Serendipity made me purchase Alder. I was in the RIAS bookshop in Rutland Square to buy a much more prosaic Minor Works building contract when I spotted Alder and on...

A deep green retrofit is always going to be more sustainable than switching from fossil fuels to renewables – and is much more sustainable than building new. This is being...

It’s very rewarding to have a client who is dedicated to bringing old buildings back to life. Not only does it help preserve the heritage and character of the area, it...

Our hempcrete house near Dunbar is going up much faster than we expected. In fact, the construction process is quicker than for an equivalent timber-framed house. This is because the...

Our client has moved into her new, four-bedroom Passivhaus in central Edinburgh. It was quite a journey, through Covid and escalating material costs, but we got there and the client...

Originally, the intention was to raise the roof of this modest Georgian home – a converted barn on a steading in Midlothian – to provide more accommodation for a growing...

Halvorsen Architects are lucky enough to have water features going into two current projects. Last week I visited one that’s going beside a new hempcrete house outside Dunbar. It will be...

Halvorsen Architects have just finished an extension to and remodelling of a house in Winchburgh, West Lothian. The core of this house was a 19th-century cottage which has been extended...

I went on my first ever tour of a working quarry last week. Given my main focus is on ecological architecture, the type of quarry came as a surprise. Kelhead,...

Mass housing developments are the scourge of the countryside. They’re often built without any infrastructure and there has typically been no obligation for developers to consider the wider context of...

Retrofitting our existing housing stock to make it fit for 21st century living is a win-win. Though not cheap, it is an investment in the long-term for people and planet....

The train pulled into the small station of Dunkeld alongside an abandoned station building. I had arrived in rural Perthshire for the  Rural Housing Scotland conference 2023. The walk to...

The nineteenth century prime minister Benjamin Disraeli proposed publicly hanging architects for designing boring buildings.  I found this out from a recent article in Building which, to commemorate its 180th...

Halvorsen Architects was recently commissioned to design a forest school nursery, which will have a ‘playful’ natural water-treatment system at its heart. While we have done several ecological nursery buildings, this is...

ECAN’s (Edinburgh Chartered Architects Network) visit to High Sunderland near Selkirk in the Scottish Borders was a timely reminder that architecture is not just about retrofit, energy saving and ecological...

Is this the dawn of the ‘wood age’? The stone, iron, bronze, glass and steel ages all benefited from wood but now it is now the turn of this ancient,...

Another Passivhaus building designed by Halvorsen Architects is currently under construction in western Edinburgh. Edinburgh City Council granted planning permission for the new four-bedroom, two-storey contemporary house in 2020. Due...

I was entranced by this simple but elegant roof from London-based Tsuruta Architects. Responding to a north facing and sunken site the architect has designed an exquisite timber dia-grid roof whose...

Planning permission has been approved for a new building at Happy Days nursery Hardengreen branch in Midlothian. It is located in mature woodland and is a playful take on a...

SEDA’s Report ‘A New Vision for Land Use in Scotland: 6 Conversations’ was released on Monday. It summarises the key themes that emerged in the highly successful events of the...

Concrete accounts for 8% of CO2 emissions, far higher than aviation at 2.5%. So if we are to help stop climate change we need to stop using concrete. Even the...

With one of my other hats on I am an events organiser for The Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA). Since SEDA members are predominantly architects most of our events are...

The new community centre in Gorebridge – The Beacon – came into its own during lockdown. While central and local governments struggled to respond quickly to the pandemic, The Beacon...

It was with great joy that I received some photos from an Edinburgh client of their wild flower garden blooming this spring. It has been frustrating not to be able...

Covid-19 update As the coronavirus outbreak continues, Halvorsen Architects’ thoughts are with our customers and friends at this challenging time. We recognise that you have many priorities, but we want...

Halvorsen Architects have just finished major works to a house in the Grange, a conservation area on Edinburgh’s south side which was first developed as an early suburb from the 1820s. ...

Last night I helped organise a Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA) event about the harmful effects of the fast fashion industry. Held in the David Hume Tower, George Square, Edinburgh,...

Last week Gorebridge Community Development Trust held a party to celebrate the opening of the Gorebridge Beacon, our new community centre, earlier this year. Trust members and staff, funders and...

Halvorsen Architects recently finished an extension to and remodelling of a 1970s house in Dunbar, East Lothian. A sun room, at the heart of the house, links the principal rooms...

Last month I visited Shepherd House, Inveresk, where I have carried out several small projects and was delighted to see wild strawberries growing on the green roof of the potting...

A group of ecologically-minded people gathered in Forres to visit a collection of inspiring sustainable enterprises, hear some stimulating talks and exchange green ideas. Having spent the previous couple of...

The venue was more Bohemian than most – the top floor of a celebrated French restaurant in Soho. I had been asked to give a talk about nursery design by...

The children of Happy Days nursery, Dalkeith, wait with anticipation while they watch their handmade pizzas cook in their new pizza oven. The oven arrived with mesh around the insulation...

Last Wednesday I organised the latest community workshop at Newbyres castle – a 16th century ruin in the heart of Gorebridge. The day was lead by Piers Dixon, an archaeologist...

Earlier this month I organised a CPD to unravel the complexities – claims and counterclaims – around the renewable energy sector. Several independent experts gave their views on how to...

I recently attended the book launch of “100 Sustainable Scottish Buildings” by SEDA (Scottish Ecological Design Association). I strongly recommend it to everyone. As Robin Harper (SEDA’s patron) said “It...

Last week I was in Slovenia for a tour of Riko’s timber factory in Ribnica, about an hour’s drive south of the capital Ljubljiana. I was invited there to look...

Horntails, or wood wasps, have made their nests in the internal oak trees supporting the roof of Halvorsen Architects’ recently completed Happy Days nursery extension, along with several other species of insect!...

At last a skyscraper that is not yet another phallic symbol.  Herzog & de Meuron, architects of Tate Modern, have designed Beirut Terraces, a residential tower in the Lebanese capital. This beautifully...

Good article about new ways of looking at classroom design by John McDermott of the Economist. Just what I am doing for Happy Days nurseries.

Planning permission has now been granted for a new nursery building that we have designed for Happy Days, in Eskbank, Midlothian. Midlothian Council planners refused to give consent last December,...

Despite the bitter cold over 20 volunteers and archaeologists turned up this week to spend a day clearing vegetation around the little-known ruin of Newbryres castle in Gorebridge town centre....

I never really took to the yellow RIAS architects signboard. So I designed my own. Here is the finished product on site at Happy Days nursery, Dalkeith.

I organised an afternoon of CPD talks last week entitled ‘Breathability and low energy retrofit’. The session, organised for ECAN and a joint event with CIBSE, was held at the RIAS,...

Last week I spent another glorious day surveying trees in woodland near Abbey St. Bathans in the Scottish Borders. These are to be used as posts and beams in two new...

Halvorsen Architects was recently granted planning permission to enlarge Happy Days nursery near Edinburgh, for a design that reinforces the pre-school facility’s green ethos. The client, Genesis, which owns and...

Marijuana may be great for getting high, but the architectural value of cannabis is in the industrial hemp that forms a vital ingredient of products including hempcrete. Hempcrete is low-tech...

Marco Biagi MSP, minister for local government and community empowerment, visited Gorebridge Community Development Trust in August. It was a valuable meeting and gave us the opportunity to quiz him about...

Here are a couple of recent extensions to sandstone Georgian houses in Midlothian, both using a timber frame, timber cladding and large areas of glass. Both use Siberian Larch as the...

Last year a colleague asked me to join her in designing an installation that represents DNA and it’s unchecked mutations that can lead to cancer. She is a poet and...

This is an article that I wrote that appeared in the latest issue (No. 36) of AHSS – The Magazine of the Architectural Heritage of Scotland. I was asked to...

Work has started on the new £2m Community Hub in Gorebridge, Midlothian! After six years of brain storming, planning, consultations and negotiations with all the stakeholders we have finally arrived....

It is Spring, or so we are told. I have had the best skiing in Scotland for a long time. Who needs the Alps. I have just returned from visiting...

One of the highlights of last year for me was working with P7 pupils from Tynewater Primary School on a community project to build a wooden ‘hut’ which cantilevers over...

Edinburgh Chartered Architects Network (ECAN), the largest network of small architectural practices in Scotland, held an exhibition at the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) to celebrate its tenth...