Digging deep with award-winning architects Paul Archer Design

Paul Archer Design is an award-winning London-based architectural practice with more than two decades’ experience in transforming existing houses into beautiful, functional homes.

Emil Neumann studied at Braunschweig Technical University, in Germany, before joining Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands in London. At Paul Archer Design he is committed to the conversion of a client’s requirements into exceptional home design.

Emil Neumann from Paul Archer Design

What should homebuyers wanting a renovation project look out for?

Be clear about what your priorities are because there are always elements of the house you can change and elements you cannot. Get your list of priorities right. Don’t make the list too long.

Don’t be scared by a house that needs the fundamentals fixed. Things like rising damp, a leaking roof, rewiring or a new heating system can seem massive, but often if you are planning a full refurbishment these things we will rectify as part of the renovation works anyway. Don’t be too worried by these sorts of things.

When’s the right time to find an architect?

Even if you haven’t found a house yet, speak to at least two architects. A good architect is always happy to sit down for an hour to talk and listen. You have to work with your architect for a year or two, so it’s important that you get on well.

Great architects will ask you: why are you renovating or re-designing a house? Why are you moving? Who will be living in the house? What will they be doing there? These questions are about how people want to live, and the resulting conversations are what make it personal, a home renovation project not a building project.

When is the right time to talk about money?

Please, please don’t be afraid to speak about your budget with an architect. I understand people being reticent about playing their hand, for fear we’ll spend all your budget, but I assure you that is not how it works. Honest conversations about budget and what something can and will cost can’t happen soon enough. I don’t want anyone to buy a house with the false idea that you can get something done for 150k if it needs 400k. Have these conversations before you put an offer in.

Lawrie Park Gardens. Photo Credit @ Dylan Collard

There is also a wellbeing side to talking openly about money. Do you want to spend the next six months or year of your life worrying about if you’re going to go over budget, or do you want to make realistic decisions about the scale and detail of the renovation up front, be happy with your choices, and then enjoy the project, knowing it is costed and affordable? The two different scenarios are the difference between happiness and stress.

Another answer to this question would be that the right time to talk about money is the same time you talk about timeframe, because both elements are massively important to you, the client.

Timeframe…

To get enjoyment out of the process, you need to look after your pot of money, you also need to make sure you have the time available to dedicate to the project. If you can allow yourself more time, you are more likely to stay on budget, because you won’t make any rash decisions. Most people when pushed for time go for the more expensive option.

The question is not ‘how quickly can we start building work?’ but ‘when do we want to finish?’ Starting six weeks later might mean the same completion date and less stress because you have spent extra time planning and budgeting precisely.

How do homeowners wanting to refurb make sustainability a reality not a phrase?

I meet many homeowners who are committed to the idea of sustainability. A really good thing is to understand embodied energy. We can look at a house’s energy use, but then we can look at embodied energy, which is the amount of energy used to produce everything in the building, including the mining, manufacturing and transporting the materials.

It is one thing to build a house that uses very little energy, but often that building is made of materials replete with embodied energy and that are impossible to recycle down the line. Concrete has a lot of embodied energy. We are doing a project right now using an alternative product, which is like a compressed foam glass for the floor. You can’t eliminate the use of concrete entirely (it is still needed in foundations) but we’re going to eliminate probably 80% of it. We eliminated all the steel, using timber or glulam, which captures carbon and can be recycled without melting it. We are using structural stone quarried in the UK, instead of steel or concrete. The embodied energy is minimal and I am very excited about that.

St. Johns House. Photo Credit @ Rachael Smith

 What is your ideal scenario for a client?

You buy a house that you like but intend to renovate. You spend a few thousand pounds on freshening it up, move in, live in the property, see the light, experience the flow, appreciate what works and notice what doesn’t. Maybe you live like that for a year, during which you don’t pay rent and you’re paying the mortgage off. You’re not under pressure as your plans for the renovation take shape. Then when you know what you want, you move out and get the work done. The money you then spend on rent you make back on good decisions made calmly because you’re not living in a building site and you got to know the property before starting to change it.

Of course, that’s quite a rare scenario, and mostly we renovate your house for you before you move in, but I love the opportunity to talk about this ideal scenario because those clients who have done it are evangelical about the experience, personally, creatively and financially. Some people find things about the house they want to preserve, having taken time to live in it first and reduce by more than a half the scale and cost of the redesign.

Oakley House. Photo Credit @ Alex James

What is the conversation you are looking to have at the outset?

There are several ways to apply a client’s brief to a house. Ideally, I like it not to be too architectural, initially. Rather than start with, I want to take this wall out and move this door over, it is more enlightening and constructive to hear, I need plenty of space for entertaining. I want a table for 12 but at the same time I need space in the living area for my home office. It’s really the story of somebody’s life that determines architectural ideas.

Another good conversation is a client saying, Show me the simple option, the minimum that I can do, how little I can get away with, to improve flow of space and light, and show me the option where you’re all out. Then show me the option in-between, the middle ground. That’s a very healthy way of starting on a project.

Milton Pavillion. Photo Credit @ Andy Stagg

The nicest brief I have probably had was a client simply giving me a photo of his daughter’s 18th birthday. It was on their patio under a sail. It was evening, they had a barbecue going, full of people across several generations. He handed me this single photo and said, This is what I want to do at my house.

We live in a very visual world, which is great, but actually what matters is talking to us. That the spaces are going to be beautiful is a given. What really matters is creating a home that makes life better, and that’s not necessarily a photographic or Instagram thing, it’s much deeper than that, much more significant and lasting.

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