Practice news

Westfield Phase 1

We attended the official opening of Phase 1 at Westfield last month! The project has delivered 19 much needed bungalows for Westfield Housing Association, across the Westfield Estate in Workington.  It was a delight to meet the residents in their new homes. We are now working with some of the new residents to monitor the energy performance of the dwellings and will use this knowledge to deliver more energy efficient dwellings in Phase 2.

NEARING COMPLETION

Hoarding and scaffolding has now been removed revealing the new £6m Sandgate SEND School building in Kendal for Westmorland and Furness Council. Construction work continues and is due to be complete later this year. Great to be working with F Parkinson Ltd, Waterman Group, McGowan Miller Construction Consultants, and Pettit Singleton Associates.

PROJECT OF THE YEAR

We are incredibly proud that the Komatsu Forest Ltd UK Head Office project, completed last year, won Sub-Regional Project of the Year Award – Cumbria at the North West Regional Construction Awards. The judges found that ‘this project demonstrated excellence and compliance with constructing excellence principles, being especially impressed with the collaborative approach to procurement, the sustainable design and for a small project a great commitment to apprenticeships and liaison with local schools.

SUSTAINABILITY TITAN

We are thrilled to welcome Rod Hughes to our team. With an impressive architectural career spanning 40 years, Rod has been the lead of 2030 architects for many years. Still passionate about his work, he aims to continue sharing his vast architectural knowledge, especially in minimising environmental impact. He will be joining Architects Plus where he will help enhance our sustainable design expertise and build upon our existing in-house Certified Passivhaus design skills. Ian Hewitt, also previously of 2030 architects, with his own extensive sustainability experience joined us earlier this year.

CUMBRIA HEALTH ON CALL

Architects Plus have been working with Cumbria Health on Call (CHoC) to complete the total refurbishment of their new office headquarters in Carlisle.  Including extensive internal alterations for its new use, the building has been given a brand new lease of life with freshly insulated and rendered walls, double glazed windows and other improvements to the building exterior.

EDEN VALLEY HOSPICE

Architects Plus recently renovated the entrance, bedrooms and bathrooms for Jigsaw at Eden Valley Hospice, Carlisle. The revamped bedrooms now feature colour changing lights, bespoke bedhead features and “bubble print” en-suite shower rooms – all highly appreciated by the hospice users. As noted on the Eden Valley Hospice website, “This was made possible with proceeds from the auction of Banksy’s artwork ‘Game Changer’ which was gifted to Southampton Hospitals Charity in May 2020 during the height of the Covid pandemic.”