After a conservation assessment by MBA on behalf of Oriel College, Oxford, a proposal for new eco-housing scheme is submitted for planning to Oxford City Council.

The housing will be used by Fellows and graduate students of Oriel College, Oxford and is to be constructed on the site of a medieval leper colony in the Bartlemas Conservation Area which has been owned by the college since 1329.

Planning and listed building consent has been achieved for the conversion of two Grade II* Listed houses dating from the 1720s back into townhouses. The buildings, located on Great James Street in Mayfair, London, had been combined in the early C20 into an office.

Following on from a successful theatre design for the Willington School in the heart of Wimbledon, MBA have been asked to provide an imaginative scheme for a new playground.

Marcus Beale commented “We are delighted to be working with, landscape architect, Aileen Shackell on this project and get the benefit of her expertise to suggest a scheme that the children will find stimulating, exciting and even slightly dangerous, embodying best practice for architecting supreme play spaces from across the EU.”

The practice has formed a Sustainability Research Unit to demonstrate MBA’s practical application of its sustainable principles on past, current and future projects. This will focus on the economic, social and environmental strategies embedded in MBA’s designs.

The unit is the responsibility of James Donlon, an Associate of MBA. He is supported by Robin Bates who has extensive job-running experience of complex residential and conservation projects.

James is the project architect for the design of Oriel College Oxford’s new houses for fellows and graduates, located in the Bartlemas Conservation Area. This scheme embodies MBA’s key sustainability principles, incorporating:

• Closed loop ground source heat pump
• Exploitation of passive solar gain through orientation, shading and solar chimneys
• Biomass fuel burner
• Triple glazing to windows
• Bio-diverse green roofs
• Breathing walls of timber frame construction with sheep’s wool insulation

Due to the on-going growth in our architecture practice,  MBA have moved to a new home in the heart of Wimbledon:

The Old Post Office,
1 Compton Road,
Wimbledon,
London.
SW19 7QB

The purpose built post office was converted in the 1990s to provide an elegant double height space with mezzanine above. The move allows plenty of space for the expanding team of architects and provides MBA with good meeting and library facilities.

Located in the centre of Wimbledon next to the Library, the new office preserves good transport links and gives MBA a street presence.