News
Riach Architects are now Recruiting [21st July 2010]
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Riach Architects complete Gloucester Recycling Depot [8th July 2010]
Gloucester City Council’s Waste Recycling Depot was formally opened yesterday by the Mayor of Gloucester. Riach Architects were appointed in 2007 to work with neighbouring Gloucester City Council and site operators, Enterprise Plc to create a new purpose-built facility. The development provides facilities for the collection, sorting, bailing and processing of waste from the City of Gloucester together with administration offices, fleet maintenance facilities for over 70 vehicles and staff welfare facilites.
The practice used the expertise gained over 30 years of business park and process design to enable the new development to be shoe-horned into the existing infrastructure.
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New Life Breathed into 16th Century Barn [25th Mar '10]
Riach Architects have, this week, completed the final touches to a Grade II Listed barn, enabling the clients to move into the beautiful and sensitively restored 16th Century building.
Located behind historic Thame High Street, the project involved restoration and extension of the dilapidated barn. This involved the careful repair of the existing oak and elm frame and the use of high quality traditional materials to create a sensitive and appropriate addition to this Conservation Area.
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Riach Designs Carbon Neutral Home for Summertown Stars [22nd January 2010]
Riach Architects have worked closely with Summertown Stars Football Club to develop and agree a detailed brief leading to the evolving design for a new football pavilion.
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Riach's Creative Partnership builds Children's Outdoor Reading Room [8th December 2009]
Riach Architects won a Creative Partnerships competition to work with Great Horwood Primary School students to develop a design for an outdoor learning space within the school grounds. The finished structure was officially opened by the school last month.
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Environmental Award for Riach's Wharf House Pub [6th Oct 2009]
The Oxford Preservation Trust has today awarded an Environmental Award and plaque to Riach Architects for their 'enlightened approach' to the conservation of the former Wharf House pub.
The Trust's aim is to preserve and enhance the historic city of Oxford and it's green setting and runs the annual Environmental Award scheme in recognition of projects making a significant contribution to the conservation and improvement of the built and natural environment of Oxford.
Riach also collected an Environmental Award for Poet's Corner, and Commendations for The Buttery on Broad Street and Lime Tree Mews. See full details
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Win for Riach at RIBA [29th Sept 2009]
The winners of the RIBA Downland Prize 2009 were announced at RIBA’s Headquarters on Tuesday 22nd September.
Riach Architects were winners of the Housing award for a second year running, having won the same award for their project in the Iffley Fields Conservation area last year.
The Downland Prize is awarded to architects who are based in the South or South East RIBA Regions, for projects anywhere in the UK of under £1million total cost. The Prize celebrates the added value that an architect can bring to a relatively small project. Run by RIBA South East and RIBA South since 1998, the Downland Prize is sponsored this year by Ibstock, which has sponsored the Prize since its inception; and by the Rooflight Company.
The clients, W Lucy & Co, were particularly interested in improving the sustainable aspects of the building, aiming to achieve an ‘Excellent’ BREEAM rating [now Sustainable Homes Code 3]. They also wanted the architects to improve the design and overall sensitivity to its location, whilst creating six flats (three one-bedroom and three two-bedroom) over two storeys, including use of the roof space.
The new design replicates the properties of the street; and increases neighbourliness and security. The construction features high levels of insulation, low energy lighting and solar water heating for the upper flats.
The building was conceived as a simple, traditional arrangement of three staggered volumes. The volume respects the Victorian scale and massing of its surroundings. The materials and traditional: details create a logical, functional simplicity and give the building its crisp, contemporary air.
Downland Prize jury comments ‘The understated nature of this project enables it to blend successfully into the local vernacular, whilst retaining a contemporary style. It sits subtly between a graveyard and the gardens of a row of terraced houses, as if it has been there for some time. It is surrounded by large housing developments: the difference in quality of design is striking.’ See full details
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Riach Architects Save Historic Ivydene [22nd Sept 2009]
Ivydene, a large Victorian house which has been encased in unsightly scaffolding and ruin for almost a decade has finally been returned to its former glory yesterday. Situated in a prime location on the Iffley Road, Ivydene was built by the renowned Architect G.T. Sessions in 1884 but in recent years has been widely considered a blight to the Conservation area.
Riach Architects were instructed by client, W. Lucy and Co., to resolve the future of the building and after negotiations with local Planning and Conservation Officers gained consent for the extensive alteration and refurbishment of the property to create nine apartments.
Whilst the high quality accommodation is designed to meet the requirements of modern day life and Eco/energy efficiency, the facade has been sensitively restored and enhanced by repairing much of its original features, incorporating new timber sash windows and repairing the unique natural stone detailing.
A two-storey side extension serves to compliment the historic facade through similar architectural detailing and the purpose-built rear extension makes full use of contemporary building materials.
Douglas Riach, Principal of Riach Architects, says ’It is envisaged that the completed works and continued evolution of Ivydene will act as a catalyst for the much needed restoration of many properties within the Conservation area before this diverse mix of architectural styles falls into disrepair and is forever lost.’ See full details
