Sow Space

We really enjoyed working with simon on our building project. he kept on top of all the deadlines, planning applications etc. and he was very knowledgeable and creative. he was also excellent at listening to what we wanted and making that happen. highly recommended!

Simon was a terrific help in getting our project set out and organising things for us. he was really helpful in taking our thinking and turning it into great design solutions and a practical plan for implementation. i wouldn't hesitate to recommend sow space if you're looking for help making your building project come to life.

Simon chung, reference for 35 bedford st., oxford, green retrofit david merrill 23 august my aim with the retrofit was to get off gas and do something wonderful and modernist with my kitchen at the back of the house. simon helped me to get to the point where i had an idea of what should be done. there were many drawings and explanations of the technical details. simon is very thorough in his approach to the green retrofit, so not only getting off gas but using building materials that were renewable and upheld the highest green standards. we used lots of very think wooden fibre insulation inside the house at the decorative front of the house and outside on the plain rear. getting off gas we accomplished with an air source heat pump. of course, i would not have known how to proceed with that without his expertise. all of this, the insulation and installing the ashrp was a major operation, which required me vacating my house for six months. once work began success largely depended on the chief builder and his team. the contractor, alex mccarthy was recommended to me by simon as someone who had internalised the commitment to green building. alex turned out to be a builder with multiple expertises and the drive to get things done, able to put together a team that achieved the targets simon and i had set by the deadlines we had agreed. i am grateful to simon for recommending this individual who so well fitted the job. my relation with simon throughout the job was always good humoured as well as professional, a manner of working that extended to the actual workmen on the site. i was opening my home to all of them for a long time and by and large we all got along. there are too many technical details for me to keep track of from choosing and fitting the windows and doors to working out the ashp and two new bathrooms’ plumbing. yet it all works, fits into my house neatly and when you notice it, all pleasant to the eye. finally, simon kept on in a supervisory role after his plans were completed. though i had to pay extra for this, it was a great help with keeping on top of both the work and the billing. what makes our project such the boost to the lived experience of my home is the conversion of the rear kitchen, widening it to the full width of the house, adding veluxes to the new roof space, installing a completely glass rear door and then adding a patio on the same plane as the kitchen floor. simon even kindly indulged me by exposing the i-beam on the inside side of of the kitchen and then supported it with two exposed steel columns, all in the spirit, to my mind, of gropius. of course, now it is this room that is the heart of the place with the most attractive aspects, plenty of wonderful sunlight and for last winter, snugly warmest. there were several technical challenges in transforming the kitchen, including a lot of manual heavy lifting by the workers that i never saw or properly appreciated, along with digging out, again by hand, space for ventilation and foundations under the kitchen. all in all, we achieved a successful blend of the early twentieth century original, up to the minute green renovations plus modernistic touches all in balance. when i think about what has been achieved i am very grateful for simon’s stewardship of it all plus the expert and hard work of alex and his team.

We really enjoyed working with simon and paola - the personal approach, the genuine interest they showed in our own thinking was a much appreciated approach - they were very flexible and responsive to your requests and questions and we felt supported every step of the way. i definitively recommend sow space for people looking for environmentally responsible designs. thank you!

We found working with simon very straight forward and satisfying. we had some clear ideas of what we wanted, and he was good at making space for those, and together we have created a home which is really beautiful, comfortable and to a very high environmental spec - a high b which is incredibly rare in flo park houses. thanks simon, we love our house!