Adlard Architects

House Adlard rear facade building progression

2011-11-16T18:27:00.001+02:00

03.2010 This is what we started with.

02.2011 Heavy overhang, deep shadows, mean little steel windows, rusting downpipes and exposed soil pipes, tatty timber cladding replaced with light, new plumbing reticulation, repaired and painted walls, recycled and new sashes, exposed timber frame as trellis for wisterias.

Exposed timber frame, no balustrade, roof sheets stop short. The efffect is a sort of tunnel that never felt comfortable. The composition of the facade remains clumsy.

New transfer beam and wall brackets, new balustrade, timber frame cut away and falling.

Frame removed.

Elegant, floating roof and period balustrade, exposed timber structure and white columns being removed. The gable above is suddenly visible.

Same view as photo 3. Far better building edge and massing.

Showing new roof extent and structure.

16.11.2011 - Revised elevation is gracefully composed and breaks the facade down into clearly differentiated and understandable zones whilst enhancing the spaces within and vastly improving the space of the garden and the flow from the verandah to the lawn terrace. The revised roof structure is elegant and the uninterrupted space between the eaves and the balustrade celebrate the verticality of the tall facade whilst accentuating the horizontal rather than the more traditional post-and-beam and brookylace victorian balcony option which would have replicated the boxiness of the previous exposed timber structure.

Contact

2011-10-26T22:05:00.001+02:00

Please don't hesitate to contact Adlard Architects at:
1 Frances Street, Grahamstown, 6139
Tel: +27 466224495
Mobile/Cell: +27 826863479
Fax: +27 866249167
Email: padlard@global.co.za

Introduction

2011-10-26T22:02:00.003+02:00

The blog exists in lieu of a proper website but perhaps offers a more personal introduction to the rather formal professional world of the architect.

Peter Adlard practices as a sole practitioner - enjoying the freedom to craft architecture that conforms to his own exacting standards.

Educated at Selborne College in East London and the University of Cape Town, registering as a Professional Architect in South Africa in 2001, Peter has worked in London, Portsmouth(UK), San Antonio(USA), Brisbane(Aus), Cape Town(ZA), East London(ZA) and Grahamstown(ZA). His experience is broad, ranging from hotels, business parks, retail centres, community centres, mixed use developments and top-end residential design, to low-income housing. Current work includes the full spectrum of architectural services in private residential, institutional master-planning and design, as well as urban regeneration, heritage and sustainability advocacy.

Long time

2011-08-22T09:09:00.006+02:00

It's been a LONG time since the last post - my wife was sent to Cape Town for a four-month stint at UCT/Red Cross, with two days' notice, and I went with her, we returned in June to the Grahamstown Festival, where I performed as part of the Spiritfest, and the accompanying procession of guests has only recently returned home.

Things keep ticking along sluggishly in the rural hinterland! More masterplanning for the new rector of the COTT:

College's Estates building occupied at last

2010-12-13T11:58:00.005+02:00

This is the finished College of the Transfiguration's new estates building which, after an epic six months of completing snags, has been occupied by the grounds department. Not a bad result considering it was built by unskilled labour - at about R4000.00 per square meter in the end.

This building is the same as that shown in the 2009 post 'College slowly progressing' - the end building. Another two of the same size are to be attached to this one, the middle building stepped back as a new entrance building for the College. The 2009 sketch shows this effectively. Unfortuynately the loading bay to allow storage in the trusses was lost to cost-saving, and the gable replaces the expressed eaves of the model to facillitate joining to a second building at a later stage. The next step will be to build the driveway...

End result

2010-12-13T11:41:00.003+02:00

And this how it turned out - an amalgam of the two options. We kept the concrete structure at the left, as a new bedroom with a lounge and guest bathroom/en-suite and converted the deteriorated timber structure at the right into a double-storey pergola ver which three wysterias are now growing to give shade in summer and light in winter. The flooring of the old structure has been recycled as a beautiful, gleaming red meranti deck. All that is needed now is the replica Victorian balustrade and a housewarming party!

The street elevation has a new low stone wall with columns and a white picket fence for privacy.
On the right hand side is a solid wall to shield the garden and terraced water feature behind from the street. The 4m verge will revert to grass and possibly an acacia tree or two (anything else will be eaten by donkeys and cows).

End of year reprieve

2010-12-06T09:31:00.003+02:00

At last an exhausting and frustrating year is drawing to a close. Let's hope the world economy turns the corner over the Christmas season and that next year we can do business again...

Options

2010-03-05T16:09:00.003+02:00

There are two options or the resolution of our house's back side - alteration or demolition. These are the images. Alteration involves closing in the existing structure about the staircase and opening up the bathroom wing as a verandah. Demolition involves gross removal of the structure and re-introduction of the probable original decorative timber verandah.

Conundrum.

Masterplan

2010-02-09T15:29:00.003+02:00

Here's the right half of a masterplanning drawing used in 2008 to determine current and future space usages and future buildings required for the College of the Transfiguration. The building currently under construction is at top right.

Bhisho Office proposal

2010-02-09T15:09:00.004+02:00

For a private developer, a five-day project to put a proposal together for goverment offices in King Williams Town. 5900sqm of accomodation altering an industrial warehouse site.

The stump

2010-01-28T15:10:00.002+02:00

I dug out this picture from my phone of the tree stump that had to be dug out before work could start on the COTT buildings - it took two TLB's and one bulldozer and had to be removed with a low-bed trailer...

We've moved

2010-01-28T14:25:00.003+02:00

We've moved! One year afer moving into 4 Harrismith we've bought 1 Frances Street, Grahamstown. All other contact details stay the same.

Speed Wobble

2009-11-25T17:03:00.003+02:00

The hardware store cut a corner and provided a product with a similar name, made by another manufacturer but an entirely incorrect product application, to site.

The builder didn't read his documentation and didn't wonder why the thick black waterproofing goo specified was suddenly a transparent water-resistant liquid.

Effectively 1/4 of the above-ground walls have been rendered semi-water-repellant with a product that won't allow the waterproofing goo to adhere to it. The walls have to come down and be re-built. What fun!

Racing out of the Ground

2009-11-13T15:55:00.003+02:00

This is the first of three parts of the College of the Transfiguration's new building works. This project was blogged previously, with a sketch and a 3D image. This photo is from the same end as the 3D. The job comprises workshops, storage, office space, change-rooms and hazardous materials storage. Phase two will start in a week's time - offices for administration staff. The work's taken seven weeks to get out of the ground after what has been called Grahamstown's biggest tree stump had to be removed with a bulldozer, three back-actors/TLB's and a low-bed trailer. It left such a hole that the foundations were trippled in depth. The contractor's doing a stirling job, considering it's his second building in charge, and he's back on schedule. So, he gets the contract for the second the second building as a prize. Not bad for an empowerment contract.

Verona Marmomacc

2009-10-26T18:44:00.009+02:00

Hosted by Veronafiere in Verona, Italy, from the 28th of September to the 5th of October every year, Marmomacc is the world's primary stone industry fair. I was awarded a bursary by Veronafiere and the South African Institute of Architects to attend a course called 'designing in natural stone'. Perhaps a more pertinent title would have been 'overwhelmed by natural stone', and I attach pictures of some of my favourites. It's impossible to show them all as there were fields of stone blocks at production facilities, which are cut to slabs for the 'dimensioned stone' business - kitchens, floors, walls, or are used for sculpture. Much inspired, and now armed to the teeth with knowledge I would have spent decades gleaning from journals and internet sites, I now aim to come good on my promise to myself two and half years ago to revive the stone building industry in Grahamstown. It'll be nothing like the industry in Italy, but then they have a few thousand years' head start, and much softer stones!

Success....of a nature

2009-09-14T22:16:00.003+02:00

Standing on a single-skin timbrel dome of 14mm thick tiles. Seems to hold, but am standing VERY still as it's asymmetrical and hasn't been completed at the crown...

Design for DSG

2009-08-03T10:55:00.004+02:00

This is a quick design bumped out to pitch for work for the local private girls' junior school...unsuccesfully, but it taught me a great deal about arches, Palladio and Georgian architecture...also gave me something to do ;-)

Back to basics

2009-07-20T11:38:00.005+02:00

Due to the massive slow-down in building being experienced here, and the soaring costs of steel and concrete, I've started researching a system of construction that has never been used in ZA, but was used at the turn of the last century on the eastern seaboard of the USA by a Spanish immigrant architect-turned-builder to construct the superstructures of many of the 'states's iconic civic buildings.

This also ties into my dad's suggestion that there might be a low-cost building system out there that can be built one storey at a time - ie a flat roof construction that is strong enough to support further levels.

This wouldn't do that, but if I can make it work, it would effectively be a flat dome/arch/vault that is strong enough, with future dwarf-buttressing and fill above, to support another level or two or three...

These images show phase one. If you look carefully there is no formwork for this dome, which is the what makes it cheap and quick to construct - in theory. In truth it's proving to be very complicated mathematically as the radii need to match the building unit module, which has unknown and implicit implications on the angle at which the dome can spring, and size of the dome.

I will get it right someday - hopefully tomorrow. I'm going to re-hire a tile cutter and cut these tiles down to effectively increase the scale of the model. Once I've succeeded I'll send my findings to MIT for their consideration - refer their 'Guastavino Project'.

PS This dome under construction collapsed as I tried to take it apart having realised that my radii/model scale were wrong. The MIT student who published his successful dome was also wrong and I will enlighten him accordingly ;-)

Town planning

2009-07-20T11:18:00.007+02:00

This is the cathedral at the centre of Grahamstown. The Dean of the Cathedral wants to pedestrianise the square. These images show his suggestion of a traffic circle, the square partly pedestrianised, and the necessary links to support spaces adjacent to this initiative.

Apparently this is not a new idea, and would have been done five years ago if the council had been able to scrape together a paltry R500! The prposal is now threatened by a marked increase in traffic across this square, and proposed densification will hurt the scheme further. The real issue is a lack of political engagement with the CBD, a lack of vision and leadership - not from the new generation of planners but from the councillors and city manager.

Extensions/Alterations

2009-07-20T11:10:00.003+02:00

My first opportunity to design in Port Alfred! A large holiday house that the owners want to extend to cater for another five beds. These designs show a similar attitude to the make-over - access on the right (south) via an existing grand stair now inetrnalised in a glazed atrium space, a new double garage at the main living level, and aday-room extensio to maximise river views on the north above a new residential wing.

Residential make-over

2009-07-20T10:44:00.005+02:00

This is a design concept for a couple that I've not heard from since - happens all the time unfortunately - effectively I showed them how to alter their house to remedy a series of problems that they have and to add various spaces that they wanted to add. This design is totally contrary to that proposed by a local contractor, and they loved it. The problem is the price of construction these days...if only materials and contractors could be cheaper... I don't think this one will happen unfortunately...will wait and see.

The image above is a massing study of the current house. You have to walk outside from the carport at front to the side staircase and double back to enter a narrow lounge, thern turn right to reach the kitchen. The bedroom wing on the right is too narrow and cramped.

The images below show the design - the right-hand garage is a day-room with morning and afternoon light and a staircase running on the axis perpendicular to the bedroom wing, effectively bringing you from the basement to the kitchen directly. The lounge is larger without structural changes being made, the staircase/passageway goes straight through the house, and up onto a terrace that gives access to a new main bedroom wing at back left and a large garden gazebo and pool. The result is a clean, modern, easily legible home.

College slowly progressing

2009-07-20T10:14:00.004+02:00

Work on the College of the Transfiguration's latest additions is slowly progressing - an Admin building, Estates workshop and Offices building, all under one roof, have been on the cards for several months. As soon as the title deeds from 1880-odd can be traced we'll have planning permission and will sart on the Estates building - slowly;-)

Fair of Verona

2009-06-15T08:38:00.003+02:00

I've been given a bursary by the South African Institute of Architects, sponsored by the Fair of Verona to attend a five day course on advanced use of stone in architecture in Verona, Italy, in September/October 2009!

I'll be learning how to choose stone for various uses, how to quarry stone, shape and package it, hang it, mount it, export it, market it. I'll be taken on tours of Palladean masterpieces and towns, and will be able to browse exhibitions and sales stalls for everything from product to massive quarrying machines...will report in shortened form in October...:-)

Renovated and in

2009-04-21T13:01:00.004+02:00

This is the home we're in - have been for two months already. Feel free to drop in and pay us a visit at any time ;-)

Moving

2009-01-21T12:37:00.004+02:00

We're slowly altering a house to move into. Our telephone was 'transferred' 0n the 2nd of Jan but there's still no physical line, so I don't know how many people have decided I'm an uncommunicative idiot by now.

The house shown in pre-alteration state under 'Masterplanning' below - third photograph down.

We've re-done the bathroom and the kitchen and painted throughout and outside, sanded the floors and re-wired. We'll be renting this property for a year, and hopefully then extending it to suit the requirements of the Rector of the College and moving on.,.

Malling Forward

2008-12-08T16:24:00.004+02:00

This model was created for Pierre Ranchod, a local developer. I haven't heard a peep from him since he took the design...?!

Pretty cool though! Of course the blue river is really a weedy stream in a concrete channel, but it's an 'artist's impression'!

School Hall?

2008-12-08T15:45:00.002+02:00

Oatlands Preparatory's outgoing principal desperately wanted to give her governing body the gift of a design for a hall as her school currently utilizes a basement for their 250 children to meet. 4.5hours later, after several meetings and the input of Peter Ellis, structural, and Peter May,quantity surveyor, we presented the proposal to a divided governing body...let's see what comes of that...

Masterplanning

2008-10-24T10:30:00.006+02:00

The Anglican Seminary for southern Africa, the College of the Transfiguration, amalgamated several years ago from the old St Peter's and others in other parts of the country, has been neglected for some time.

This project is evolving as we go, comprising an assessment of the state and extent of existing property and infrastructure, a growth plan/wish-list and strategy, and a masterplan of spaces, connections and existing and future buildings required in order to meet the stated objectives of the growth strategy. All very exciting ;-)

So far I've crawled around on my hands and knees taking measurements of the buildings. Next we'll build an extension to some old building stock to house immediate office/admin demand, add a computer and printing zone with server.

To date we've saved the COTT approximately R11 million. Job well done, and the end result, eventually, will be a huge improvement, encompassing fourteen erven and more buildings than I'd care to mention.

Needless to say the masterplan is too large to import to Blogger.

I'll post images of buildings as they're altered.

Vive la France!

2008-10-24T10:12:00.006+02:00

Hse Scheepers is about to go into full-blown production mode.

This house extension/alteration has the potential to win awards! Stunning existing house, stunning client, excellent brief...watch this space!

Bishopsbourne

2008-09-18T16:19:00.003+02:00

The Bishop of Grahamstown's residence. This started as an en-suite and is now a renovation/alteration exercise including two new bathrooms, refurbishment of the windows, a future-planning exercise, new kitchen. This should bless the new Bishop's socks off, seeing as he has no idea of what's being done as he's not here yet ;-)

Retail Display Building

2008-09-18T16:01:00.004+02:00

Speculative design for a retail display building.

Hogsback center development

2008-08-22T17:03:00.004+02:00

A speculative sketch design for the creation of a village centre for the Hogsback - to include health spa, retail, retirement, medium density and single residential housing.

The financials involved were fantastic. Perhaps in the future this might get off the ground.

House Van Zumeren design - 2007

2008-08-22T16:37:00.004+02:00

Designed while a partner in Native Architecture, East London, this design is based on the platform of an existing beach house (above), which is roughly square, with an extra wing extending along one side boundary.

The brief was to design with 'boxes' in 'boxes', to open up as much of the facade to face the sea, and to include: a master bedroom and private lounge, main lounge, tv room, kitchen and scullery in the main structure, with four children's bedrooms in the wing, as well as a four-car garage.

All on a very small plot in Kwelera, east of East London.

The building plans are approved but the client has occupied the existing structure and is struggling to envisage the process of moving, building, and moving back in again.

House Dick, Hogsback, 2006 -2008

2008-08-22T15:16:00.007+02:00

Built high in the Hogsback by Peter Jordaan of Indlovu Thatch, East London, this retirement home is the response to a compreshensive brief prepared by the Dicks and to an incredible site - a platform near the top of a 60 degree slope surrounded by pine forests and mature gardens of carefully - selected azaleas.

The house has living areas - lounge, study, guest bedroom and bathroom and master bedroom with a walk-through closet and en-suite - on the upper level; with the kitchen, pantry, scullery and double garage on the lower level along with a large workshop.

The effect of the first floor is amazing- the master bedroom has butt-jointed safety glass corner windows (the structural engineer didn't enjoy the project;->) and the lounge has sliding stacking aluminium glazing. The tree-house like effect opens onto a vista that stretches to the lights of Grahamstown!

Built for approximately R1.6million and valued at R3.6million, the Dicks are happy with the outcome.

Due to the remoteness of the site and the labour-only contract (the Dicks undertook to supply all materials) there was some tension towards the end of the contract. There was no JBCC PBA contract in place between the clients and contractor, by choice, and that created difficulty in tying up the loose ends after the Dicks took occupation of the building.

I would have liked a different paint colour - more earthy - and the outcome would have been even better had the stone cladding to the garage door surrounds and lower entrance walls been included.

All in all, though, the Dicks and their neighbours are very happy, which is what counts!