Introduction
Having completed academic training at Cambridge University, my architectural education began in the office of Demetri Porphyrios and continued by working on the completion of St. Edmundsbury Cathedral for Brother Stephen Dykes Bower and then in Cambridge for Henry Freeland on a large number of ecclesiastical projects. I have always been fascinated by the Arts and Crafts Movement (my great-grandfather worked for Past Master Sir Edwin Lutyens) and so was honoured to become a member of the Art Workers Guild in 1998. I was elected Honorary Architect to the Guild in 2005.
I work from Leamington Spa as an Associate at Rodney Melville and Partners, specialising in work on historic buildings. My architectural work is informed by Arts and Crafts sensibilities and I seek to continue to apply them in the alteration, extension and repair of historic buildings and to new work.
Biography
Career Summary
Rodney Melville & Partners, Leamington Spa:
(from August 1999, Senior Architect from 2002, Associate from 2005)
Working exclusively on historic buildings, including for the National Trust, Landmark Trust, Churches Conservation Trust, church PCC’s and institutional and private clients.
Work for the National Trust:
Ashdown House – refurbishment of South Lodge
Baddesley Clinton – new tea room servery
Canons Ashby House – Quinquennial Inspection, repairs to garden walls, new tea room. See Museums in Britain Magazine, Issue 4, 2000, p.31.
Hardwick Hall – new Park Centre building, new Museum Rooms display
Hidcote Manor Garden – designs for visitor facilities
King Johns Hunting Lodge, Axbridge - property architect
Work for the Landmark Trust:
Astley Castle, Warwickshire – sketch designs for conversion to Landmark
West Banqueting House and Almonry, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire – repair and conversion to Landmark. See RICS Building Conservation Journal, Autumn 2003. Commendation in the RICS Awards 2004 and received a special award in the 2004 Royal Fine Arts Commission Building of the Year Award.
Clavell Tower, Dorset – designs for conversion to Landmark
Work on churches:
All Saints, Burton Dassett, Warwickshire – Quinquennial Inspection, minor repairs, rewiring
St. Mary & St. Margaret, Castle Bromwich, Birmingham – repairs to South Aisle roof and masonry
All Saints, Chadshunt, Warwickshire – new monument
St. Leonard, Charlecote, Warwickshire – specification of repairs to spire
St. Peter, Dunchurch, Warwickshire – Quinquennial Inspection, appointed church architect
All Saints, Leek Wootton, Warwickshire – new nave altar rails
St Peter & St Paul, Wolverhampton - proposals for reordering
Work for Institutional clients:
Apethorpe Hall, Northamptonshire – Repairs Notice
Aston Hall, Birmingham – designs for conversion of Stables, Quinquennial Inspection
Great Barr Estate, Walsall - designs for conversion of Hall and new housing in grounds
Moseley Road School of Art, Birmingham – Quinquennial Inspection, Conservation Plan
Old Repertory Theatre, Birmingham - Fabric condition report, repairs to plaster ceiling
Perrott’s Folly, Edgbaston, Birmingham – feasibility study, specification of urgent repairs
Work for Private clients:
Englefield House, Berkshire – extension to Long Gallery, new south garden door
Evenley Hall, Northamptonshire - designs for extensions and alterations
Magpie House, Honington, Warwickshire – designs for extensions
The Mount, Silchester, Hampshire – timber frame repairs
Wardington Manor, Oxfordshire – repair following fire damage
Freeland Rees Roberts Architects, Cambridge:
(May 1996 to August 1999, Associate from May 1998):
Assistant to Henry Freeland working on conservation projects on a large number of historic buildings including work for the National Trust, the Churches Conservation Trust, Cambridge Colleges and individual PCC’s. Principal projects included:
St. Mary, Hardwick, Cambs - repairs to spire and tower parapets, repointing
St. Mary, Swaffham Bulbeck, Cambs - scheme for reordering including new carved screen
St. John, Waterbeach, Cambs - measures to combat damp, repointing south clerestory, conservation of stained glass, scheme for new church hall and conservation work to chancel
St. Peter, Birch, Essex - scheme for repairs and conversion to arts centre of redundant church
St. Martin, Colchester, Essex - reroofing chancel, repointing whole church, buttress repairs, reglazing all windows, security measures, new south porch gates
St. James, Stanstead Abbotts, Hertfordshire - new altar rails
Ickworth House, Suffolk - restoration of glazed laylight, reroofing of East Wing, fire precautions, scheme for lightning protection, scheme for reroofing West Link
Downing College, Cambridge - reroofing, internal alterations including construction of new stone newel staircase,
Stanstead Bury, Herts: scheme for barn conversion and extension to form new house
Bourn Village Hall, Cambs: scheme for extensions and alterations
Warwick Pethers with Purcell Miller Tritton & Partners, Lavenham (August 1995 to April 1996)
Preparation of drawings for the completion of St. Edmundsbury Cathedral to the designs of the late Brother Stephen Dykes Bower, in particular the new North Transept, Outer North Aisle Chapel and Cloister, for the Dykes Bower Trustees. Submission of first Millennium Fund application. Survey drawings of the existing Tower base.
Demetri Porphyrios Associates, London (June 1993 to July 1995)
Squash Courts for Magdalen College, Oxford, as part of the Longwall Quad scheme. As assistant to the Project Architect, I saw all stages of the project and used this as my Part III case study. See Porphyrios Associates (Andreas Papadakis Publisher, 1999).
Extension to the town of Spetses, Greece: Low density urban design incorporating a series of specially formulated standard details. See Architecture Today, January 1996.
Education
Cambridge University School of Architecture (Magdalene College):
1995: RIBA Part III
1994: MA (Hons)
1993: Diploma in Architecture - Commendation
1990: BA (Hons) - Grade II.1
Publications
“Basil Oliver and the End of the Arts and Crafts Movement” in Architectural History, Vol. 47, 2004, pp.329-360.
“Stephen Dykes Bower, Architect: His Work at Magdalene College, Cambridge” in Magdalene College Magazine and Record. No. 41, 1996-7, pp.34-43.
“Asplund’s Villa Snellman: The Dwelling as a Problem” in Scroope, Issue 5, 1993/4, pp.20-23.
Personal
2005: Elected Honorary Architect to the Art Workers’ Guild.
1993: Phoenix Award for Memorial Design, Third Prize - Crematorium scheme, Dartmoor.
1985: RIBA under 18’s competition, First Prize - Home for Prince William, Scotland.
Contact details
Work tel: 01926 881311
Website: http://www.rodneymelvilleandpartners.com
Send this member an email
Image Gallery
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Title: New Staircase, Downing College, Cambridge
Media: Perryfield Whitbed Portland stone
Description: This project was carried out whilst I was an Associate at Freeland Rees Roberts Architects and was part of a scheme to repair a building of 1818-21 by William Wilkins.
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Title: New Entrance to Long Gallery, Englefield House, Berkshire
Media: Hand made red bricks in lime mortar with Stoke Ground stone dressings
Description: This building complements the varying materials of this large country house of Tudor origins with Victorian facades. The coat of arms over the archway was carved by Brother Tim Crawley.
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Title: Dining Table
Media: Seasoned English oak
Description: The table top has full thickness double dovetail joints and is supported by a central stumpy column. It is surrounded by new locally made chairs designed by Brother Ernest Gimson.
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Title: West Banqueting House and Almonry, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire
Media: Cotswold stone to walls and roof
Description: These two early seventeenth century buildings within the grounds of a ruined ‘prodigy’ house have been put in sound order so that they form holiday accommodation for the Landmark Trust.
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Title: New Staircase in West Banqueting House, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire
Media: Seasoned English oak
Description: A newel staircase has been ingeniously inserted within an awkward space in a former garderobe to provide a link between two floors whilst satisfying the requirements of the Building Inspector.