Ah Design Blog

Ah.Design to skydive for charity

Tony — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 03:58:39 +0000

Bucket List inspires a skydive for charity

So...... After a work night out and a conversation about the film “Bucket List”. We thought SKYDIVE!! How scary and hard can jumping 12,000ft out of a plane be!?!?!? Not so bad when you are doing it for a charity that help ill and disabled children and their families. So on 6th November 2010, Paula, Office Administrator, Dave, Project Technologist and Martin, Construction Manger are taking the plunge for Naomi House. Naomi House is a purpose-built children's hospice for central southern England. Respite and terminal care are offered to children with life-threatening conditions and their families at no charge to them.

We really need everyone’s support so that we can make a real different to Naomi’s House. We are trying to raise £1000.00 for the charity and by visiting www.justgiving.com/ahdesignskydive you can donate to the cause or even by popping into the office and putting your name down. Everyone in the office would appreciate it and so would Naomi House. Go to www.naomihouse.org.uk and have a look at the great work that they do.

Rotating House Gains Planning Permission

tony — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 05:05:09 +0000

Engineer and inventor Robin Hamilton has pioneered a Rotund building that is part house, part machine.

Planning permission was granted due to it’s ground breaking nature and future self builders would struggle to achieve planning permission. The rotund building – part house, part machine – is the brainchild of engineer and inventor Robin Hamilton.
Its unique rotating design means it will be self-sufficient in terms of generating and storing its own energy and will be partly made from reclaimed tyres and other sustainable materials. Taking two years to build in a landscaped quarry near Ashbourne in Derbyshire, the property will boast extensive flexible open plan accommodation spread across three storeys. The 700-tonne dwelling will be mounted on rollers on a railway track and will revolve to capture energy from the sun and wind, the latter processed by a new low-speed design of wind turbine.

Whatever next.... try http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/up/

Chine Walk Build Blog

tony — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:20:32 +0000

Chine Walk Build Blog: Here's our build blog for Jon and Rachel's project in Ferndown, Dorset.

You can view the case study for this project by clicking here

17 Oct 09: We are due to start this project on the 1st November, and we are currently busy producing the detailed drawings necessary for this challenging build. There are plenty of areas that need careful consideration and we are going into a lot of detail with the drawings, to make sure that the structure and fabric come together easily on site without any major complications. We have already completed the Building Regulation drawings and these have been submitted to Building Control for approval. We will continue to add to this blog as the project proceeds.

New brochure for September 2009

tony — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 08:56:45 +0000

We have a new brochure for September 2009 designed by Campbell Rowley, our marketing and advertising consultants in Bournemouth.

Planners have gone mad!

tony — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:31:00 +0000

It's official. The planners have gone completely bonkers!!!!

On a recently refused application for a modest, well designed, in proportion, loft extension and conversion, a heated discussion took place with an unnamed local planning authority. The planners are taking the hard line on home owners wanting to extend there properties, and using local policy to justify their strange decisions. We have been faced with the response that extensions that can be build under the new permitted development rights that came into force last October, restrict homeowners to extending in ways that ensure only appropriate development. When we pointed out that our client could build two full length box dormers to both side elevations without planning, the planning officer went on to state that flat roof dormers to side elevations could only be built in a way that will not result in a form of top heavy development!!!

I THINK NOT!

The solution: give up trying to design nicely proportioned roof extensions and just do the above - because you don't need planning to do it. Nice!

Flat Roof Dormers Are UGLY

tony — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:02:12 +0000

We love to hate them! Flat roof dormers. When we meet clients, there is variety of responses to the suggestion of using a flat roof dormer. the normal response is "I hate them!". This reaction is usually fuelled by previous experiences of leaky flat roofs, or because of a host of badly proportioned flat roofs which can be seen in every town and village across the country.

I do however diagree that every flat roof dormer is ugly, and a handful of our clients refreshingly agree, and if designed carefully can fit in with traditional or contemporary houses.

So this blog is about debating over the topic of the flat roof dormer, and I also wanted to opportunity post photos of good and bad examples. So over the next few months I will be keeping my camera in the car, and every opportunity I will be posting examples.... the good, the bad and the damn ugly.