This project was a real joy to work on, a combination of great ideas, a lovely client, unique design and quality materials.
The customer wanted a studio to run his record label First Word Records and UK Bandcamp from, so we talked through all the different ideas and what came to light was the importance of having a solid build that would last for generations, brickwork is a great option for that. These studios need a little more budget than most of the timber frames we build as they require more time on site, more tradespeople involved and a more extensive construction process.
We started by levelling the garden and pouring a concrete ringbeam on which to lay all the brickwork. We went for a modern cavity wall style design with matching London Yellow Stock bricks on the exterior facade and thermalite blocks on the inside wall with cavity insulation and gap. This gives us a really strong, highly insulated building that will need very little heating.
One of the clients main design choices was for a Crittall style window and door combination, so we looked into it and found a supplier called The Heritage Window Company that could manufacture to our design and spec. The windows are striking and influenced how we designed the rest of the job. Material choice is a huge aspect of any building and can be the difference between average and excellence.
We used our normal flat roof design and chose Galvanised Steel trims from a company called Cladco who made our profile Fascias. We are really happy with the finish and the service.
The interior was plastered and painted and the electrician installed plenty of plug sockets for all the music equipment alongside a phone line for the internet.
Another significant feature of this job was the Oak Herringbone floor. It really bought the room to life and as it is a small space it didn’t add a great deal of time to the job, however it did give the room an original feature it deserved.
One of our favourite aspects of this job was making all the fitted furniture from Birch ply, this consisted of a bench seat so you can perch in the window, a desk and bespoke units for the turntables and CDJs. This meant the client could use the space – which isn’t our biggest studio – in an efficient and well ordered way. Its a wonderful feeling to build a job from pouring concrete in a hole in the ground right up to fitted furniture - the complete build.
The client also opted for a shed space over more studio space, so we made this from timber and set it back from the main elevation of the build but still tied it in with the Galvanised fascia for continuity.
N.B the bricks in the photo are not White. This is a process called efflorescence and is natural salt in the bricks working its way to the surface. It is a one time process and brushes off.