Mole Architects

Stones Throw: an extension and refurbishment of a 1970’s bungalow near the sea in Suffolk, reconfiguring the house to the sun and views. A grand space in miniature, inspired equally by the long gallery in Blickling Hall, a 1967 house by Bryan Thomas, (a Suffolk architect who died last year; see https://lnkd.in/ev3dK5Nt ) and Maggie Hambling’s sea paintings (all image 4). Stained timber joists, end grain block floor, black Belvedere marble. Photos @nickguttridge #molearchitects #suffolkcontemporaryarchitecture #inspiration

Director Meredith Bowles will be giving the Keynote speech at this year’s RIBA Guerilla Tactics Conference, the annual conference for small practices and sole practitioners. Meredith’s talk: ‘Manifesting your Future: running the practice you want to work in’ will offer insights into Mole’s success as a practice and how it came about. The key message will be that to become successful, we must imagine what that means to us and inhabit our future goal. It’s a sell-out, but Meredith looks forward to meeting delegates on the day. Illustrations: House 1, 1999. Daleham Gardens for NW3CLT 2024 The Mole team at Can Lis, Mallorca, 2024 #ribaguerillatactics #molearchitects #riba

Building of the Month// Our building of the month for October is Can Lis by Jørn Utzon. The Mole team recently visited the iconic house on Mallorca's coast as part of a wider research trip looking at housing design. Much has been documented on this house and it is identified as one of the most important houses of the 20th century. It was built in 1972, shortly after Utzon left the Sydney Opera house project , becoming his family home for some years. The building has recently been sensitively restored by architect Lise Juel. What really captured the imagination of the team was the sequence of spaces; the home is a string of pavilions set across the craggy coastline. Each “pavilion” is used for a different function – bedrooms in one, a grand living room in another, and a kitchen and dining space to the north west of the site. Partially enclosed courtyards and gaps between pavilions give you glimpses out to sea and provide pleasing & cool seating areas that lead you to the different pavilions. Understated in essence, the building is made from local sandstone, glazed tiles, local pine and clay tiled roofs, all vernacular materials from the island. Angled bay windows jut out towards the sea and point your gaze toward the horizon. Stone furniture is cast in place , as an extension of the building. Vaulted ceilings known as “bovedillas” and the double height living space in particular create wonderful proportioned rooms that makes a ceremony out of day to day living. #buildingofthemonth #teammole #molearchitects #canlis #mallorcahousing #iconichousing #spanishhouses #fieldtrip #architectureresearchtrip #jornutzonarchitecture

From the archive// Shangri-La is a self-catering holiday home on the North Norfolk coast, set in an acre of garden and backed by dunes that give access to the coast. Designed to Passivhaus standards, it has three bedrooms, a kids room, and an open plan living room that opens out onto steps to the gardens, and long views over the coastal plain towards the broads. Built and managed by Simon and Mitra, for whom we designed a house back in 2008. #molearchitects #seasidehouse #coastalarchitectureuk #passivehousestandards

As part of the upcoming AJ Small Projects launch party on 24th October in London, director Meredith Bowles will be giving an introduction and discussing our winning project from 2008, Wabi Tea House. ⁠ ⁠ The Wabi Tea House is a working pottery studio and tea house used for tea ceremonies, hosted by a qualified tea master, using raku vessels fresh from firing. Evoking a fen shack, it is built on the Japanese principle of ‘wabi-sabi’; embracing the idea of transience through a beauty that is imperfect and impermanent. ⁠ ⁠ Internally, the room is beautifully finished in clay render and natural pigments over reed lathes. From inside, views out focus on a walnut tree and a deck to sit out in the sun.⁠ “Almost all materials are reclaimed, and the client, a potter, hand-built all the joinery. The effect is delightfully imperfect, but surprisingly permanent and complete.” Ruth Slavid, Architects Journal 📸 Jim Stephenson 2018 #ajsmallprojectsawards #ajsmallproject #molearchitects #wabisabi #transientarchitecture #teaceremony #architectsjournal

On 24th October you can catch Mole founder Meredith Bowles speaking at this super event as part of the 20th Century Society’s new lecture series 🤩

Grosvenor Court is an ambitious retrofit and extension of an uninsulated 1930s mansion block. The brief was to enlarge the existing four apartments, add four more apartments in the roof and side extension, and to significantly upgrade their quality and energy performance to EnerPHit standard. We developed the technical design based on a planning scheme by Matter Architects, and worked closely with the client on site to help him meet his strict quality requirements. The existing building was externally insulated with 200mm mineral wool and clad with a new leaf of local reclaimed bricks. Extensions to the rear of the building improved the layout of the existing flats and are clad in zinc and vertical hung tiles. #molearchitects #enerphit #lowenergydesign #retrofit #cambridgearchitecture

Recently we’ve been carrying out a post occupancy evaluation on the energy performance of Alde Valley Barn, a new sustainable, low energy holiday house built within a farmyard complex near Aldeburgh in Suffolk, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The Barn combines the open simplicity of the agricultural shed with the material richness of the historic context; a simple form, timber framed and clad in brick. It is designed for groups of friends or family for social occasions, rather than for general family living. It has four bedrooms downstairs, with the upstairs open to the exposed timber framing of the shallow pitched roof. The Barn was designed incorporating Passive House principles to provide a low energy house. Now nearly in full use throughout 2024, the building has a heating demand performing to Passive House levels, requiring around 16 kWhr/m2 of heating per year. Embodied energy is reduced by the timber frame structure and the use of wood fibre insulation. LED lighting and low energy fittings reduce the electricity load on the building. The energy is supplied with an ASHP, and generated by rooftop photovoltaic panels. A Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery (MVHR) unit allows good ventilation without heat loss. Air permeability was measured at 1.98 m3/hr m2 and the overall energy used by the building is performing close to RIBA 2030 and LETI targets. We are really chuffed to see the building performing so well. Lighting @claire_spellman_lighting Interiors @cat_dal_interiors Photos @nickguttridge #lowenergyhomes #passivehouseprinciples #lowenergyhomeuk #molearchitects #contemporaryarchitecture #contemporaryarchitectureuk

We’re looking for a talented, organised, and motivated Project Architect to work in our Central Cambridge Studio, to design and lead projects through all RIBA work stages. Experience of using Vectorworks BIM, Sketchup, and Adobe Suite, would be advantageous, but not essential. Please send your CV and portfolio (The PDF should be no larger than 5MB and 10 pages) with an accompanying covering letter not greater than one side of A4 explaining how you meet the criteria and your relevant experience to [email protected] by the 28th October #Architecturejobs #Cambridgejobs #Architectsjobs

We are looking forward to seeing this one through construction on site, with our first site visit tomorrow. Cooper’s Corner is a new build house in Kent. Mole were inspired by the notion of re location and reuse, particularly in the context of the climate crisis. There is an existing house on the site which has been dismantled and the timber frame will be re-used in the construction of the new house. The house is also being built to achieve Passive House Plus certification with a large south-facing catslide roof providing shading and plenty of space for PV panels for on site renewable energy. #molearchitects #passivhaustrust #passivehousecertification #renewableenergy #ukarchitecture