This was a quick test of midjourney an AI generative design tool. This literally took 5 seconds for the AI to produce… I used the term “timber clad house on a scottish island overlooking a dark sea on a stormy day” and it made this.
We’re working on a small domestic project, playing with the design arrangement and lines….
Delighted to be starting work next week on the conversion of an old (1820’s we think) Smithy in the garden of a house in Portobello.
It’s been one of those long gestation projects…
Kieran is giving a talk at Never Enough Architecture in November.
(Like the experts title…)
Construction in progress at Silecroft Beach in The Lake District. Site visit inspecting progress of Douglas Fir rafters and partially slated roof with solar panels.
Looking forward to getting the building wind and watertight over the next few weeks before the autumn storms.
We’re working on the extension and improvement of a nursery for pre-school children in Edinburgh and are playing around with fun colourful elevations (against a rather functional building).
Playing with casting plaster into techtonic cardboard mould…
Views of lightweight timber framed Glasshouse proposal for a parkland setting in Dunblane.
The building “touches the earth lightly” on compacted hardcore mini foundations with no concrete.
Work continues on our visitor centre and beach cafe in the Lake District for Cumberland Council.
Douglas Fir rafters being installed with flitch beams in the ridge and at the plan kink.
Sea views over to the Isle of Man. It’s an exciting project for us, public, won at competition and delivered through an NEC contract run by the local authority with a full design team led by Konishi Gaffney.
We are delighted to have won an invited competition to upgrade and improve the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh. We are collaborating with conservation specialist and long-time co-conspirator Karen Nugent Architects on the Category A music venue, formerly Hope Park Chapel.
It’s a really interesting project for us: a significant public building in the centre of Edinburgh with scope for various phases of work keeping the venue open while work proceeds.
Delighted to have won Gold in the Retrofit Category at the Scottish Design Awards 2023 for our Greyfriars Charteris Centre building alterations.
This image of the award, glinting in the sunshine, in front of the project model.
Progress on our cafe and visitor centre at the Lake District’s only beach…
Artist, sample panel for sliding shutters at #silecroft beach cafe in The Lake District. The building is the result of a national architectural competition whcih we won in 2019. Boyce’s commission is part of a public art programme, Deep Time which was commissioned by Copeland Borough Council. It is curated & produced by Aldo Rinaldi and funded by HM Government’s Coastal Communities Fund, Sellafield Ltd.’s Six Social Impact multiplied programme and Arts Council of England.
Working on options for a fluted, robust facade for an exciting, historic, city-centre site.
We’re really pleased to have been shortlisted for the 2023 Scottish Design Awards for the Greyfriars Charteris Centre project.
Sunny house extension in leafy Portobello (work in progress).
Kieran gave a talk this week, together with Old School Frabrications and structural engineer Forshaw Gauld. Available on You Tube.
Model of a small timber clad house extension, stepping down to the garden.
Kieran is giving a talk on the practice’s Greyfriars Charteris Centre, Wednesday 10th May at 1pm. Along with @oldschoolfabrications and @forshawgauld
More info here:
This residential project is an innovative look at renovation and retrofitting practices.
The brief was to renovate an unusual 1970s detached house, using Enerphit principles and standards: meaning lots of insulation, airtight construction, and on-site renewable energy. The client, themselves an environmental structural engineer, had a demanding brief with minimum demolition and maximum re-use of materials to maintain the existing embodied carbon in the house. We are also implementing passive heating and cooling techniques in line with the highest standards of Enerphit practice.
Our design makes extensive improvements to the house’s existing thermal performance; the original walls are retained, whilst being wrapped in a layer of natural insulation: cork at the 1st floor and cellulose elsewhere. We have also developed a system to re-use the stone slabbing from the property’s extensively paved garden as cladding on the ground floor: working to make as close to a zero-waste project as possible. Solar shading and deep reveals to the South & West facing elevations help mitigate against overheating. And new works are low carbon, natural materials. More info on the project page here.
Technical design with Allt Environmental
10 page article on our Marlborough Street extension & refurbishment in Homes & Interiors Scotland this month.
Thanks to words by Caroline Ednie & photographs by David Barbour.
Work has started on our competition-winning seafront cafe in Silecroft, Cumbria. The cafe will enhance the already beautiful beach location by providing cafe and business facilities with a stunning views of the sea and landscape.
The contractors, Roland Hills, are working hard to bring the vision to life, with a planned opening in late summer 2023. The cafe is expected to become an important part of the community.
Konishi Gaffney has collaborated with the internationally renowned and Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Boyce on a new café and visitor centre on an exceptional beach-front site, in the Lake District National Park.
Boyce is best known for his innovative sculpture and public artworks that explore the intersection of art, design, and urban space. His work has been exhibited at venues around the world, including the Tate Modern in London and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. His approach, inspired by 20th Century Modernism, often sees work that incorporates language, pattern, and repetition of form.
The artist / architect collaboration led to sliding external shutters that provide weather protection and a distinctive pattern motif for the building. The shutters are being crafted in Glasgow by Scott Associates Sculpture & Design using marine-grade stainless steel with intricate details and will provide an ever-changing pattern of dappled light and shadow inside the building and out.
The building is the result of a national architectural competition in 2019. Boyce’s commission is part of a public art programme, Deep Time: Commissions for the Lake District Coast which was commissioned by Copeland Borough Council. It is curated & produced by Aldo Rinaldi and funded by HM Government’s Coastal Communities Fund, Sellafield Ltd.’s Six Social Impact multiplied programme and Arts Council of England.
German / Austrian Architektur Fachmagazin article on Greyfriars Charteris Centre
Grand Designs have published a lovely 10 page article written by Caroline Ednie on our Marlborough Street Villa.
Welcome to our new part 1 intern Daniel Yanez-Cunningham.
Kieran is talking today, Thursday 2.3.23 at Aberdeen University’s Scott Sutherland School of Architecture. https://www.instagram.com/fiftyseventen/
We won a national architectural competition for a new café on the beach at Silecroft Beach in the southwest corner of the Lake District National Park in Cumbria. After several covid-related delays we started on site in February 2023.
The site is overlooked by Black Combe Fell to the north and gives spectacular views across the Irish Sea towards the Isle of Man!
Picture of setting out 27th Feb 2023.
Shortlisting for the RIAS Awards 2023…
Our project for the Greyfriars Charteris Centre (a community reworking of the old church building on The Pleasance in Edinburgh) has been shortlisted for an RIAS Award for 2023. We’re really pleased, having also won one of these serious and prestigious awards for our Lockerbie Visitor Centre in 2022.
Full announcemnet on RIAS website
Photograph by the brilliant Nanne Springer
The AJ Retrofit Awards are announced.
We’ve been shortlisted in the Health and Community Category.
The full shortlist is as follows:
Ulster Hospital Macmillan Unit by Avanti Architects
RSBC Centre by EPR Architects
Maidstone Bus Station by Felix Lewis Architects
The Africa Centre by Freehaus
Charteris Centre by Konishi Gaffney
Kinning Park Complex by New Practice
Jubilee Pool by ScottWhitbyStudio
Low Line arches by TDO
We’re published in DETAIL Magzine.Was once our ambition to be published by DETAIL as they publish a great magazine and books, but they published our dormer project in 2015.
(Kieran used to be able to speak German, living in Berlin for three years in the mid 1990s, so is very fond of German language and culture).
