Surface Design Awards – Complete

• EXTERIOR SURFACE OF THE YEAR - NEW
  This is a new category that recognises wall and surface design products including decorative, creative and inventive surfaces for the exterior of building including both commercial and residential properties.
• HOUSING - EXTERIOR
  Buildings such as houses, flats and apartments that are used for sheltering people. These could be either part of the private or public sector and could be individual dwellings or multi-dwelling developments. Social rented, affordable rented and intermediate housing, provided to specified eligible households whose needs are not met by the market are included.
• LIGHT + SURFACE - EXTERIOR 
  The innovative use of light and the way it is inextricably linked to surfaces, whether it’s the effect the light has on the surrounding surfaces or the materials used to create the light. 

Schindel studio is a purpose built, sustainable artist's studio in Leytonstone, East London, for the landscape painter Amelia Humber.

Utilising shingles to clad the walls and roof was influenced by Archer + Braun’s co-founder Sarah Braun's exposure to the architectural vernacular of rural villages in the Alps. The shingles, a low carbon and sustainable product, were sourced from an artisan producer in Bavaria that produces shingles that are hand split and made from older larch ’shingle’ trees, creating a finish to the timber that exposes the grain and is rich in variety and texture. When experimenting with different finishes, the black matt finish eventually chosen emphasises the variation present in the surface of each shingle, and gave a typically rustic material a contemporary and unifying quality.

The building's form and articulation are entirely in response to its function as an artist's studio. The roof is pitched to allow for north light, and the wall space is maximised for artworks. There is one single window over the large butler sink is where artwork would not have been able to be hung in any case. The interior has been envisaged as a ‘white box’, providing robust and durable working surfaces that are easily repainted.

The ambition for the studio was to both construct and run it using the latest sustainable materials and technologies. Rather than pour concrete which is environmentally problematic, screw piles were used for the foundations. Instead of specifying standard petrochemical insulation that is widely available for the studio’s thermal envelope, the walls and roof were specified to be entirely breathable, using insulation made from both wood fibre and recycled denim from the fashion industry. All glazing is triple glazed. The insulation specified outperforms current Building Regulations requirements so that only one small electric radiator (powered by solar panels on the roof of the main house) is required for heating purposes.

All the existing mature trees in the garden were retained. This partially conceals the overall form of the studio, with the black finish of the shingles providing a backdrop to the changing daylight and passing seasons.

The project cost £80k and the completion date was July 2022.

Utilising shingles to clad the walls and roof was influenced by Archer + Braun’s co-founder Sarah Braun's exposure to the architectural vernacular of rural villages in the Alps. The shingles, a low carbon and sustainable product, were sourced from an artisan producer in Bavaria that produces shingles that are hand split and made from older larch ’shingle’ trees, creating a finish to the timber that exposes the grain and is rich in variety and texture. When experimenting with different finishes, the black matt finish eventually chosen emphasises the variation present in the surface of each shingle, and gave a typically rustic material a contemporary and unifying quality. We particularly like the way that the texture and individual grain of each shingle catches the light at different times of day, this really amplifies the beauty of the natural product.

The ambition for the studio was to both construct and run it using the latest sustainable materials and technologies. Rather than pour concrete which is environmentally problematic, screw piles were used for the foundations. Instead of specifying standard petrochemical insulation that is widely available for the studio’s thermal envelope, the walls and roof were specified to be entirely breathable, using insulation made from both wood fibre and recycled denim from the fashion industry. All glazing is triple glazed. The insulation specified outperforms current Building Regulations requirements so that only one small electric radiator (powered by solar panels on the roof of the main house) is required for heating purposes.

These particular shingles, because of the way they are radially split are particularly difficult to install. This is because they cannot just be nailed into place as when this was attempted the shingles would split/fracture. We had to drill guide holes for each individual shingle which was very labour intensive. The other issue was that as the shingles are close to site boundaries on 3No sides, they had to be fire coated which was an expensive and labour intensive process as the undercoat and black top coat are specialist products.