Mole ArchitectsMole ArchitectsBuildings can take some while to get from the first spark of an idea to completion on site, and we are usually involved at every stage of the process. At any one time we will have buildings on site, and at the other end of the spectrum will be designing first concepts and testing out new ideas. Some projects take years to come to fruition, others are much quicker. All are the result of ambition and a great deal of hard work. All begin with someone with a spark of an idea and a desire for something beautiful, daring, and different.
We’ve just started a new project for a new house in Cambridge. Located in the Edwardian suburbs, it sits amongst detached substantial houses on spacious plots. The unusually shaped plot has led to a design that splits living spaces into two, separated by a courtyard onto which both halves look. From the street the tall front wall is topped by a lightweight second floor floating behind the large ash tree.
University BoatHouse
Design for film maker Martha Fiennes for a temporary housing within Covent Garden to project a moving-image artwork over Christmas. The grotto-like construction is made from stacked dark bricks with a roof of cross laminated timber. The underside of the timber is sprayed gold to give a sense of elemental shelter, and an illuminating presence.
Competition entry for a holiday house in point Clear, on the Essex coast. The architecture suggests the contingent occupation of this holiday outpost. Static caravans, breakwaters and concrete slipways sit alongside simple chalets facing the north sea.
Ideas for a new bridal suite as part of the refurbishment of a listed pub and gardens. The little building is designed to break up the outside space alongside the existing pub, creating two courtyards, one for parking, and one for dal fresco dining. Ideas for the building all stem from the idea of miniaturisation and are derived from a dovecote, a beehive, and a lantern. The resulting room/building is delicate and decorative and playful
Sitting within a conservation area, the site sits between arts and crafts Baillie Scott houses on one side, and flats by post-war modernists Sheppard Robson on the other.
This refurbishment of and addition to a listed cottage creates a series of very contemporary spaces with an intimacy and scale appropriate to the existing house. A stepped section improves the connection to the rear garden, and large windows to the south take advantage of sun and views to the village
A replacement house in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the Suffolk coast, designed as a low-key holiday home with a white brick base and metal roof- the colours of a seagull. The house has a twisting zinc roof that folds up to contain the master bedroom, giving the long, low house the feeling of flight. The linear plan makes the most of stupendous views over the marshes to the River Alde.
invited competition entry
Mole has worked in collaboration with architects Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and 5th Studio to create this housing scheme for developers Beyond Green. The 250 unit scheme is designed to Code 5, and is an embodiment of the developer’s ethos of ‘abundant green’. The scheme creates a series of car-free courts which are used as shared gardens, with parking under the gardens. Streets are imagined as active, with planting, greenhouses, all designed to ensure a very ‘liveable’ environment.
A new house in a walled garden to a listed building, located in Suffolk. The 4 bedroom house is designed as two interlocking cubes, with a circular stair at the point of intersection of the two. A change in level and a main room that opens to the front and the rear of the plot gives a compact house a sense of space and generosity.
Invited competition entry
Our invited competition entry- in collaboration with Rebecca Granger Architects- for a new yacht club in Poole Harbour is designed to ensure maximum view of the water, and includes a deck for summer activities, and a bar that spills out onto the lawn. Clad in ceramic or metal tiles for low maintenance, the building is designed to be constructed as a phased development to allow the club to continue in operation during construction.
