Category: In-house

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Exciting times!

Zollikon has been hard at work for some time now on the new church development and final concept selection is about to take place from a short-list of two, before we prepare and submit the planning application. I would love to share details of the concepts with you – maybe later!

Elsewhere, old projects are now being built and yesterday a delayed planning decision on a listed building from early in the year was successful after some to-ing and fro-ing with the Heritage Officer – the client now has all he sought including a new granny annex, kitchen/dining/family room, study, walk-through library, boot room, dressing room, additional en suite, double-height glazed entry, lowered and reinstated parapet roofs, solar panels, landscaped approach, additional parking and other internal layout and fenestration improvements. It really is very satisfying to play a small part in helping a lovely young family achieve their dream home in a stunning location whilst also securing sustainable investment into a fantastic old heritage building.

Approaches continue from repeat clients and new enquirers who have heard of Zollikon by word-of-mouth, and there are now several very exciting avenues on the horizon for next year. Whichever path/s opens up, more in-house development work or some interesting partnership possibilities with great people who have proven track records in their specialist fields, 2020 is already looking good.

Of course, some of the most satisfying work is on individual homes and improvements for families, as mentioned above, so I very much intend to keep going with this fun and rewarding work too. I hope the feeling is mutual and very generous, unsought bonuses recently from two wonderful clients suggest something is right!

There is plenty more learning, hard work and mutual success waiting…

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Zollikon wins new church commission

It’s a great thing to see a new church being built in 21st century Britain. Particularly a decent sized one for several hundred people, in the beautiful grounds of a large Victorian gothic mansion which is celebrating its 150th birthday.

Zollikon is delighted and privileged to assist with the design, obtaining planning permission and build of this fantastic new worship, community and conference space for a thriving, exciting church.

Though in the early stages of involvement, there are already some fantastic, innovative ideas around the architecture and uses currently being researched and modelled, including one that would be a genuinely exciting UK first. The project’s previous scoping architects did excellent work to take several masterplans though 2 pre-application cycles with the Local Planning Authority, with Zollikon arriving to oversee the second pre-app LPA meeting and lead the project into its next phases.

As a Christian, it has been a real joy to join the current church in Sunday morning worship and to work with and chat through the week, to really try and understand the church’s vision and values. Highlights? The thumping dance music that crescendos as the service is about to begin, followed by the thumping sermon exhorting us to step out and make a difference, the mid-service coffee break, the passionate conversations I have had with members about their visions for the new church building, the servant hearts I’ve met who work hard to make the existing facilities work for the church and community, climbing up the narrow, winding steps of the gothic tower to survey the surrounding views of town and country… lots of highlights!

From really knowing and understanding the existing church community, the wider communities (including residential, educational and business), current stakeholders and tenants, the huge mansion, outbuildings and grounds – and holding these factors within the contexts of current technologies, budgets, multiple visions and more – Zollikon is synthesising the historic, the current and the sustainable future. And THAT, is indeed a privilege.

More to follow…

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The mighty Swiss!

I am only partly Swiss but last night I was very proud to support the Swiss team in a memorable 1-1 victory* over Brazil in the football World Cup!

A tiny country with less than 1/20th of Brazil’s population, yet FIFA ranked 6th in the world and able to stand up to tournament favourites. In Swiss culture, quality, community and excellence are a way of life.

Tonight I will be waving another red and white crossed flag, to proudly support the England team…

*Someone recently told me they had hesitated to contact me as they thought language might be a problem – foreign sounding company name, foreign sounding surname. I can understand their concern. I might split the odd infinitive but do have an English degree and sub-edited at The Times newspaper as a student (where the grammar advice was “read Jane Austen”).

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GDPR (not GPDR)

Couldn’t resist the title, of vague amusement to any planning wonk. (I must get out more!)

Zollikon has developed a strategy and process for ensuring compliance with the new privacy and data protection rules (General Data Protection Regulation) coming into force this month. If old / existing clients would like a copy, please do send an email.

I don’t believe most of the data Zollikon holds would be particularly sensitive and some of it becomes public record freely available on government websites anyway.

The basics are that Zollikon keeps digital data under lock and key, accompanied and/or passworded, with added online protection via updated virus-checking software. Paper records are cross-cut shredded once no longer needed. New clients will be asked to sign an agreement as to the collection, use, storage and disposal of private data from now on.

(If you would like information on GPDR – General Permitted Development Rights – again, please do make contact.)

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Cowpie

Yes, it’s that time of year and once again Zollikon is proud to support (providing showground CAD plans and then helping set out the showground fields for the dozens of stalls / exhibitors and many thousands of visitors) the Surrey Young Farmers as they put on their superb annual Cowpie Show.

This year the main attractions include “Big Pete and the Grim Reaper Monster Trucks” in the main arena, and BMX wizards the “Anti-Gravity Bike Show”, where you get to have a go if you’re brave enough! There’ll be lots of old favourites too – the hilarious Sheep Show, the terrifying Wall of Death, military vehicles, farm vehicles, etc, etc and of course farm animals, dogs, birds of prey, countless trade, food and drink stands, Medieval village, fun-fair rides…

I’ll be there, along with many thousands of others. It’s for a great cause and is a brilliant family day out. Maybe see you there?

The Cowpie Show is on Sunday 13th May 2018 this year, organised by the Surrey Young Farmers club. See http://www.cowpie.co.uk for more info and cheap advance tickets.

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8 customers in 1 road?!

Yes, remarkably, it’s true.

Zollikon Architecture’s eighth customer in the same road has just finished their extensive works across 4 floors – moving back into a transformed and much larger home just before Christmas.

By the way, all 8 customers came from word of mouth recommendations, not from advertising.

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New Year, New Start

Welcome to another year! 2018 holds much promise as Zollikon Architecture relaunches following a build sabbatical – an immensely tough and rewarding challenge.

Early this year we plan on giving the website a makeover and producing some printed marketing materials designed to bring useful information and benefits to interested clients. We are also looking at moving into a new office that enjoys a view over a golf course just 20 feet away through it’s panoramic glass wall. OK, OK so it’s a converted double garage but the location and aspect are truly inspirational!

Despite some incredibly long hours last year, somehow we also managed to find time to obtain and apply for planning for some more new flats on a brownfield site of our own. It’s always exciting to win planning applications, but when it is your own things are more personal and intense. Several clients have commented on how they appreciate the extra mile that Zollikon goes – which is largely thanks to having personal experience of the journey that clients go through. We should know more soon and whatever happens it will make a great case study before too long…

In the past year of ‘busman’s sabbatical’, Zollikon has only worked for two clients – the first project was for some friends with a growing family who needed a lower ground floor rear extension, two side-dormer extensions and complete remodelling to include: two new offices, new kitchen/diner, new bathroom, extra bedroom, extra en-suite, 2 new WCs, new utility room, three new staircases linking 4 storeys… all in a house at one time gutted by fire and all achieved under permitted development rights.

The other project is one wing-end of an 18th century grade 2 listed stately home set in glorious AONB woodland and overlooking a gently sloping garden, with ha-ha, paddock and fishing lake beyond. The clients have grand designs to extend and refurbish to very high standards and although busy, persuaded Zollikon to take on the project on the basis that we had previously succeeded with the other wing of the same house in what some hold to be a tricky planning district.

And so to 2018. We look forward to exciting new projects and challenges, to happy clients and a job well done. Carpe diem!

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Ashes

Long hours at the computer using CAD software, researching products or dis/proving a planning case can be hard on the eyes. A TV a few feet further away can help, but only if tuned to something that doesn’t distract too much from the work – looking up once every few minutes is ideal. It could be a news channel or even the Parliament channel but now we have… The Ashes!

Five day matches, quiet late nights, one or two runs an hour, perfect.

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Zollikon Architecture flats launched to market

When we bought our small terraced home in 2007, little did we know that 10 years later we would have successfully extended and converted it into 4 flats.

It has been a long, transformative, arduous, educational, profitable and ultimately uplifting process…

The site always had potential but it took some creative design to enable 4 viable flats on a very tight site. There was also quite a battle with the local planning authority who were fantastically unhelpful – and wrong! as proved when they were forced to accept the obvious merits of our case by the Planning Inspectorate at appeal.

Then there was the credit crunch mess of cowboy banks gambling too much (of taxpayers’ money) and then too little (to protect their bonuses?!). I will never forget one large lender withdrawing from the market telling me they were unwilling to lend for our flats in Surrey as flats were risky because “there are lots of unsold flats in central Manchester”! Words fail.

Then a widely recommended builder promptly went bust days before starting, leaving us with no option but to self-build to beat a fast-looming planning deadline. Later, the water company managed to dig up the footpath 7 times before getting it right and we had to synthesise and redraw 6 contradictory electrical supply technical plans from the statutory supplier into one definitive drawing which they immediately approved. So, not always easy.

On the positive side, it has brought a huge breadth and depth of hands-on knowledge, a tremendous feeling of satisfaction, a healthy profit and a fantastic contribution to the community and its housing stock within 10 yards of a busy London commuter railway station. Within days of launch an airline pilot and young couple wanted to move in, with many more viewings being booked. Neighbours and a local housebuilder have stopped by to congratulate and thank us on a job well done to improve the area. The first building directly opposite anyone leaving the railway station is now not a dilapidated eyesore but a bright, transformed development to welcome and lift the spirits of travellers.

I am glad now to have more time to spend on Zollikon Architecture again – and with much enhanced knowledge. Despite, or perhaps because of, the countless obstacles met and overcome through sheer bloody-minded hard work over years, the flats project will remain a source of pride (and hopefully income) for many years to come.

An artist selling inspirational artwork in Covent Garden recently reminded me of some powerful words by President Theodore Roosevelt:


“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

It still strikes a chord as I read it now. Thankfully, we met every defeat, and every armchair critic, with a victory.

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Why ‘Zollikon’?

Simply, it is a village near (now a suburb of) Zurich in Switzerland where my father, Peter Stehrenberger, came from. He was an amazing figure – from national 1500m running champion, to emigrating to the UK (on a moped, no cash for return petrol!) and Australia, to becoming Finance Director of one of the world’s leading media companies (and director of dozens more) despite having left school at 15.

Zollikon was once famous as the site of the world’s first ‘free’ or protestant church in the heady days of the reformation – a place capable of revolutionary, honest and brave thinking, belief and action. These days it perhaps more prosaically notable as one of the most exclusive districts in one of the richest countries in the world, with absurdly expensive property to match, it being on the favoured sunnier northern edge of Lake Zurich.

Although my Dad left to pursue his dreams (and to escape the flipside of Switzerland’s curated perfection – its endless rules), his old home was always a magical holiday destination for me as a child, with a warm family welcome after many hours of driving, night and day, from England.

So, roots, history, sense of self, honouring my Dad – deep memories never to forget. But also somehow an idealised aspiration – a destination worth always working towards.

That’s why. Tschüss!