It's not about the money sings Jesse J.


But the money or not having enough of it, may be what is holding you back from having the home you want.


So let's explore this and the steps you can take to get your happy home sooner, even if you don't have the money yet.


Let me know in the comments. Is lack of money holding you back?


Quick intro! I'm Jane, the eco-home architect. I create homes that make your heart sing!


So these are the questions to answer to get you to your end goal...


FIRST
First lets explore how much your happy home is going to cost. Do you know this? Yes or no!


There are different ways to get your happy home. You can rent it, buy it or create it. They will all cost different amounts and take different lengths of time.


If you have a home and you want to extend it then you need to a design that has been costed to know how much you'll spend to get it.


BEFORE THAT
But before you can really know if that cost is going to give you the result you want you need to start at the beginning. Do you know what you need in your home to live your version of your best life?


This is the crucial part! I call this Designing Your Home Vision.


NEXT
Once you have your vision in place then you need to explore your options to see how you can create or get a home that fulfills your vision. Have you explored your options, knowing what you need to have to live happily?


This can include searching for property to buy or rent. It can also include creating sketch plans for changes to your home or for a new home in a place you love.


FINALLY
Finally you need to decide which option is right for you by double checking your options against your vision. This may include seeking specialist professional help. Have you double checked which option is right for you?


I have a Check-it-Out Checklist with videos that I give to my Home Design Foundation Package clients to guide them through this process. Doing this right gives you more certainty and helps you assess the costs, return on investment, and potential cost risks.


Once you know the right option for you along with the cost of it then you will know if you have the money to go ahead yet or not. If not you can put a plan in place to get the finances you need. You may well be surprised to find that you are already good to go!


WORK WITH ME
To get my help to take you through this process quickly and easily with the Home Design Foundation Package, you can book a free Fitting Call with me to check it's right for you here: https://www.i-architect.co.uk/home-design.html

Although the balcony was feasible, the option to use a balcony rooflight, such as the Cabrio by Velux, seemed like a more affordable and flexible option for this couple.

A rooflight balcony would maintain the same mezzanine space internally but allow them to open it up during the summer to create the balcony as and when they wanted it.

​Let's face it the UK isn't blessed with all year round sunshine so sunbathing and cocktails in the evening sunshine is unlikely to be a daily occurrence, unless we see some dramatic effects from Climate Change.

The first way to improve circulation space is to eliminate it. ​

​Circulation space is just space that you're using to walk from A to B. It's often not very great space. The worst types of circulation space are narrow corridors with lots of doors. If you can, get rid of that type of space altogether. 

One way to eliminate circulation space is to make your place more open plan.

In an open plan layout rooms are not separated off from each other and they don't have a separate circulation space in between the rooms. Instead there are different types of uses in the same room. So circulation spaces or hallways are not dividing up your floorplan and using up valuable space.

If you are not comfortable with a completely open space then open plan space can be delineated by furniture, partial walls or sliding screens.​

Eliminating circulation space as much as possible and absorbing that into your living space can give you bigger and nicer living space that's more comfortable to use and fits in more of the furniture and activities that you want. ​

Reconfiguring an existing house by opening it up and eliminating circulation space will make it feel more spacious without necessarily also having to build an extension to create more space.

​

The second way to improve your circulation space and your floor plan through circulation space is to make that circulation space have more purpose. To give it a use. Especially a use that will give value to you and your life.
​

You can do this is two ways.

• Firstly by reconfiguring parts of the circulation space.
  
• Secondly by adding furniture and equipment that give it a specific use.
  

You could make corridors a little bit wider in some places. You could turn them from long thin narrow corridors and make wider spaces that are more useable. You should also consider really carefully the types of door that you use onto that circulation space and the positioning of the doors, and move them if it helps.

If you've got an older building, then maybe you're not actually looking at making lots of big changes. If you want to maintain the character of the rooms then you could give the circulation space more of a defined function to increase its useability for you. You could make it a room of its own in-between spaces. ​

Here are some ideas of ways that you can make your circulation space more useful and valuable for you:
​

Another way to use a space that is more of a corridor is, if it's wide enough, you could add bookshelves so that it becomes your library.

Adding bookshelves to corridor space is really good from an acoustics point of view because the books will absorb sound. They'll reduce any noise between the corridor circulation space and the rooms behind the walls with bookshelves lining them.
​ ​

​There are so many fun things that you can do with a corridor or hallway to lift it up and make it not just about circulation but give it more use and most importantly give your life more ease and enjoyment. More functionality in your home will make it work better for you and help you make the most of the space you have.


I hope these ideas:

• inspire you with ideas to make your home a more enjoyable and fun place to live
• show how you can maximise the space you have
• show how you can make small changes to the way you use your home
• will help you make your home an easier and more fulfilling place to live

​

For many of my clients one of their first questions, after they explain what they want to achieve is,

Before I answer this question I want to share with you a story about one of my clients.

Recently I caught up with my client and she told me how her extension was working out. When I worked with her and her husband on their family home I developed a few options including a fit-easily-within-budget option and a spend-to-the-maximum option.

She was really keen on the spend-to-the-maximum option. This was her dream home option. It included a large new kitchen diner that would overlook and open up to the garden.

In the end the fit-easily-within-budget option was their chosen way forward. This option met all their needs from their home, leaving the kitchen, dining and living room untouched, and giving them a new guest suite / hobby room, with a shower room and utility.

I asked her if she felt that they had made the right decision going with a project that met their needs but not necessarily all her dreams. She told me that, although they could have afforded the bigger project, they are happy that they decided not to stretch their budget and to keep a financial buffer that they could use in other ways.

Since the work has been completed my clients, have traveled extensively and enjoyed many evenings out indulging their passion for music at concerts around the country. She told me that she was really pleased that they had chosen not to spend to their maximum budget as if they had then they wouldn't have been able to live the same lifestyle, with as many exciting holidays or rock-n-roll gigs.

I was so pleased to hear that they are enjoying their life, that their home works well for them, and that they were really satisfied with the choices they had made.

So back to the frequently asked question, Can I afford this?

In truth the simple answer is that I can not answer this for you. Only you know what your finances look like and what your priorities in your life are. But there is a more important question, that I can help you answer.

What you should be asking yourself is...

Only you know what your values, needs and desires are, and how much it is worth to you to meet those. All I can do is ask you questions to help guide you to making your best decision. A decision that you are not going to regret. I want you to be satisfied and enjoy your best life just like my clients.

If you're planning to move in the next 5 years then look at other homes in your local area, which have the types of spaces and features that you'd like. Compare the market value of these homes to yours. Particularly look at homes that are similar to yours that have been added to.

Speak to a local estate agent to get some help understanding the current value of your home and the potential value once you've carried out the work.

Ask yourself if you can you do that work to your home and then recoup the costs of that investment when you come to sell.

Also ask yourself if it is important to you to be able to recoup your costs, or would living in a home that works for you, even if only in the short term, would be worth the spend even if you can't recoup it?


Or perhaps you're planning to live in this home for the rest of your life, or at least for as long as you can foresee. In that case it will be more difficult to assess resale value possibly several decades into the future and perhaps this is less important to you.

Ask yourself how much you feel it is worth live to live in this home but to make it better and suit your specific desires, needs and tastes. What value do you place on living in this home and having this home suit you better.

Consider how much it would cost to buy a house that meets your needs and desires without having to do any work to it. If you can find one then check what the difference in value is between your potential resale value and the purchase price of your ideal home.

If you decide that you need more space then as a starting point you can estimate around £2k per square meter for new build space and about £1k per square meter to upgrade and remodel existing space. This is in no way accurate costing for any particular project but is a reasonable guideline to start to outline what budget you will need.

As you can see it generally costs less to make your existing space work better than it does to build more space.

Estimating budgets based on cost per square meter is a method that you can use to get a ballpark budget figure, that can go up or down from this depending on the detailed decisions that you make. Sometimes these decisions may not be all up to you, for example if you have a really special building, such as a listed building or live in a conservation area, then you may have to meet special requirements and these figures can get much higher.

If you feel that you need more space then consider what do you need more space for? Then you can ask yourself if these uses are really worth the project spend.

If you have enough space but you want to make better use of your existing space then consider how your existing space is wasted or not working for you.

Is it from savings, mortgage, lottery winnings, a home building loan, inheritance? Where the money is coming from may affect your project. For example if the money is going to be released in stages this might affect your construction contract.

If you need to find the money somewhere then you need to get specialist financial advice. Speak to an independent financial advisor, a mortgage advisor or broker, to get advise on how to raise money to fund your project.

Do you really prefer to spend this money on your home or would you rather spend you money going to music concerts and extravagant holidays? Consider what other things you could be spending that money on and which is more important to you.

If setting your budget too high will mean sacrifices in other areas of your life then you need to be happy to live with those sacrifices. You might have your dream home, but if paying for that is preventing you from living the life you dream of then is it really worth it?

On top of the construction budget you need to add 20% VAT and fees for specialist consultants. It is also wise to have some contingency money just in case something unexpected happens on site and this bumps up the cost.

Your basic consultants that you'll need to deliver a good project, are your architect and structural engineer. On top of these, depending on your project, your building and your area, you may also need surveyors to look at a range of things such as asbestos, drainage, trees (arboricultural), bats (ecology), amongst many other possibilities.

You may also want additional specialist designers on your team such as an interior designer, lighting designer, integrated technology or home cinema designers, sustainable renewable heating and energy systems designers and engineers. This depends on the quality of the build that you're looking to create. Which leads us neatly to this final question.

Quality is a difficult thing to define. It means different things to different people. You need to define what quality means to you.

Then you need to decide if your idea of quality is more or less important to you than the cost to achieve it.

Here are some questions to help you decide what quality means to you.

How long do you want this work to last? Do you want 25 years guaranteed and no more. Do you want something short term that you can sell on and don't really care about the long term effects because you'll be out of there. Or are you looking to create a legacy that will last for generations to come. Perhaps something that you can pass on to your grandchildren and great grandchildren. This leads on to other questions such as how durable do you want the materials to be?

Consider the ongoing effort and costs of maintenance. Would you prefer to spend a bit more upfront so that you don't have so much ongoing maintenance to do? Or is there a particular material that does need ongoing maintenance, maybe is a bit more fragile, but you're happy to do that because you really love that material. An example of this might be timber windows instead of UPVc.

For example would you prefer to use renewable materials, like timber instead of concrete, or locally made materials like Cumbrian sheeps wool insulation instead of imported German wood fibre board. Any aspect of quality related to ethical or environmental standards.

For example if it's a listed building or a conservation area, you might have to use a particular material or traditional technique, such as a Welsh slate roof.

You need to consider and decide a few key things to set the right project budget for you. Improving your home can be an investment and it can also be fundamental to the satisfaction you get from your project and the basis of a lifestyle that you dream of.



Here are the points to consider in bullet form

• decide if this is your short or long term home
• decide if you need more space or better use of existing space
  
• decide where the money to pay for this is coming from
• include for any extra costs, like consultants fees, VAT and contingency
• decide what quality means to you and if that is more or less important than cost

Setting your budget is only one of the key decisions that need to be made when preparing for a construction project.

For guidance on other fundamental decisions you need to make at the beginning of your project get my free Design Your Home Vision Checklist.

Imagine arriving home to your stylish and characterful home that oozes Victorian period charm. Your roof a crowning example of good taste and fine design that will last long into the future. Imagine your dry and warm home, beautiful and comfortable, inside and out.

The problem is you have no idea how to get there. You don't even know what decisions you need to make. Or, you have an idea, but it's so overwhelming that you don't know what to choose.

This much you do know. You know you need to replace your roof. Slates have slipped, the battens have snapped, there's no roofing felt left if there ever was any, and it's leaking in several places. You know you need some more insulation. It's freezing in winter and too hot in summer.

Victorian roofs come in many different forms. Around Manchester and Liverpool and throughout most of the North-West of England, most Victorian homes are in the Gothic style, or for older homes the Regency style. This means that, generally in the North West, parapet roofs are not so common and it's more likely that you'll have an overhanging eaves. Gothic styles tend to have a usable or inhabited loft space with steep roof pitch, pitched dormers, tall decorative chimneys, and fancy detailing for every element. Older Victorian homes in the Regency style tend to have bigger overhanging eaves, with simpler detailing overall, a lower pitch and less usable loft space. Consider the overall style of your home when deciding the details. If it's a simpler regency style, don't choose overly complicated details. If it's a gothic style then let yourself get fancy and choose more decorative details.

Take the opportunity to repair and refurbish these while the scaffolding is up so you don't need to deal with these again for a good few years. You don't want your beautiful new roof damaged by other trades dealing with your chimney in a few years time. The buddleia and other plants that have made their home on your chimney need to be dug out. Think about repointing the brickwork, replacing the flaunching, and replacing broken or missing Chimney pots. Decide how to deal with your chimney pots and the flue depending on how you choose to use the fireplace inside: open fire if it's not a smokeless zone, wood burning stove, gas fire, decorative only with no fire, or chimney breast removed inside or blocked up.

If you're in a conservation area or your home is a listed building then you are likely to be restricted in the materials you can use. Most Victorian roofs in the North-West are slate from North Wales, but stone can be found, along with clay tiles. There are many types of slate available. Slate comes in different colours and strengths, which depends on where it comes from. If there are no planning restrictions then you can look at alternatives to slate that give a similar look. Manmade slate-look materials will be cheaper, but most will not have the same longevity/durability as natural slate and rarely look as good. Consider colour, texture, size and laying pattern. If you want to add more decorative detail you can use a combination of different slate colours or even add in different shapes.

The gutter is usually highly visible and choosing a suitable profile, considering the material and colour can make a huge difference. Most people choose black o white UPVC for the gutter but not only do they look terrible on a period home, they will also need replacing sooner than more traditional materials. Victorian gutters were usually cast iron and half round or ogee profile. Cast iron needs more maintenance and once it has rusted will need to be replaced but it can still last for many decades and longer than plastic with the right maintenance. Aluminium gutters can be made in heritage profiles and come ready finished with a paint coating. You can even get specially finished versions that have the same texture as cast iron. Aluminium is relatively low maintenance and long lasting. Copper is also an option and although it the most expensive choice it is likely to last the longest and has a very unique look as it weathers naturally to a green finish, needing little to no maintenance.

The gable and the eaves are where the roof meets the wall. Some have a parapet, some have an overhang, some have highly decorative gothic bargeboards, others have classical brick details, some have decorative brackets, and others have a flush fascia. In short Victorian roofs, and how they finish at the wall, can be very different. Take a good look at yours. Chances are you haven't really noticed it much, soffits and such details are often overlooked. These simple details are an opportunity to add quality and distinctiveness to your home. Modern roofs now often use verge tiles to finish a gable in a simple way. These were not commonly used by Victorians, especially not on a slate roof. Modern soffits and eaves are often covered by plastic strips that only have low maintenance in their favour. Consider your options and think about the shapes, materials, colours and textures that you could introduce here to give your home that refined Regency look or the decorative Gothic look, whichever suits your home and your tastes.

This first step is the most important, not only for every home design project but for any and every building project from a 2-bed holiday cottage to a teaching hospital or even an international airport! This is the key to building design success.

In this blog post I'm going to explain why you need to take this step, what this step is, what the benefits are, and how you can take this step today.

Many clients come to me feeling overwhelmed with ALL THE DECISIONS! They are not sure where to start or who can help them. I know it can seem confusing and complicated to design your home but there are some simple steps that you can take right now and a few decisions to make at the beginning that will get your project off to the right start.

You need your characterful Victorian / Edwardian home to work for your modern family life instead of a typical family from 100 years ago. This is the first step that you need to take to reach your goal of living in a comfortable and beautiful home.

This first step is the most important as it lays the foundations for all that is to come. Think of this as being like the strip of concrete that goes into the ground that the rest of the building is built off.

This first step is the foundational work that you need to do to create your vision for your home. Architects call this 'The Strategic Brief'.

Put simply, it is a description of what you need and want.

I call this designing your vision and I've created some worksheets and checklists to help you.

You vision needs to be clear and include the following:

Describe your needs, as a family and for each individual. Your ages, hobbies, daily habits and routines at home can all be included. Also any special events that you celebrate at home. Think about how many people need to spend time in each space and how they want to use those spaces in your home.

Gather together all the information you have about your home and garden. Put it in one place so its easy to get to. If you can make this digital even better.

The three key priorities for a project are time, cost and quality. You need to decide what deadline you want to meet, what your budget is, and what quality means for you. Then decide which of these is the most important to you.

These are the would like to haves. Describe the materials, styles and colours you love. Gather inspirational images from magazines or online. Pinterest and Houzz are both good ways to do this online and you can easily share these with your designer.

Research by the Royal Institute of British Architects, shows that the clients brief is fundamental to the buildings success. ('Working with Architects' Client Survey 2016)

Getting a great building can mean many things, some of them more wide ranging than you might expect. Here are some of those benefits:

Studies have shown that quality design has a positive impact on resale and rental values, which can be as much as 11% to 20% higher for quality designed buildings.

Comfort, air quality, noise and privacy all contribute to your enjoyment of your home, as well as to your health and well being.

The 'Wow' factor is known to encourage people to visit, so could help make your homelife more sociable with friends and family wanting to pop round.

There is a lot of evidence that shows that good quality design can support better community spirit, a sense of pride, identity and even mental health. Although it is limited how much you can affect your entire neighbourhood with your own home, it is possible to uplift the image of your street, especially if your neighbours follow your lead, and this can have a positive impact for you and your neighbours.

You can reduce energy and water use as well as protecting local wildlife and the planet through good design. This doesn't always have to cost more and even if it does initially it can save you money in the long term.

If you own an historic building that you are custodian of, or you want to pioneer outstanding contemporary design, then your project could contribute to local and national culture and create a long term legacy for future generations to enjoy and be inspired by.

Get yourself a copy of the Design Your Home Vision Checklist for free so that you can get started today.

Once you've completed this checklist email it back to get a free 20 minute phone consultation, when you can discuss your project further and find out how iarchitect can help you take the next step to achieving your dream home.

You're desperate for more space. Your home feels cramped and uncomfortable and you'd love a home that looks more like your pinterest board.

More space and more beautiful space is what the majority of our clients are looking for.

My favourite client brief from 2017 was “Please help me make my home more lovable”. This client didn't want to build more space, but wanted to reconfigure the space he had and incorporate better storage solutions so that his home both looked and felt better to be in.

Building more space is a dream for many. It's a big investment and getting finance in place doesn't exactly happen overnight for most of us. Big developers spend around £1,000 per square meter for big housing developments. Most of us can't achieve that price, without physically doing the labour ourselves, because we don't have their economies of scale.

Typically in the UK it costs about £1,500-2,000 per square meter of new-build space. This means that to build the space for a standard wardrobe, roughly W1.5m and D0.6m, this is likely to cost you between £1,500 and £2,000. Quite a lot of money for hanging some extra clothes especially since it's estimated that the average person only wears 20% of their clothes. So making the most of the space you already have is a good place to start when you're feeling like your home is bursting at the seams.

Follow these tips to make your home more spacious and beautiful without getting the builders in.

Before you do anything else make yourself a nice cuppa and get comfy on your sofa. Then take a look through some home magazines, your Pinterest board, Google images or Houzz and find 2-3 photos of places or things that you love, as inspiration for how you want your home to be. Set these as wallpapers on your phone so you've got them as a reminder for your end goal. Come over to our facebook page and share your inspirational images.

It can be hard to see how to improve your own home and to decide where to start. It helps to get a fresh pair of eyes on the job. One way to do this is to take a photo from every corner of each room that you'd like to work on. You'll often notice more when you look at the photos than you do looking around your space. You can take photos before and after as motivation to remind you of the improvements you've made. If you can, print these photos out and draw on them. Highlight anything you are happy with or don't like. Write a to do list for all the things you want to change and anything that you'd like to make more of. Maybe you need some better toy storage, or you'd like your windows to become more of an attractive feature. Use the photos to start your action plan.

The Japanese home organisation guru Marie Kondo recommends gathering all your belongings of one type in one place and going through them, touching each one and asking yourself if it sparks joy. Doing this helps you to identify the things that you don't need or love and can get rid of. This reflects the golden rule of the designer William Morris who said, “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” This technique of decluttering doesn't stop at the small items but includes furniture. If you really want to create more space clearing out the large objects and pieces of furniture - that unused chair / cello - is where the biggest gains can be made. Have a look around your room. Is there a chair that nobody sits on because it is really uncomfortable? Clear out the large things that you don't use and you will instantly see your room transformed.

There are lots of minimalist challenges on the internet. The Minimalist Game, by The Minimalists, is a manageable way to have a clear out and over the course of a month get rid of 465 things. It's up to you what you get rid of, maybe its some paper clips or maybe its a table. If you want accountability you can tweet about it and tell your friends on Facebook, posting pictures of the things you're getting rid of. The game works like this: On day One, you get rid of one item. On day Two, you get rid of two items, On day Three, three items, and so on. If this is too difficult just get rid of one thing on each day of one month. You can make up your own rules. The idea is not to get rid of everything but to have a clear out and get rid of all those things that you never use and you don't love. We all know that if you're selling you need to have a declutter and the same applies if you want to create more space and make your home look more beautiful so that you can enjoy it.

Once you've decluttered and got an action plan, the next thing is to take action and make everywhere look clean, tidy and stylish. You can do this for your whole home, plus the garden, or just one room. Starting at the door of the first room you're dealing with go around in a clockwise movement picking up out of place items and dusting down surfaces. Rearrange your pictures, etc, as you go and make your space look styled and well put together.

Now that you've completed your Spring Clean and have a fresh view of your home it's time to get the kettle on and enjoy your space. You've given your home a lovely refresh, and the chances are that you know your space better now than you did before. Come over to our Facebook page and show us your before and after photos.

If decluttering and restyling aren't enough for you and you know that you really do need to add more space then we have a free 'Design Your Vision' workbook for you. This will give you a series of exercises to go through on your own or with your partner. Once you've completed this you will have your list of needs and wants for your home clearly set out. This is the first step for any home project, and will make it easy for you to speak with designers and builders to let them know what you want.

Let us know in the comments below if you need more space and a more beautiful home and what you're doing to make it happen.

You're wondering if iarchitect is the best architecture practice for your project?
Stick around and you'll find out why it is!

At iarchitect we can be a bit too modest about shouting about our achievements and as the architect director I realise that this needs to change. Now the tax returns are in and 2018 is in full swing I am going to give you an update on our successes from the past year and hope you'll join me in some virtual toasting and celebrating.

At the beginning of last year I transformed iarchitect from a sole trading entity to a limited company and am now celebrating nearing the end of a first successful year as a limited company. After setting up the practice 9 years ago as a sole trader in the depths of recession, through perseverance and optimism it has thrived. Now it feels like iarchitect is growing up! Cheers to transformations and developing!

Over the course of the last 12 months iarchitect has received a number of awards and completed many successful projects for our customers.

Our latest award is from the online residential design platform Houzz. They have awarded us “Best of Houzz for Service” for which we must thank our kind customers, their glowing reviews and 5 star ratings.

Houzz also awarded iarchitect with “Best of Houzz for Design” in 2017 as our project photographs were among those most shared on the platform.

Houzz has also marked iarchitect out as an “Influencer” as we regularly help out members of the Houzz community through the dilemma forums.

We use Houzz with many of our customers to create ideasbooks which are great for communicating ideas and visualizing options. Cheers to communicating beautiful ideas and delivering good customer service!

Also in 2017 construction industry magazine Build awarded iarchitect with 2 awards:
Best Full-Service Architect Firm, Manchester and Excellence Award for Conservation Services, North West.

Since joining the RIBA conservation register as an accredited registrant, iarchitect has worked on a number of conservation projects. Our highest profile conservation project being the landscape refurbishment and access improvements for Northenden War Memorial. Cheers to protecting and enhancing architectural heritage!

We've had many every day successes too including planning approvals, building control approvals, tender returns within budget and completed built projects. This is what we do. Cheers to successful projects!

We specialise in helping homeowners with period property and recommend starting with our Home Design Workshop. If you have a cold house with an outdated layout that doesn't work for you then we can help you create a home that suits your lifestyle and sense of style, while maintaining period character and being kind to the environment.

We are recruiting and looking for a new junior design team member to join us. If you are a student architect looking for part-time work while you study, need some flexibility to fit around course project deadlines and want to get some relevant experience on your CV then request an application form.

The easiest thing to do is to select the obvious materials for their standard uses, such as glass for windows, but to get a design that really stands out and delivers a unique solution we need to consider materials in different ways.

While travelling this summer I was reminded of the beautifully subtle but relatively rare use of marble for windows. Examples of marble panes for windows can be found in historic ecclesiastical architecture (churches, monasteries, etc), particularly in Mediterranean countries. Although I had heard about this use whilst at university and proposed it in one of my student projects for a museum, I had never seen any real life examples before this summer.

Jaca, in the Spanish Pyrenees and the heart of the Aragonese kingdom, has several examples of buildings with marble windows. Two of these examples really stood out to me, one modern and one historic. I then did some research into marble windows and found a few more examples to share. As the images in this blog piece show, marble windows, create a gentle light source and striking patterned visual effect which can be breathtakingly beautiful.

The cathedral of San Pedro in Jaca is an historic building with most of its apertures paned with marble. The official website for this church doesn't mention the windows and the use of marble, perhaps as it isn't seen as anything particularly unusual in churches of its era and in this region. The marble used is white with a fine grey vein, similar to carrera marble. The internal light this creates is dimmed, soft and warm. It doesn't let through as much light as the stained glass usually seen in churches but it has a calming effect and is peacefully beautiful. As you can see from the photograph the light levels are very low so when the camera light levels are set to show the interior it's not possible to see much of the detail of the marble. Conversely when the light levels are set to show the marble, the interior is too dark to see anything in photo. At least this was true with my very basic photographic equipment - my mobile phone.

The modern example of a marble window screen was in the refurbished museum at the monastery of San Juan de la Pena. The original baroque facade of the monastery includes a circular marble oriel window. This historical feature was perhaps the inspiration for the large gallery of marble screens within the original cloister. This space is now used as an art gallery and the cream marble with striking highly contrasting chocolate brown and caramel toned veins create a bright and subtly decorated space, with the controlled light levels perfect for viewing and protecting art work.

Historically marble was used instead of glass as a single sheet built into the window aperture or set in a frame, but this doesn't work very well thermally so for modern uses thinly cut sheets of marble tend to be used as internal window screens or incorporated within a system using double glazing. In the monastery refurbishment the screens are set about a meter from the external fully glazed envelope. The glazing system provides the thermal skin of the building while the marble sheets create a decorative and sunlight controlling screen.

The external aspect during the daytime of an historic marble window is like looking at an area of marble wall. They look the same as a much thicker piece of marble until you can see light falling through it. At night the effect seen internally during the daytime in sunlight is reversed as electric lighting will create a glow seen outside.

Away from the med in northern europe the light levels are not as strong, so using thin-cut marble is most effective orientated so that sunlight can fall on it. In spaces where a lot of light is not needed, such as those for prayer or meditation, or is undesirable such as for storing and displaying light sensitive objects such as books and art works, marble can be used to both control the daylight while creating a striking decorative interior.

There are some particularly striking mid-century examples of marble windows and two that I'd love to visit are the Yale University's rare book library and the Pius Church in Meggan, Switzerland.

Yale University's Beinecke rare book library has no windows at all as its walls are made from translucent marble. This lets in light while keeping the books protected from the sun. The marble is set within a light grey granite framework which gives a sense of solidity to the walls and sets up a strong rhythmic pattern of repeating squares which is echoed in the book storage. Built between 1960 and 1963, this library was designed by the architect Gordon Bunshaft, who worked in the large architectural practice of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

The marble used is white, grey-veined, Vermont marble cut to a thickness of approximately 3cm.

A modern ecclesiastic example is the Pius Church in Meggen, Lake Lucerne, Switzerland. Here the marble is set into a slim steel frame to form the external walls. There are no other windows and the light created is so unusual and desirable that this church is a popular local tourist attraction, and a place where many people choose to get married. Built between 1964 and 1966, this church was designed by the relatively little known architect Franz Fueg.

The marble used is Penthelian Dionysos marble cut to 2.8cm thick and in panels of 1.5x1.02m. To create an effect of columns of marble, the panels were carefully selected and cut from the same block for consistent veining. This marble appears as white with grey veins until seen with light shining through, when more depth and colour is revealed.

Marble is a premium material because it is long lasting, durable, beautifully decorative and each piece is unique. The process of selecting and cutting marble thin enough to be used in this way is also specialised and costly, but this almost magical effect is well worth its cost in the right place.

Did you see any beautiful architecture during your summer trips? Have you used marble or seen it used in any interesting ways? Would you like to use marble as a light source in your project? Let us know in the comments below.

Thank you to all clients, colleagues, collaborators, co-designers, friends and family for helping make 2016 the most successful year that iarchitect has had yet.

It has been filled with many achievements including:

• a successful application to the War Memorial Trust, funding works to Northenden War Memorial
  
• several successful planning and building control applications for homeowners and businesses
• opening of the first Sultan Ahmet restaurant - an exciting new UK franchise
• helping worthwhile causes with Landaid though their pro-bono programme

This year has also had many memorable moments such as:

• meeting the latest in voice controlled technology with Steve and Siobhan
• many Home Design Consultations during which I have loved getting to know homeowners and their homes
• chasing around after a toddler whilst discussing bandstands with Joy and the ups and downs of projects with Julie
• behind the scenes in photoshoots for completed projects
• catching up with past colleagues starting new adventures like Sally

It's been a fantastic year and I hope it has been for all of you too. Lets hope that 2017 brings more of the same.

Best Christmas wishes to everyone.
Jane x