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TS Associates Jersey Design Awards 2019

TS Associates
Written by Roma Publications

TS Associates – Jersey Design Awards 2019

Once again, TS Associates have raised the bar in the Jersey Design Awards with a trio of triumphs for outstanding work in this year’s honours.

The practice scooped the Best small Scale Extension award for their Fort William scheme, as well as winning in the Best Unbuilt Scheme category for the Cafe De La Pulente’ project. In addition, TS Associates were Highly Commended in the Best Refurbishment of a Historic Building category for their designs for ‘Le Clios de Thee’.

Fort William, Grouville

A stunning contemporary two-storey extension above a listed fort structure, providing additional family accommodation with breath-taking sea views, has been built at a private residence known as Fort William.

TS Associates (TSA) have been architects for three different owners of this 1930s-built property which sits on top of the 18th century Grade 111 listed Fort William structure.

In 2018 TSA were commissioned to extend the living accommodation of the house over the kitchen to make the most of the stunning unbroken maritime vista – from Mount Orgueil to beyond Seymour Tower. Main contractors were GMK.

Tim Skudder, managing director of TSA said: “The design challenge of this project was to provide a light and open interior, fully glazed on three sides, which at the same time blended with the landscape when viewed from outside. This was achieved by the extensive glazing reflecting the sky and combined with dark cladding, designed to be visually unobtrusive.

Tim Skudder commented: “The key to all the work on Fort William to date has been to respect and leave the historic military fort structure intact.

“The main contractor did a good job, and we now have a further project to carry out at the property involving extending the master en suite using a similar type of structure designed to provide extensive views.”

Cafe De La Pulente, St Ouen’s Bay 

This project comprised providing proposals for a new site-sensitive cafe by adapting and extending an existing public WC and pump station building within the sand dunes.

The proposal is set to re-balance the net loss of hospitality sites within St Ouen’s Bay that have occurred over recent years.

Tim Skudder said: “This was an interesting scheme to design. The States of Jersey sold the site with the provision that the new owner had to keep the public WCs open, and our client also wanted to open a cafe there.

“We designed a single storey building that retains and converts part the existing WC building into back of house facilities, avoiding unnecessary demolition of existing structures.”

The design also includes the construction of a lightweight composite steel and timber cantilevered structure to house the cafe, constructed over an existing marram grass bank to avoid disruption to existing wildlife corridors. This also retains the existing sand dune landscape of the site.

Tim Skudder added: “The building’s form is constrained at the lower level to reduce its visual impact and maintain key views from vantage points. A flat pebbled roof using natural materials was also proposed to integrate sensitively into the local landscape.”

The design retains the original building’s ramp and adds a new external seating area to provide easy access for disabled people.

The limited on-site parking space in the existing car park can be supplemented with extensive under-utilised overspill public parking to the north, approximately 100 metres away.

A modest new ‘way-finding’ canopy was also designed to be installed over a new set of steps leading to the main entrance on the lower deck.

The building will offer extensive views through glazed areas with options for solar and ‘ambience’ control through the use of fixed external and moveable internal shutters.

The original WCs will be retained for public use and there will be provision for new bicycle stands to encourage green travel to and from the site.

TS Associates

Le Clios De Thee, St Lawrence

In March 2017, TSA were commissioned to produce designs for the remodelling of this semi-derelict 18th century property, in a project carried out by main contractor Simon Hickey.

The development incorporates a granite-built house, a detached redundant barn to the east and a small outbuilding to the west, with the brief being to sensitively adapt these historic farm buildings.

This included remodelling, renovating and extending the original house to provide a comfortable home suitable for contemporary family living, complete with a loft conversion and conservatory.

Other works included renovating and converting the original barn to form two two-bedroom cottages for holiday letting, each with dedicated parking and gardens and a new foul drainage system.

The project also included improving the parking arrangements and general vehicular access.

Further elements of the scheme included alterations to banking to the rear of the property to alleviate technical issues associated with poor drainage.

Tim Skudder commented: “One of the main challenges of the scheme was that the buildings were fairly dilapidated initially, so a great deal of restoration work was required as well as construction. In the case of the barn building for example, parts of the structure had collapsed and there was extensive cracking through the walls. However Simon Hickey did a great job adopting a specialised craft approach to the scheme with great attention to detail.”

 

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