Luxury Design Merging The Contemporary And Historic

We speak to Julian Bicknell, the architect responsible for designing the new homes at the Magna Carta Park development in Englefield Green, Surrey, which as its name suggests, has a distinguished historical connection.

What was the attraction of this particular job?

The project at Magna Carta Park will have been the largest we have ever undertaken – the planning and detailing of over fifty homes. So it required urban planning and landscape design as well as the detailed design of the houses and apartments. In this we were guided by the John Thompson Partnership (John was a contemporary of mine at Cambridge and we worked together in the 1980s on the Prince of Wales Institute of Architecture). His team developed the strategic plan for the entire site, including the neighbouring student housing and affordable housing.

What aspects of contemporary design did you bring to this project?

The daily lives of those likely to live at Magna Carta will be very different from those of two centuries ago. So, although the buildings may feel traditional in certain respects, they are designed for contemporary life: with a much more informal family life; with the complete suite of labour-saving devices; and automatic controls throughout each house.

Carta Park is also an example of what is called the ‘New Urbanism’, developed some 30 years ago and advocated by, among others, the Prince of Wales Foundation for Architecture. This is the idea that housing developments can be compact and economical in their use of land – and at the same time, humane and relaxed in the manner of traditional towns and villages.

Magna Carta Park

Have you included any sustainable architectural features?

It is now a requirement of all domestic buildings that they have high-spec insulation, high-efficiency heating systems and a degree of green-energy technology – in this case solar panels. We also favour the use of long-lasting and renewable materials – brick, stone, slate, concrete, and timber – ensuring a maintenance-free life of many decades.

What was your favourite stage?

As with all projects, the most exciting time is the construction process itself. After months (or even years) of work in the office over designs, drawings, specifications, planning negotiations etc, the project suddenly becomes real. There are dozens of people involved, all of them working together to make something that no one of us could achieve on our own. It is always gratifying to work with the staff and craftspeople on site – and quite humbling to realise they are depending on our having done a good job so that they can do theirs.

How important has space, both internally and externally, been in the design of this project?

The spaces come first – both inside and out. The form and detail of the finished building is entirely governed by the site layout and the house plans – the practical and financial basis of any project.

There are many different architectural styles featured in this project. How did you manage to get them to work so beautifully together?

The various buildings may be different in their form and layout, in detail and in the choice of materials. But they are constructed using the same types of material and the same method of construction. They all belong to the same family although some are Victorian, some Georgian and some Queen Anne. We have also been at pains to design the spaces between buildings – to be simple, useful and well-organised.

How much were you influenced by the history of the site?

The signing of Magna Carta 800 years ago less than a mile from the site is indeed important to the stability of the world we now live in. And the more recent history of the landscape and the pre-existing buildings has influenced the layout.

Magna Carta Park

You have a successful 13-year working relationship with Royalton Residences – what's it like working together now after so much experience together?

Working with Royalton has been remarkably comfortable. From the first, Royalton have appreciated our efforts and been unstinting in their support. The fact that they have asked us to work with them on at least 18 projects speaks for itself.

This project has been ten years in the making. How do you feel now that it is complete?

For long periods, between the original conception of the project and the start of work on site, I sometimes thought it would never see the light of day. I am astonished and delighted that it is now built – and that those dreams of ten years ago were not pipe-dreams after all.

Take a video tour of Magna Carta Park: