There’s just something very welcoming about a portico. Not only does it provide shelter from the rain when opening the door on a purely practical level, but aesthetically it also provides depth and interest to the façade of a building.

A portico can also set the tone of the experience of being in the building, from the very grand and formal, to the more relaxed and welcoming as seen here. The portico on this country house in the South Downs is elegantly restrained so as not to feel overpowering and is immaculately executed by Agincourt Contractors.

Being asked back to work on a project we designed originally is always very nice, like catching up with an old friend you haven’t seen in a long while.

If nothing else it is reassuring when one revisits to see again that the ideas we had in the studio translated well into the finished building and to observe how it has become the treasured house and home we always hoped it would be.

We’ve recently been invited back to a country house we designed in Berkshire over a decade ago to extend it sympathetically and ensure it evolves to suit the changing needs of the family who have owned it since new. We look forward to sharing the progress with you as things develop.

It is not unusual that a client will approach us with a site which already has a building on it, sometimes we can work with the existing buildings, sometimes there are too many issues with the existing building to make this feasible and sometimes it is just in the wrong place. By examining all the options we can deliver a design which fully exploits the opportunities a site presents to provide the optimal solution.

These before and after photos show an example of this where a distinctly poor example of a 1960s/70s house was replaced by this Georgian inspired design in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The more historic wing at the front was retained and carefully repaired to act as an annexe.

Some things seem simple at first glance. To get the effect we were striving for with the brickwork on this property in Wiltshire, we had to select the bond, chose the brick (handmade by Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC), specify the mix of lights and darks, select the aggregate mix to give the desired colour and texture for the lime mortar, specify the joint thickness (5mm rather than 10mm), and then oversee the work on site with co-operation from the excellent brickwork sub-contractor and main contractors. The outcome looks effortless, making the great effort worthwhile. Suffice to say everyone's hard work was rewarded by the project being shortlisted for The Brick Awards run by the Brick Development Association (BDA).