Edgley Design Mission Statement

Our aim is to design simple, beautiful contemporary spaces and buildings that are a pleasure to occupy and which are adaptable to the needs and personalities of the people that use them, and that have a minimum impact on their environment, both in the short term of their construction, and in the long term of their aesthetic and physical impact on their surroundings and in their long term sustainability.

There is much talk about conservation of energy, which is of course a vital issue in the design of buildings, but I also feel that the material impact of buildings on their environment is an important issue. In the last 50 years we have designed buildings that are designed to resist nature, with glass and metal skins that need to be frequently cleaned to preserve their newness, and their aesthetic perfection. We have drifted from the timeless understanding of weathering, and the design of buildings which develop a patina and aesthetic through exposure to nature. This comes down to a simple concept of buildings which are part of nature, rather than an opponent to nature. In the high tech boom of the latter 20th Century we all believed that science and technology could beat nature- we have now discovered that this is all too true and we need to respect nature and work within our environment, rather than repress it.

I also believe that this can be a positive influence on architecture and design. We used to live in a world where we made economic use of natures resources in a far more sustainable way than we do today- the power of rivers ground our corn, wind powered our oceanic transport and timber grown above ground heated our houses (releasing carbon captured during the life of the tree, rather than carbon locked underground in fossil fuels). A return to these principles can reduce the cost of living, and reduce our dependence on energy supplies on a national scale, increasing personal independence.

On a material level, buildings which age beautifully need less maintenance, and are more likely to be reused and adapted, which is all too apparent with the Londoner’s love of Georgian and Victorian housing and comparative lack of emotional attachment to the decaying panellised buildings of the mid 20th century. These old terraced houses are often very basic, but their simple construction allows great flexibility and adaptation, allowing spaces to be altered or even added to modernise the buildings. The average ex council house, however, is often built in a way which makes any kind of structural alteration a dangerous impractibility, coupled with stingy space standards which reduce the basic appeal of the spaces and bad detailing with weathering details removed in an attempt to create a simplified minimal aesthetic.

If we can find modern techniques for building housing that are more responsive to these issues, then we will create buildings which last longer, and this in itself will make these buildings hugely more environmentally sustainable, as an enormous amount of energy is embodied in the construction of a building, and every time we rebuild we consume enormous resources of energy and material. This does not mean re-creating traditional buildings- modern, light filled interiors and clean exteriors have much more to offer than cramped and dark Victorian houses- it is simply a recognition that we need to adjust modern design to create buildings which have the longevity of London’s 19th and 18th century terraces.

Many of these concepts are tied to an idea of building using natural materials and simple construction techniques. Natural materials such as timber, brick and stone are more likely to weather and age, and are also more climatically responsive allowing buildings to breath naturally, avoiding the need for mechanical ventilation and air conditioning when used correctly. Indeed, these concepts are equally applicable to all building types- why, in London’s temperate (and let’s face it, often pretty chilly) climate do we construct buildings that need to be air conditioned every day of the year? It should be possible to reduce our dependence on mechanical climate control to a minimum, needed only to deal with extremes of climate. As with all these issues, there are fringe benefits in that a naturally ventilated space is far more pleasant to live in.

Another benefit to these themes is that by designing buildings that are conceived in a simple way, making the most of the space that they occupy and the materials that go into their construction, we make the most economic use of resources, and I believe exciting modern buildings can be created on modest budgets if they are carefully designed.

This leads me to a simple description of the buildings that we intend to design- simple but intelligent buildings which are a part of the natural world which they inhabit, both technically and aesthetically, which are designed to mellow with age, becoming with age objects with more patina and character than can be built new.

There is much to explore and experiment with, and many of these issues will never be resolved, rather requiring constant cycles of improvement. This, however, is the exciting challenge which faces our generation of architects and designers.