Mitigating Flood Risk with Modern Building Design

King Canute and the rising tide

King Canute’s legendary battle with nature proved that not even kings can control the tide. With environmental change and rising sea levels, we are seeing greater areas of land becoming flood zones. Globally, this shows no sign of abating. So what options are there for architects to design for this ever-evolving and unchartered territory?

Don’t retreat from the landscape

Fight or flight aren’t our only options, however. Amphibious and floating spaces allow us to build things that work in a traditional sense, maintaining the natural relationship with the surroundings. We’re offering creative solutions that don’t rely on complex technologies that could be more prone to failure or in need of specialist maintenance. Rather than a constant battle or an enforced retreat, floating and amphibious spaces serve a practical purpose, but also offer a surprising and interesting experience.

If we are to future-proof our businesses and communities, we must recongnise the future is fluid.

Quantifying the Quality of Water

An early summer day Wivenhoe Quay

Water has shaped life on the British Isles. It was the flooding of our inland rivers that, 225,000 years ago, broke off the chalk ridge which was our last remaining tether to the continent. As powerful as it is restorative, the movement of water can offer us respite from our turbulent lives.

We intrinsically long for a renewed connection with water. Even city dwellers light up their phone screens with the sight and sound of lapping waves.

What is the value of an afternoon spent watching sunlight reflect off the waves? The answer to that question is embedded in our very nature. It can be felt, but not quantified. Like the smell of seaweed on the air, or the tickle of sand between your toes, it has a quality of its own.

Maximising Space by Designing for Water

2014 floods in the Somerset Levels

Our environment is changing, but most architects are still designing buildings with the 20th century’s climate in mind. Developments must adapt, or face becoming unfit for purpose within years of their construction. As sea levels rise, water – and drought – will play an increasingly important role in our lives. Like the weather, water levels will become more unpredictable. Areas that have never seen flooding before could suddenly be hit by a deluge.

It’s not just coastal regions we should account for, either. Changing rainfall patterns mean inland flood zones will be submerged more often. Similarly, urban areas are seeing more flooding – it may not occur in a predictable pattern every year, but it does happen! To maximise the space available to us, the buildings of the future need to be resilient.

Instead of building barriers, we take a very gentle approach that respects the environment. That’s the key mindset: working with rather than against the water. This ethos allows architects to create a space where stress and anxiety levels remain low, even as the water rises.

Designing the Perfect Retreat Space

Retreats on a Scottish Loch

As the world around us changes, it’s no surprise that more and more people are desiring a chance to pause, reflect and recharge. The rising demand for wellness tourism has seen it become the fastest-growing sector in travel. By 2020, The Global Wellness Institute predicts it will be worth over $563bn.

What makes running a retreat interesting is that it isn’t about giving people what they want so much as giving them what they need. You can offer someone the chance to get in touch with a feeling that they cannot create for themselves in everyday life – and that in itself is a gift.

Creating the Workspaces of the Future

A space to create

Workplace design is still catching up with the radical transformation of modern business over the last decade. Flexible hours, remote working, freelancing and the rise of the ‘gig economy’ have coincided with new technologies and the opportunities they afford.

No matter the industry, solving problems, generating ideas, and discovering new opportunities will be key to future growth and innovation. If spreadsheets, Word documents and our inboxes fail to inspire, where will we find the stimulation for the creative work we are promised?

Commercial Architecture: Providing an Authentic Context

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” – Marcus Gavey

The most authentic thing about an organisation is also what gives it context - its story. When commercial architecture is true to its people, places, and history, it has the unique power to forge an emotional connection – a powerful tool for any organisation wanting to engage its people and customers.

Sustainable Natural Materials: Design that Endures

The cedar clad Floating Hub at St Katharine Docks

Will we continue building with concrete, knowing its environmental impact? Architects wanting to build to last should look beyond materials that contribute to global warming.

Choosing local, natural materials where possible is a solid starting point, but experience tells us the obvious answer isn’t always the most sustainable. When creating a space that is designed to last, the durability of materials will also have an impact on sustainability.

Whatever happens over the next hundred years, the planet will adapt – but will we? Materials that are kinder to our environment are right in front of us. If we wait any longer before choosing sustainable solutions, our concrete walls may well come tumbling down.

Coping with change: designing and building for climate instability

Flattened towns and villages, exclusion zones, states of emergency, a military presence, evacuated families, temporary shelters, lost homes, businesses, pets and memories have dominated the headlines over the past few years. But these reports haven’t told the stories of far-off, war-torn countries. These events are much closer to home. They are the stories of the first UK coastal communities to suffer the consequences of climate change.

When we finally acknowledge traditional buildings are no longer fit for purpose, and embrace more flexible spaces, we will rise to the challenges of climate change. Amphibious and floating buildings are designed to adapt to rising water levels, enabling communities to continue to live and work during the impending climate instability.

If we embrace a new type of building, we can still look forward to a future where we live and work in Wainfleet, before retiring to the thriving Welsh coastal village of Fairbourne.

Boundaries Shaping the Workspace

The ‘office’ has gone through many different configurations over the last century. Throughout it all, from the typing pools of the 1940s, to Facebook’s cavernous HQ, the trend of open-plan offices persists. It never shows quite the same face: sometimes it’s a crammed, musty line of ancient desks, and sometimes it’s a hipster-friendly corporate playground overgrown by succulents.

With the tools available to us now, we can make buildings that capture that co-working structure. Spaces can be designed to be much more flexible. When a company structure requires co-working environments, we can create an interconnected series of spaces, instead of one big bullpen. This works on a human level, because we're operating in the smaller groups in which we naturally feel at ease.

California Dreaming

Gordon Drake House

During a recent wet and cold spell I was thinking of California, taking a break from house building, sat on the deck drinking coffee, watching humming birds and reading "California Houses of Gordon Drake".

Gordon is today a lesser known contemporary of George Nelson and Richard Neutra, stellar names in Mid Century Design, but arguably in his short career, Gordon through his houses and teaching was as influential as either.

Designing Uplifting Commercial Spaces

Creative Hub at St Katharine Docks

In a commercial context, we’ve become used to reliving stale experiences. Entering your office building becomes like walking into the dentist’s – a certain familiar smell hits you, along with the impression of dreary days gone by. And this feeling follows you around, even when you travel, because the same characterless office furniture exists wherever you go. Hotels and restaurants are no different; we encounter the same designs in slightly different configurations.

Eco Pavilions creating exceptional crafted furniture

Eco Pavilions create exceptional crafted furniture, with direct links to the William Morris Arts and Crafts movement our craft based ethos means that beauty is visible in every detail. Working with Eco Pavilions is a holistic experience that is felt beyond traditional design, creating inspirational, beautiful tactile spaces. We take time to understand your life, what you love and how you work.

Traditional skills, textured contrasts, turning the ordinary into the very best.

Why Should Developers Embrace Sustainable Water Management?

Rivers Run Dry in Hertfordshire

The impact of global warming is starting to manifest itself close to home. This February saw the hottest winter day ever in Britain, at a balmy 20C in Wales. Even as we basked in the sun, many of us realised this warm spell was an omen of many hot, dry summers to come. In the baking heat of the summer of 2018, rivers dried up from Wales to Hertfordshire. But it isn’t only the low rainfall associated with global warming that is causing water shortages. Our careless practices of water extraction are exacerbating the problem.

Awareness around the environmental impact of the building sector is growing. Developers can take an active role in managing their reputation, demonstrating their sustainability credentials while crucially, benefitting the environment.

Glass Floating Pavilion on the heart of the lake

At the Heart of the Lake

Arlington Business Park in Theale won the Business Park Innovation Award at the fifth annual Thames Valley Property Awards.
APAM and its joint venture partner Patron Capital won the award for transforming one of the oldest established business parks in the Thames Valley into a sustainable 21st century work environment with modern amenities and a vibrant park life in stunning surroundings.

Ben, Amy and Chris from APAM collect the Business Park Innovation Award

New tenant amenities have been designed, including a café, gym, sports studio, convenience retail shop and meeting facilities. A new Glass Floating Pavilion on the heart of the lake, the only one of its kind at a UK business park, has also recently completed, providing tenants with a multi-functional, flexible space in the centre of the park.
Chris Taylor, founding shareholder. “Winning this award for Arlington Business Park is fantastic recognition of all the hard work that has gone into transforming a previously tired asset into a state-of-the-art example of a modern business park”.

Floating Home arrives at St Katharine Docks London

Floating Home at St Katharine Docks

We have successfully delivered another of our 1 bedroom floating homes to London’s prestigious St Katharine Docks.
Eco Pavilions specialise in the bespoke building of floating homes and offices, our highly sustainable floating homes are built from materials with provenance using ethical work practices.
We offer a fast and effective service, creating unique floating homes that we can interior design and furnish for you.
Our homes are designed to be flexible, adaptable, relocatable and on site with minimum disruption.

Floating Home at Tower Bridge

Flood Proof Floating Homes

Contemporary Floating Home

The Department for Environment latest report "National Flood Review" highlights key site flood risks, if we want to enjoy living by the water we need more thoughtful home designs.                   

A CONTEMPORARY FLOATING HOME ON THE THAMES IN WEST LONDON an article by Design Hunter

This one bedroom floating home on the River Thames in West London was designed by Hertfordshire based company Eco Pavilions. Bright, modern and stylish, built from sustainable, low maintenance materials.

How should architects and designers seek to build homes for the future with climate change and rising water levels in mind?
It's a question that was much discussed in the immediate aftermath of the devastating floods that hit parts of the UK. A huge amount of debate was devoted to how we should plan for the future, it is argued that rather than seeking to defend our homes against water we should seek out more harmonious ways of living alongside it.

Building floating homes on water is not a new idea. The Dutch have been doing it for years. With riverside and coastal areas under increasing threat from rising water levels, floating homes look set to become increasingly popular. It's easy to see why as building new floating homes on water is also an attractive option in overcrowded cities like London where house prices are increasing at an ever alarming rate.

Contemporary Floating Home

Grand Designs Live 2016

Our home was so successful that Grand Designs are still using it to promote the show in 2016.
We built this contemporary two story eco home as the central feature for the 2012 Grand Designs Live Show at London’s Excel Centre.
The low impact, sustainable design was visited by more than 85,000 people and looked as good at the end of the show as when it opened.

Pavilion home inside a pavilion

or a home within a greenhouse.
If you’re looking for a sustainable lifestyle living in a greenhouse gives you self sufficiency on your doorstep plus a longer growing season for your fruit and veg.
The greenhouse creates a climate shell protecting the home from the worst of weather extremes with the benefit of being able to eat outdoors for most of the year.
Fuel savings of 25% have been reported by early builders and summer heat is buffered by thermostatically controlled blinds and openings.

Rothko, Herzog and de Meuron

Herzog & de Meuron"s Tate Modern Extension

Went over to Tate Modern with my Architecture Student grand-daughter who had flown in from LA to gain an insight to English thinking. Also met up with the grandson who made the Architectural Model for the Herzog & de Meuron extension. He is making precision cabinets for me and the software on his CNC router keeps resetting. From mallets and chisels to software glitches in the blink of an eye.
Loved the perspective created by the receding brickwork planes and the juxtaposition with Rodgers, Stirk, Harbour’s NEO Bankside Pavilions.
Is the lighting in the Mark Rothko gallery more gloomy? when does mean and moody lighting distract from the art?

Rodgers Stirk Harbour + Partners NEO Bankside Pavilions