Beaux-Arts Chateau set in spacious grounds, disfi gured by a variety of post war structures. The masterplan proposed a re-interpretation of the Parisian “hotels-particulars” in which a principle entrance forecourt, side courts, vestibules and principle corps-de-logis generally divide the courts along the entrance side from the main garden space beyond.

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PUBLIC WORKS Civic Centre, Taichung, Taiwan

Entry for the international architectural competition for the Taichung City Civic Centre, Taiwan, The project, which was awarded 4th place, was developed in collaboration with Sartogo Architetti Associati and Tobia and Afro Scarpa.

Within the planned development of the Civic Centre District, the organization of the open space is the primary functional element. It is a system of access to both park and buildings, as with the 15th Century transformation of the main piazza in Pienza, Italy or Aalto’s Civic Centre at Saynatsalo, Finland.

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PUBLIC WORKS New Museum of the Acropolis,Athens

The competition entry for the Museum proposed a complex series of routes, gardens and structures. Astride a projecting belvedere of rock and stone is a curving shell, hung from an arch springing across the belvedere. The porticoes of this cavernous cathedral of space are enclosed by a light, transparent wall of glass.

The interior, lit by the sky and framed by rocks and olive trees, is designed to contain the famed Elgin Marbles. A vaulted pavilion, accommodating a ticket offi ce and an information desk, forms the Museum’s propylaea, from which a wide piazza-like bridge, with balustrading created by stone seating areas, provides secure access to a barrel-vaulted, nine bay entry ‘stoa’.

Whitby & Bird were the Structural Engineers.

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PUBLIC WORKS Museum of Scotland

The competition entry for the museum proposed a large curving, keep-like structure with roof top restaurant and ‘rampant walk’ like two great fortifi ed tower houses, plugged into the side of the existing main museum entrance hall.

A key corner in the city townscape, the new wing consists of four fl oors and a basement with varied scale. Spaces framed key four exhibition areas designed around a central void or ‘machine hall’. Rising though the ‘machine hall’ is an orientation tower, one of three located within the new and existing museum. The whole internal ensemble is wrapped along the street edge by a curving wall which itself is marked by key parts of the programme as well as the cardinal points defi ned by the angled views to the historic city. Whitby and Bird were the structural engineers.

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PUBLIC WORKS National Centre for the Arts, Delhi, India

Competition entry for an Arts Centre in Delhi sponsored by the Indira Ghandi Foundation. The brief included a concert hall and theatre, a traditional theatre, administrative offi ces, library, conference facilities, galleries, museum and ancillary space, etc. Ove Arup & Partners were the structural engineers.

Set in a context of grand avenues and large civic and public buildings, the masterplan sets the complex of buildings around a series of landscaped courts and gardens aligned along a central canal.

The architectural design is composed on an heroic scale, simple ashlared walls with deep oversailing roofs, projecting bays and balconies, porticoed facades and roof terraces – a building design exploiting the solids and voids and geometrical strictness of grand Moghul architecture.

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COMMERCIAL WORKS

Commercial buildings can be space defi ning, as an integral part of the existing townscape, or space occupying, like the great railway buildings, department stores or out of town shopping centre. Scale and context are important to the extent that some projects, such as our design for the proposed fi nancial centre, Manama, Bahrain, creates it own context whilst Marsham Street and River Walk reinterpret the scale of large urban city centre or small Kent river town.

The other projects are transformations of existing buildings or corners of such buildings or small projects such as the celebrated Spa for Lower Mill Estate or the Chartwell shop which has an unashamedly vernacular quality about. An understanding of scale, context and culture are crucial in such place marking

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COMMERCIAL WORKS Financial Centre, Manama, Bahrain

The Masterplan and architectural design to create a new fi nancial centre in Manama, was awarded First Prize in an international competition, sponsored by the Housing Bank, Bahrain.

The requirement was to create a landmark tower of striking and original design., leisure club and arcaded shopping mall. The practice prepared the Masterplan in collaboration with ACE (Athens) RMJM (London).

Our intentions were to create a design shaped by, and related to, the traditional life-style of the people of Bahrain and the Gulf, using building materials appropriate to the environment and the climatic conditions of the region. The key elements of the proposal are a tall offi ce tower, two storey mall set in an oasis of lake and encircling palm trees and landscaped parking courts.

The tower sits at the centre of the dogleg site, a focal point closing off the vista from the central, palm-lined access road. To one side is a small square which, itself, terminates the western end of the mall. On the opposite side of the square is a two storey arcaded portico which provides access to a leisure club, restaurant and aquarium built around a walled courtyard and open air swimming pool. The design sets out to reinterpret the simplicity and order of the archetypal Arabian city with its narrow walks, simple building volumes, arcaded courts and landscaping, in an appropriate and contemporary manner.

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COMMERCIAL WORKS Marsham Street, London

Masterplan and urban design developed for an International Architectural Competition sponsored by the DoE. The project was shortlisted.

The site is bounded by Great Peter Street, Moncks Street, Horseferry Road and Marsham Street. The competition brief was to provide a mixed-use scheme replacing the existing DoE offi ces, together with the provision of residential accommodation and other related and appropriate uses. Our project was developed in consultation with Peter Brett and Associates.

The proposed strategy consists of a perimeter block made up of a number of building volumes, of varied use and scale, enclosing a series of landscaped garden courts and small squares. The scheme provides 82,000 sqm of gross fl oor space and 4,500 sqm of open space.

The perimeter block itself creates a series of narrow alleyways or passages providing great permeability within and across the site. The accommodation is provided in buildings of a variety of scale and character in response to the townscape possibilities of the particular context, and partly as “perceptual” screening for the necessary higher volumes, located internally on the site to provide 25,000 sqm of offi ces. However the variety of scale and character is also used as an indication of the range of “hands” thought necessary to give such an important site the appropriate variety in architectural scale and character.

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COMMERCIAL WORKS River Walk, Tonbridge

First place in an architectural competition, the project picks up the volumetric character of the existing streetscape on one side, whilst responding to the Medway River context dominated by the 13h Century castle mound and curtain walling of the Clare castle on the other.

Predominantly offi ces with an arcade of shops providing a link between the High Street and River Walk. The High Street entrance is via an arch and passageway through an ostensibly vernacular front, opening out at the rear to a curving crescent at the foot of which is a small raised piazza axially aligned with the river.

Ove Arup & Partners were the Structural Engineers and M & E Consultants.

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COMMERCIAL WORKS Bulgari, London

The original Bulgari shop in Bond Street, the works included the transformation of the existing fi ve storey shop, with offi ces above two fl oors of sales.

The entrance fl oor is like a ‘bazaar’ with a curving wall of birds-eye maple to the right into which are set theatrical-like windows, the jewellery set on little stages of beige. To the left, two irregular shaped ‘exedra’ provide discreet sales areas defi ned by a scenographic frame of pear wood veneers with raised banded sycamore. A lower ceiling, angled to mark the route through the sales area, also creates the sense of an invisible ‘screen’ behind which the two sales areas are located.

Project in collaboration with Piero Sartogo. Whitby & Bird were the Structural Engineers and M & E Consultants.

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COMMERCIAL WORKS Albert Embankment

Transformation of a large fl oor in an existing offi ce building along the river into a series of varied sized offi ce areas each opening out onto two central ‘streets’.

Working within a limited budget, the key was a carefully selected palette of colours, inventive use of partitioning ‘screens’; the lighting emphasis on the ‘streets’ and an economically modular desk design.

Colin Toms & Partners were the Structural Engineers; John Roberts the lighting consultant.

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COMMERCIAL WORKS Design Studio, Brasted, Kent

Transformation of an old pub in the Conservation Area of Brasted.

Parts of the existing building date back to the early 17th Century, whilst parts are early to mid 20th Century. Left as a hotchpotch of rooms, the design opened up the space and made much of the irregularity of the existing building fabric in style and time.

Whilst keeping the High Street frontage intact, there were opportunities at the rear for parts of the inside to ‘erupt’ out in providing the glazed roof ‘skylight’ or the gull-winged entrance porch and studio extension.

Colin Toms & Partners were the Structural Engineers.

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COMMERCIAL WORKS The Spa, Lower Mill Estate

Spa Building for Lower Mill Estate with outdoor pool including eco-pool and large indoor pool. There is a gym, treatment rooms, café area and long gallery space.

The external area, enclosed by landscaped bunds and a meandering tree-lined water course has numerous terrace areas including an alfresco restaurant area under a planted pergola ‘loggia’.

The principle structure is a long pitch roof tiled building with a simple portal frame, central ridge skylight and large glazed gable ends. The various additional uses are housed is a series of lean-to structures tucked in along either side of the eaves of the main building like the accretions of old.

Structural Engineers and M & E Consultants were Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick.

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COMMERCIAL WORKS Chartwell Shop, Chartwell, Kent

Designed to relate to Churchill’s house and gardens as well as the large entrance café area with hall above, the shop is a long, pitched roofed brick building with gabled ends, like porticoes, providing access to existing rest rooms and offi ces to the rear.

The structures to the rear are simple lean-to structures in vertical board and batten, tucked in under the eaves of the main building. A central cupola, a hint of the oast house of Chartwell Farm and surrounding structures, provides light to the sales desk.

Alan Baxter & Partners were the Structural Engineers. Pierce Hill were the Quantity Surveyors.

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COMMERCIAL WORKS Studio, Sevenoaks

Conversion of an existing late 19th Century barn and two storey stable building into studio accommodation.

A projecting aisle, with large round columns carrying the barn’s trusses, free the internal plan to provide a large single storey studio with additional upper fl oors at either end.

On the road side, the hole in the wall character of the original is maintained. On the valley side, the walls give way to longer expanses of window. Attached at the far end is the original three storey farmhouse.

Ove Arup & Partners were the Structural Engineers and M & E Consultants.

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HOUSING

The bulk of the fabric of the city is housing, and the history of housing, if you read Stefan Muthesius’s book “The History of the English Terrace House” is all about builders and developers and the various typologies developed to answer specifi c housing needs rather than the artistic endeavours of particular architects.

Housing, by its very nature, is self effacing, part of the additive fabric of townscape, more building than architecture. There is a need in housing, for more decent, ordinary, straight forward building. At its best, it is building with an architectural quality rather than being architecture. Lethaby warned that, “it was the gravest mistake to foster the idea that there was a sort of building called ‘architecture’ superior in kind to ordinary building; the serious problem was how this ordinary building might be well done, for without that as a basis no higher building or ‘architecture’ would be possible”.

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HOUSING Minerva Street, London

Conversion and extension of an existing warehouse in North London into a number of fl ats, duplexes, a gallery and painter’s studio.

The additions are very much a part of the additive fabric of the existing townscape, with a consciously varied scale and character, drawn in the most subtle of ways, with a rooftop of ‘accretions’ as the top fl oor fl ats erupt judiciously skyward in single storey rooftop ‘hides’

Maunsall’s were the Structural Engineers; Pierce Hill were the Quantity Surveyors.

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HOUSING Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff

To create the Masterplan and urban design for the development of the derelict corner of Mount Stuart Square and adjoining site across part of the in-fi lled canal to the west. The client was Bellway Homes with Clarke Bond as Structural Engineers.

The project was fi rst prize winner in an invited developer/architect competition, sponsored by the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation.

The original masterplan showed a dogleg terrace of 4 and 5 storey buildings enclosing the corner of Mount Stuart Square with a more traditional frontage of brick and render, whilst a bolder bow fronted elevation faces the narrow park to the west. On the opposite side of the park, the adjoining site has four buildings abutting the park edge with the landscaped forecourt to the rear enclosed by two longer terraces. The space between the two sites was originally proposed as a winding shallow water pond and native planting, crossed by a footbridge. The developed scheme transformed the space between into a landscape bund crossed by paths and bridges. The project was later developed by others.

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HOUSING Celtic Gateway, Cardiff

An inauspicious site entered under an elevated section of city motorway, but with a great riverside edge running between Penarth, Ferry Road and Cardiff Bay.

Entered from the northeast under the fl yover, an L-shaped three storey block of fl ats with attic storey act as an entrance gate to a landscaped parking forecourt.

Along the water’s edge, with good views across to Penarth and the bay, a series of two, three and four storey fl ats and terraces are set out in an animated, meandering line behind a landscaped river walk.

Clarke Bond were the Structural Engineers

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HOUSING Swansea Point, Swansea

Proposal for a mixed-use scheme of some 1500 units and related leisure and commercial uses on a site abutting a sandy bay on one side with the Maritime Quarter on the other.

Work carried out for Bellway Homes and Liberty Properties with Clarke Bond as structural engineers and civil engineers.

The principle architectural and urban design intentions here are to maximise the full potential of the Maritime Quarter as well as to contribute to the extension and enrichment of the special mercantile character of the city.

The proposal consists of a series of three and four storey terraces enclosing the principal frontages of the site whilst an inner core of terrace houses and apartments abut a long twisting shallow water dock running through the centre with a residential tower creating a focal point to the ensemble at the eastern end – a landmark building for the immediate development. But in addition this particular “tower” is an urban “signpost” marking and celebrating the gateway signifi cance of the site in the urban character of Swansea.

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HOUSING Finland Quays

This masterplan, prepared for Lovell Urban Renewal and the London Docklands Development Corporation, was for a group of residential sites along the northwest edge of Greenland Docks in Surrey Quay.

The brief was to create a denser, more urban scale and character, exploring the existing water views along Greenland Docks. Part of the scheme abutting Greenland Docks was carried out up to RIBA Stage G by the practice and constructed by Lovell Urban Renewal. The masterplan project was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition where it was awarded one of the Architecture prizes.

The intention, in the context of the time, was to form a new, but distinctive vision from the recent developments around the site, in order to create a strong sense of place.

The design needed to provide an appropriate strategy for the massing and scale of buildings along the primary and secondary site edges as well as within the depth of the site; to provide an appropriate building edge to create Finland Square, and a water’s edge to address Greenland Dock; and to provide an appropriate relationship between the surroundings, the landscaping and the water.

90

HOUSING Prospect Place, Cardiff

Masterplan and architectural design for an invited competition sponsored by Bellway Homes for a large site on the edge of Cardiff Bay.

The brief was to create a landmark project maximising the development potential of the site to create a mixed-use scheme of residential, leisure and ancillary commercial and retail uses. The practice collaborated with Peter Brett & Associates and the landscape practice of Studio Engleback.

The site, abutting the western entrance to Cardiff is fairly exposed and dominated by the raised motorway and so the plan creates a series of multi-storey parking blocks and leisure buildings along the road edge whilst a horseshoe shaped terrace of buildings encloses a central square and narrow harbour facing the bay. Around the edges of the main curving terrace, buildings of varied height and scale project out in a Catherine-wheel-like plan to create a coherent, legible and distinct landmark scheme along an important access road to the city.

91

HOUSING Housing Association, Maidenhead

A study to investigate the variety and forms possible within a clearly defi ned modular unit design for small corner or narrow frontage sites in and around Maidenhead, to provide a variety of sheltered accommodation.

The client was Maidenhead and District Housing Association.

92

HOUSING Foyer, Cardiff

Foyer scheme designed for the Cardiff Community Housing Association.

The scheme, located on a narrow triangular railway site, abutting the elevated railway line, consists of a main fi ve storey building along the main street with a smaller curving three storey side wing to the rear.

The programme includes a café and small shop along the main street, with single storey rental offi ces to the rear, with bed-sitting rooms above, including a warden’s fl at.

Clarke Bond were the Structural Engineers.

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PRIVATE HOUSES

Not all the houses here are architecture - a number are building imbued with an architectural quality. With the exception of two or three of the houses designed for Lower Mill Estate, which share a particular architectural code, the others are all different, in the sense that all the clients were different. But if there is a link between these house designs, it is in that the common things matter most. As Lethaby points out “ Our lives are mainly concerned with common things and the world is really carried on by them. Secondly , the few great exceptional things grew out of the widespread little ones. Thirdly, somehow it is the common things that are poetic”.

Designing a house is a kind of team-painting only we’re the guys holding the paint brushes – it’s not that we don’t have ideas, but like the good detective we are always on the lookout for clues. There is no set source, as such, for each house is about the particular family culture of individual clients plus the vagaries of the sites.

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PRIVATE HOUSES Sundance Villa

Designed as a Landmark house for Lower Mill Estate, the structure is three storeys, wrapped around a central tower consisting of access stairs and ventilation fl ues. The principle fl oor with kitchen and living space is the upper fl oor which rotates and has a roof that opens out, like a fl ower. The middle fl oor has the master suite whilst the ground fl oor has bedrooms, gym and small cinema tucked into the landscaped bank to the rear, whilst a terrace opens out onto the lake beyond.

Structural Engineers were Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick.

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PRIVATE HOUSES Country House, Penshurst

Replacement house consisting of a single storey structure above ground, with a large basement for pool, gym and ancillary accommodation lit by a central atrium complete with cupola.

The house has a green roof and a ground source heat pump. The walls are a mix of vertical and horizontal boarding and brick for the enclosing garden wall along the entrance side.

98

PRIVATE HOUSES Town House, Sevenoaks

Replacement town house on steeply wooded site, with two storey entrance section and three storey garden section.

A seven bedroom house with two studies, living room and library, with dining area and kitchen opening out onto a wide deck terrace at fi rst fl oor along the garden side.

Whilst the ground fl oor entrance section is divided into a series of rooms – library, study, entrance hall, playroom, utility room – the rear section is composed of three areas – kitchen, dining room and living room – each opening into the other. In addition, the dining area can be divided off from the living room if needed by sliding doors.


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PRIVATE HOUSES Country House, Sevenoaks

Replacement house on the edge of Sevenoaks with double height entrance hall, like the country house at Shipbourne, but more abstract and contemporary in composition with projecting window bays or ground fl oor loggias where necessary.

The terraced roof has projecting loggia screening the cupola lighting the central hall, with a summer room to one side.


102

PRIVATE HOUSES House extension, Sevenoaks

Wedge shaped extension in plan to an existing house near Ide Hill, turning the existing house into a series of enclosures each opening out onto the new space abutting the garden. Large sliding windows give access to a deck terrace as well as frame the landscape views, like an Ivon Hitchen’s painting.


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PRIVATE HOUSES Type 3B, Lower Mill Estate

A variant of one of the standard houses designed for Lower Mill Estate.

A two storey house at the front, three storey at the rear concealed by a folding seamed metal roof.

A spiral stair along one side replaces the forestair of the standard design, whilst a giant loggia encloses long balconies on the fi rst and attic storey. The house is located along the edge of Somerford Lagoon.


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PRIVATE HOUSES Type 4B, Lower Mill Estate

Conversion of one of the standard houses for Lower Mill Estate, with the ground fl oor loggia in-fi lled.

Built along the banks of Somerford Lagoon, the house, unlike others, has an external pool with vertical timber boundary fencing along two sides.

Kitchen and living area open out onto a large deck terrace under a double height loggia.


109

PRIVATE HOUSES The Observatory House,Lower Mill Estate

Designed for a client at Lower Mill Estate, the house is basically a square, three storey stone tower house with projecting loggia, balcony and roof terrace.

The observatory occupies a corner of the roof terrace with access by external steps which are themselves connected to the fi rst fl oor.


110

PRIVATE HOUSES Villa, Antigua

Villa in Antigua located on a spectacular acropolis of rock rising along the edge of the ocean.

Traditional in conception, the house has a large stepped living room with bedroom on the fi rst and attic storey.

A wide two storey gallery encircles the house.

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A dogleg house in plan with splayed ground fl oor loggia leading off the kitchen/dining area.

The ground fl oor rooms have generous sliding windows, whilst the main bedroom has a balcony projecting out from an enclosing loggia.

A folded seamed metal roof provides a sculptured character to the house.This is one of the standard houses at Lower Mill Estate.


PRIVATE HOUSES Type 2, Lower Mill Estate

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PRIVATE HOUSES Country house, Shipbourne

Large extension to an existing house at Shipbourne. A seven bay front, fl anked by chimneys, with a cupola centred over the main hall.

The entrance hall, a grand, double height space, divides living room from dining room as well as connects on both fl oors with the existing house to the rear.

The brick façade with pilastered ground storey is built in a Flemish bond

114

PRIVATE HOUSES Villa, Bahrain

A villa designed for a site on Jeddah Island for the Prime Minister of Bahrain. Located on an acropolis of rock along the edge of the Persian Gulf, the main house is a three storey building with projecting two storey wings enclosed by pergola terraces, landscaped gardens and an encircling stone curtain wall along the entrance. Structural Engineers were ACE (Athens).

115

PRIVATE HOUSES Villa, Lower Mill Estate

House for a private client at Lower Mill Estate. Set on the edge of one of the lakes, it’s a three storey house, with projecting two storey wings with roof terracing.

At the ground fl oor a lap pool, eco-pool and deck terracing pin-wheel around the sunny side of the house. An ashlared stone wall provides a privacy screen from the shared access road to the south.

116

PRIVATE HOUSES Country house, Sevenoaks

A two storey house of stone and timber complete with a large basement area accommodating a pool and gym and ancillary space.

An external stair gives access to a roof top storey, deck terrace and planted roof. The roof of the study extends over the roof terrace forming a grand loggia when seen from the entrance side.

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PRIVATE HOUSES: Somerford Villa

Designed for a client at Lower Mill Estate, the villa stands on the edge of the peninsula projecting out into Somerford Lagoon.

The fi rst of the Landmark Houses, the entrance elevation has a traditional hole-in-the-wall character, whilst the lakeside edge has a two storey galleried loggia, projecting single storey ‘orangery’ and spacious roof terrace with study.A three storey high central void is lit by a roof cupola.


120

PRIVATE HOUSES Country House, Chelsfi eld

A replacement house, entered at fi rst fl oor level across a canopied footbridge.

The entrance opens onto a double height hall and dining area, a dogleg stair leads down to the ground fl oor, with kitchen, breakfast room, central dining room and living room. The stairs give access to a basement room, with ancillary accommodation.

Whilst the front façade is regular and formal, the rear has a series of single and two storey volumes skewed in plan to take account of the landscape views beyond.


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PRIVATE HOUSES Country House, Sevenoaks

It’s a small extension with a big scale achieved by the angled walls and butterfl y roof opening up the glazed garden elevation with its balcony and deck terrace to the views beyond. A curving balcony projects out on the existing gabled end at fi rst fl oor. The fi rst fl oor gabled end of the existing is covered in shiplap boarding. The new extension and terraces are rendered.

Colin Toms & Partners are the Structural Engineers.

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EDUCATION

Studied architecture and urban design at the Northern Polytechnic, London and the Accademia Britannica, Rome. Studied sculpture at St. Martins School of Art.• Awarded RIBA Prize for Final Year Examinations and also awarded the Rome Scholarship in Architecture. Member of the RIBA. Member of the Kent Architecture Centre Design Panel. Member of The Academy of Urbanism.

TEACHING

Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia; University College, Dublin; Universitat Stuttgart; the Universite Catholique de Louvain; the Polytechnic of the South Bank; Technische Hochschule, Aarchen and the Prince’s Foundation.• External Examiner for RIBA at various architectural schools including Universities of Cambridge, Sheffi eld, Kingston, Westminster and Edinburgh for Degree and Postgraduate courses. • Lectured in Conservation Studies and Urban Design at Brixton School of Building (later the University of the South Bank).

PUBLISHING

Published The Georgian House (Bishopsgate Press); The Book of Buildings (Michael Joseph, Guide Bleu; Otto Mair and Van Noostrand Reinhold); The Shell Book of Cottages (Michael Joseph). Articles and work published in various magazines including The Architectural Review; Architecture Today; Bauwelt; Japan Architect; RIBA Journal; Casabella; (including a series of articles on conservation) L’Architettura, etc. Contributed many articles on Townscape for The Architectural Review.

COMPETITIONS AND ARCHITECTURAL AWARDS

RIBA Award for Epping Forest Civic Offi ces; Progressive Architecture Award for Villa Vazone; Architecture Design Silver Medal for Christmas Steps, Bristol etc. First place in numerous architectural and urban design competitions including 60-hectare masterplan for Kleinzschocher, Leipzig and 80-hectare international urban design competition for Bertalia-Lazzaretto District, Bologna. Urban Design Magazine Award for masterplanning work for Lower Mill Estate.

THE PRACTICE

Richard Reid is a Director of Richard Reid and Associates, a practice based in Sevenoaks, Kent. The practice were masterplanners for the 60 hectare district of Kleinzschocker, Leipzig, Germany for the City of Leipzig and are currently masterplanners and Chief Architect for the Lower Mill Estate, a development of 575 holiday houses and ancillary accommodation set amongst a landscape of lakes near Cirencester. The practice is also working on the masterplan and urban design for an 80-hectare site on the edge of Bologna, Italy for the City of Bologna and University of Bologna. The practice are also masterplanners and urban designers for Northfl eet Embankment, a 73-acre site being planned for SEEDA, on the edge of Gravesend.

The work of the practice has been included in numerous exhibitions at the Royal Academy, the Heinz Gallery, the RIBA and V&A, London. Two of the studio projects were included in the Royal Academy Touring Exhibition of Contemporary British Architecture to the USA during 1994/5.

RICHARD REIDProfessional experience

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PRIVATE SECTOR CLIENTS – UK

Balfour BeattyBattle Abbey SchoolBeechcroft DevelopmentsBeezer HomesBellway HomesBerkley HomesBryant HomesBulgariThe Burrell CompanyConservation BuildersCostain HomesCrown GolfFairclough Homes LtdFairview Homes LtdFirst Leisure CorporationFraser Wood Properties Grosvenor Waterside Group PlcJames Smith Estates PlcLiberty Properties PlcLink FinancialLower Mill Estate LtdThe Osborne GroupPeel InvestmentsThe Peer GroupSainsbury PlcSanton CapitalSt. David’s PlcSt. Georges PlcSevenoaks SchoolTaylor WoodrowTesco Stores PropertyTribute HomesWimpy

PUBLIC SECTOR CLIENTS

British Waterways BoardCardiff Bay Development CorporationCardiff Community Housing AssociationThe Corporation of the City of LondonDepartment of the Environment Epping Forest District CouncilHackney Borough CouncilKent Architecture CentreKent County CouncilLondon Docklands Development CorporationLothian and Edinburgh Enterprise LtdMaidenhead and District Housing AssociationManchester City CorporationMoat Housing AssociationThe National TrustSouth East of England development AgencySevenoaks District CouncilStates of JerseyThamesmead TownWest Kent Housing AssociationWiltshire County Council

NON-UK CLIENTS

City Of BolognaCity of LeipzigCity of SienaThe Housing Bank, BahrainThe H.T. Fok Group of CompaniesKuo International LtdOECD, Paris,University of BolognaUniversity of Calabria

CLIENT LIST(Private houses clients not included)

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www.directdesign.co.uk

Whitley FarmIde Hill, SevenoaksKent, TN14 6BS

[email protected] +44 (0)1732 741417www.richardreid.co.uk

Richard Reid and Associates

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