Roderick James
Roderick James, Architect
As By The Dart is always discovering, Dartmouth & its local villages attracts an eclectic mix of interesting and talented personalities, be they artists, entrepreneurs or professionals amongst others. One such is Roderick James, an architect and entrepreneur who has had a significant impact on how domestic architecture has evolved, particularly in the development of oak framed buildings.
Roderick James Architects LLP (RJA) is based in Totnes but By The Dart met Roderick at his personal office and home, Seagull House, in Dittisham, situated in a beautiful spot above a small creek. Indeed, sitting in the dramatic space of the oak framed extension to the house, we were able to see at first hand the idea from which grew a personal design style, subsequently refined and developed in hundreds of private homes across the UK, Europe, South Africa and the USA.
Roderick has a fascinating background, through which runs a common thread of an interest in architecture, materials and sustainability. Although in practice for more than 30 years, his passion for creating sustainable buildings was fired by his tenure as the first director of the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, Wales from its start in 1973 until 1980. This institution founded by Gerard Morgan Grenville, started small and a “bit hippy” but has since become highly influential in developing practical solutions to environmental problems and offers degrees in the new skills that are now much in demand.
In 1987, Roderick founded Carpenter Oak, partly, as he says “as a means of building my own house, here in Dittisham”. It soon grew into something much more substantial and rapidly became one of the market leading carpentry companies producing traditional and contemporary timber frames using e.g. green oak or Douglas fir. Working alongside his architectural practice, the original company at one time employed more than 60 carpenters developing the skills and quality of craftsmanship that set the company apart.
But as the business grew, Roderick found himself managing not designing so he stepped back from Carpenter Oak to concentrate on his architectural practice. Though his 12 architects still work closely with Carpenter Oak, they are just as at home with other materials such as stone or contemporary steel-framed buildings. They are also enthusiastic about emerging sustainable materials like homegrown sheeps’ wool from the Black Mountain company.
“We have a clear design philosophy,” says Roderick. “We want to design warm, friendly, textual buildings with dramatic spaces. They don’t have to be oak-framed but we look for simple, cost effective solutions that combine quality with local craftsmanship.” In the early days, Roderick could see that the growing demand to convert barns into living spaces was often wrecking the lovely spaces within. Better instead, to use traditional solutions and skills and create the oak frame from scratch but with more imaginative and bespoke solutions that took full advantage of the potential dramatic living space.
He is also passionate that the design process should be fun for anyone embarking on the journey of creating their own home. For those fortunate to pursue what is often a ‘dream’ for many, it is an opportunity to create something unique. “Not only should the process be fun,” says Roderick, “but so should the building. We strive to put the informality back into buildings, providing exciting, flexible, highly insulated spaces.”
“Versatility is a key advantage of new timber frame buildings, but it is also ideal for extensions or separate outbuildings. By allowing extensions to be built as outbuildings with a covered link to the main house, it is often possible to make buildings fit in less obtrusively with their surroundings.’
For this reason, Roderick believes the recently relaxed planning rules should allow the use of imaginative and simple timber-framed extensions and conservatories to be built that could transform how our homes look and work.
He also thinks that it is possible that more creative use of timber framing could help solve the growing need for affordable housing. He is passionate about how their design approach might be adapted to this end so long as it is not straight-jacketed by the often bureaucratic and policy driven demands of local planners or housing associations. He and his colleagues have developed a design, which uses simple, standardised timber frame solutions allowing a house to be affordably built but cheaply extended as a family grows.
In Roderick’s view, “too much spontaneity has been lost in the design and build process. We believe buildings need to be more responsive especially to the way our life patterns change and our need to change our living space. These events should be relatively straightforward and simple. With timber framed buildings they can be. Virtually all our buildings are one-off designs for individual clients and we rarely seem to duplicate work we have already done. If you’re building from scratch you may as well have what you want!” This approach obviously has great appeal to self-builders.
He also has firm views about the way we tackle home insulation. “So much rot is talked about how we should heat our homes. Central heating can waste so much energy by heating the whole house often for longer than is necessary. Different spaces should be heated differently and perhaps insulated differently. I wonder whether we should create an almost free ‘survival tariff’ for energy and electricity so as to ensure everyone is safe and then charge £1/kilowatt or equivalent, for everything on top; that way we would adapt our houses to run more efficiently in direct response to how we live our own lives. Perhaps in winter we should retreat to a small single space which can be easily and cheaply heated. In the long run, we would save energy but still be able to enjoy our homes to the full.”
Although his practice continues to be kept busy (120 individual projects this year for new homes, schools, extensions and cabins), Roderick himself is now focusing on master planning and more strategic work – looking at how new technologies and materials can be used in their designs as well as looking at marine projects, like houseboats, and developing ways to create more affordable homes.
Roderick’s passion for architecture and creating dramatic and successful buildings has clearly not diminished despite more than 30 years in the industry. With such enthusiasm combined with flair and great energy, it’s clear that he’s still having fun whilst bringing joy into the lives of his many clients.
Roderick James Architects LLP 01803 868000
www.rjarchitects.co.uk
Carpenter Oak Ltd 01803 732900
www.carpenteroak.com