Go with the flow

Recently we were writing our submission for the Mixology 2015 Design Awards and reviewing the project we completed last year for Brand Opus. When we first started on the project we had the luxury of time on our side and we spent a lot of that time thinking about flow. Making sure the organisation was laid out in the most optimum way was even more important due to the fragmented nature of the site, but once resolved, it seemed extremely natural. There was a great post on LinkedIn this week discussing the lack of time to think these days, and I suppose this really resonates with us in the context of the BO project.

Fast forward to 2015 and we've been working on a residential project in Birmingham which had similar problems. We were presented with an existing house which had already been the subject of expansion and with a further rear extension being planned, there was an opportunity to review how the entire ground floor might work. We were on tight budget and being very mindful of our client's cash, we started looking at a variety of different options on how to make the flow feel natural. The more we looked, the more we came to realise that by moving a guest bathroom 575mm we could connect the spaces in a very dynamic way and link the front and back of the house. 

It worked on paper, and whilst not in the original scope, our client was open enough to investigate a little more to evaluate the feasibility. Pretty much everything was against us in site. Drainage running the wrong way, load bearing walls to remove and problematic ventilation routes all conspired to make this scheme look too complex and invariably too expensive. Yet, the more we looked at it, the more sense it made and that went for the client too. The one small step became one giant leap of faith as the demolition started and after the normal hiccups on site, our client is now boasting he has (probably) the most expensive toilet in Birmingham, but as we all now, it's not about cost it's about value and this has delivered a lot! 

As a little added feature, we included a brilliant Artemide linear LED lighting solution which links all four walls and the ceiling - amazing!

A quick snap of the guest cloakroom (pending the final photo shoot)