It is a wonderful opportunity to showcase our work and, of course, Tom will be giving a masterclass in how to take the spark of an idea and work with your architect to create your dream home.

As well as highlighting our specialist work in one-off houses, sustainable building design and building conservation, we will also be presenting our small collection of off-the-peg designs which we hope will be of interest to self-builders as well as developers.

These designs can be fine-tuned to individual requirements, site orientation etc and we offer a range of support.

We are looking forward to working with quantity surveyor Craig McDougall from McDougall Surveyors http://www.mcdougallsurveyors.co.uk at the SECC. Craig will be on hand to offer advice and answer questions on budgets and costing – always one of the most important issues in the whole process of building a house.

He has been involved in the industry for more than 25 years and brings extensive skills and knowledge to this vital area.

The Scottish Homebuilding and Renovating Show runs on Saturday (10am to 5pm) and Sunday ( 10am to 4.30pm) at the SECC in Glasgow. Tom’s masterclass is at 3pm on Saturday.

Although the Danish firm, who were responsible for designing the new Aberdeen University Library, are much bigger, we share the same ethos. Schmidt Hammer Lassen have a focus on sustainability and bringing maximum natural daylight into buildings.

Fiona said: “I’ve got a particular interest in Schmidt Hammer Lassen because they place emphasis on the use of natural light as an integral part of the design process. Functionality is also key, as are all aspects of sustainability, so it’s very much in line with our philosophy.

“It’s always good to keep up to date on what is happening internationally and this year’s conference also features speakers from Berlin, Tokyo, New York and Moscow.”

LARGE BAY HOUSE from the "off-the-peg" range of designs

The flexibility of our “off-the-peg” designs was highlighted this week following a query from a client keen to sell on the vision of a well-designed, sustainable home.

Recognising his existing property, a timber bungalow, is not very valuable compared to the plot it sits on, he has opted to use one of our designs to apply for detailed planning permission in the hope this increases the value and appeal of his site.

This is just one of the ways in which Thomas Robinson Architects’ “off-the-peg” range of designs and services can be adapted to suit a particular requirement.

There are six different designs ranging from the compact Wood House that would suit first-time self-builders, downsizers, holiday letting or even small businesses, to a four-bedroomed Barn House, up to the Large Classic Bay with spacious public rooms and a large master suite with balcony. All these properties are extremely economical to run and align with Scottish Planning Policy – a benefit when applying for planning permission.

You can buy a range of services from a digital copy of the plans and elevations to a full architectural service covering design, detail and delivery stages.

For further information go to http://www.thomasrobinsonarchitects.co.uk/2/projects/By+Type/off-the-peg-houses/51/introducing-off-the-peg-designs-and-how-it-works

Congratulations to Hugh Petter of ADAM Architecture. Avenel Plot Three has been Highly Commended in the 2011 International Residential Property Awards. Thomas Robinson Architects are pleased to be executive architects on the project.

We are pleased to announce impressive airtightness test results from three of our projects last week. Congratulations to the builders who made this happened:

W. S. Dunsire – New House Strathblane: 2.29 m³/h×m²

R. G. Chalmers – Holiday Cottage No 1: 1.00m³/h×m²

R. G. Chalmers– Holiday Cottage No 2: 2.11m³/h×m²

In all of the above projects we aimed to achieve less than three. Results such as these are a major achievement and indicate that the comfort and efficiency performance standards that were aimed for in the design will be achieved.

To mark World Green Building Week TRA’s Tom Robinson attended the 2011 AECB ( Association of Environmentally Friendly Builders) conference in Nottingham. The AECB is a beacon for pushing up standards in low energy / low carbon building.  There were many  informative workshops on the application of Passivhaus methodology in retrofit projects including some practical workshops by builders who are rigorously practising these methods . It wasn’t all practical, one talk explored the extent to which low energy design has evolved and how this knowledge effects what well designed buildings look like today.