Making your dream home a reality can be a costly process and understandably many people try to keep their costs as low as possible; and stick to a budget – whether this is £5,000 or £500,000. The first step in this process is to arrive at a scheme that gives you what you want. However, it also has to be possible structurally; so, you can then make the decision whether to go ahead with your project. Therefore, the first point of call is making contact with either an architectu

If you need to bring more light into your home without losing valuable wall-space, Clerestory windows could be the answer to your prayers.  Although mainly seen in the commercial sector or in contemporary/smart houses and apartments, these little gems are windows at high level (above your eye line). They are often used by architects and designers producing individual homes for self-builders but despite this, many aspiring self-builders do not actually know what they are. The

Residing in an energy efficient building not only lowers your utility bills, but can add an average of 14% to your home’s value, meaning it is not only good for the environment, but also beneficial for you as the homeowner. When setting out to build a green home, there are several factors to take into account, but the most important one to keep in mind is that a green home needs to be treated as such, from inception and throughout its lifetime. The first, and perhaps most imp

Whilst some clients have a design idea visualised in their heads from day one of how they would like to extend or alter their properties; equally there are other clients who contact us to ask for our help. They are often unsure what they require and need us to come up with potential design concepts to make their homes work better and more efficiently for them. This was the situation with our lovely clients in Woburn Sands; who contacted us on recommendation from a number of p

Ina Cicu – Design Technologist Ina joined the Building Tectonics Architectural Practice team almost five years ago as a Design Technologist. Having an Interior Design degree background, she was always fascinated by buildings and architecture. However, it wasn’t until she started to work at Building Tectonics that she discovered the back stage of this wonderful creative process. Due to her colleagues’ patience and professionalism, she has learned to redesign client’s houses; t

Have you ever wondered what it is like to work in an Architectural Practice for the day and envisaged all the dreaming and designing that goes on? Well now is your chance as we get inside the head of our Chief Designer, Tony Keller to find out what a normal day entails for him and the Building Tectonics team from start to finish. Tony says “A normal day at Building Tectonics encompasses a number of different tasks but generally starts with a team briefing (accompanied by a cu

Mantas Mackonis – Architectural Surveyor Mantas started working at Building Tectonics straight after he finished Sixth Form nearly 3 years ago. After working in retail for a short period, but not knowing what he wanted to do career wise, he was put in touch with Tony who gave him the opportunity to work with him and the team. Originally Tony hired him to try and teach him how to measure a house; as whilst everyone in the office can use the software to draw, no one could actua

It’s that time of year when all you see online are countless blogs talking about New Year, New You and how to get the body of your dreams whilst improving your health. Whilst we obviously aren’t going down that route; as we are architects and not fitness experts, we do instead want to simply say the words ‘New Home’… To most people when you say the words ‘New Home’ they automatically think of upping sticks and moving house to get their dream home; but you don’t need to take s

Josh Lockwood – Design Technologist Josh originally started with Building Tectonics 6 years ago on a week’s work experience; and after being made a job offer, he never left. However, as he had only just started his Sixth Form study, it was a tough decision as he was doing well at school but unsure what he wanted to do for a job. He realised the work experience suited his skill set, accepted the offer and has never looked back. After joining, he decided to attend college once

Having purchased this bungalow in Tavistock Street, Bletchley with the intention of renovating it by enlarging its footprint and remodelling the interior; our clients contacted us for help with the design and planning of the project. The main aim of the remodelling exercise was to open up the bungalow roof space to create a usable first floor which would then house a new bedroom; in addition to creating ‘drop lighting’ into darker areas of the ground floor where a new kitchen

Christmas is traditionally the time when families, often scattered around the country, come together to catch-up and spend time together whilst enjoying a lavish Christmas meal. This is when open-plan living can really come into its own; as the space lends itself to many layout options and more importantly allows for a big (or extended) table to be the centrepiece of the celebrations with everyone gathered around it. During the festive period, although more formal dining is p

Jade Turney – IT Technician Jade has been with Building Tectonics for nearly 6 years; joining originally through an IT Apprenticeship. Tony was so impressed by her work that he offered her a permanent IT Technician role at the end of her apprenticeship. Jade’s role involves anything that IT encompasses – from maintaining the network and developing the database software to making sure that all the team’s PC’s are working correctly and performing regular maintenance on them.  S

Yesterday, I happened to visit and photograph a project we’ve designed, it was a last minute opportunity so taking these pictures in the evening never shows off the architecture as it should. However, I thought it would be nice to share them nonetheless. Our clients loved the location of their house, but not the design. Some areas were very nice, but what let the house down was the long journey from the road to the front door, long internal corridors and the overall style of

We are getting more and more requests to take on projects that have already been started by other design companies (including architects, architectural technologists and amateurs). The problem for us is we almost always have to start again, and so our fees are the same as they would be had no design work been undertaken previously. Of course, this is very annoying for clients who have already paid someone else (sometimes, far more than is warranted) for this abortive work. Fr

We had worked with these clients before, and having successfully remodelled their previous house they had decided that it was time to move on. The house that they consequently bought was much larger, but the layout didn’t work for them. When there is so much to be done in the way of re-decorating it can stress some people out, but not these clients. If you can figure out the points that are wrong with the architecture of the house and how to rectify them it’s worth doing, eve

If we were manufacturers, our main product would be creating versatile spaces for families to enjoy spending time together. For most of us, the kitchen is like the heart of the house, it’s where we spend a lot of time together with guests or family, therefore, kitchen design is essential.  Nearly everyone wants the type of ground floor area shown in the project below; unfortunately, even newly built houses, often do not fulfil this desire and this where BTL comes in. With pro

Have you ever had visitors from another country who got lost on the way to your home because “everything looks the same”? Someone who has been in the UK for a while is probably used to seeing estates all built to a certain style. Milton Keynes is known very well for estates contrasting from one another yet, the buildings within each of these look almost identical; this could be due to strict planning rules. Planners sometimes prefer homes to stand out depending on the locatio

At Building Tectonics we pride ourselves on producing detailed plans for the builder to use on site. The first and most crucial stage of any of our projects is getting an accurate set of plans depicting the existing building to take back to our office and work from. It’s impossible to get it 100% exact but we believe it’s so important to get it as correct as possible and so we can take between 2-3 hours on average measuring up a house, making sure we are as accurate as possib

We’re considering offering some additional services to our clients, such as organising estimates for certain products and services. We have always shied away from getting too involved with other companies because, and I appreciate this may sound a little old-fashioned, we want to maintain our independence. We want to make sure that clients can trust our advice and that we can be trusted to be completely impartial when it comes to builders and product suppliers etc. As soon as

Sometimes a potential new client says they know exactly what they want when they first talk to us. This troubles me, and I’m tempted to say to them that they would be better contacting an alternative architectural company, but I don’t, and here’s why. There are always many possible alternatives that should be considered, even on simple designs, sometimes they’re only minor changes but they all need to be considered and agreed upon. The drawing is the tool we use to explain to