Clients, colleagues and friends came together to celebrate Baca’s 10th Birthday this October.  The party was a double celebration, with guests enjoying popcorn along with the canapes and wine as they watched the debut screening of the Baca-designed Amphibious House on C4s Grand Designs. The party was hosted at Director Robert Barker’s fabulous Forest Mews Home,  recently nominated for further awards for its design and innovative use of materials.  Baca would like to thank everyone who could make it on the night and has been a part of making the company the success it is today.  We look forward to the next exciting decade.      

The Architecture Review ‘Water & Architecture’ video series has now gone live to coincide with the debates coming up at the Old Royal Naval College. It is good to see and hear the issues and opportunities being seriously discussed. Watch the Architecture & Water documentary Part 1: A river runs through it https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=570&v=oeEuXrT-cCA    ​

The Practice is delighted to have been asked to present to a group of visiting Chinese officials on Monday the 27th of October at the Town and Country Planning Association.  The twenty Chinese delegates, largely from Guangzhou’s Zengcheng District, are local government officials working in the areas of water, planning, land resources and environmental bureaus.  The presentation will focus on the Practice’s specialist expertise of designing with water. Baca projects that will be discussed include: – The award-winning LifE Project (Long-term Initiatives for Flood risk Environments) for DEFRA– Flood resilient typologies, including our , Amphibious House, Elevated House and Hybrid House – Island Veur Lent, Netherlands - Holland’s most ambitious room for the River Project, designed by Baca and Winner of Best Global Masterplan at MIPIM 2014– Zac Seine, Paris - the Practice’s proposals for a France’s largest new scheme, a flood resilient district of 4,500 new units and a new park.– Future City, Shanghai – a life study for a speculative city of £1 billion in Shanghai featured in our new book, ‘Aquatecture‘, published by RIBA Publishing in the New Year     

We are pleased to announce that the practice has been shortlisted for One off house Architect of the Year – sponsored by Duravit. Ours feature new homes this year include Serenity House (an ambitious passivehaus for lottery winners), The Amphibious House, Forest Mews and Brook Street.These houses can be found in our brochure on our Bacahomes website:        ​

Three water-related projects from Baca feature in a stunning new book, ‘Built on Water’, that has just been published by Braun.  The impressive hardback book, by Lisa Baker, showcases some of the best in innovative designs that demonstrate different approaches to dealing with water as an architectural element. Baca’s The Crown floating village with Water Studio, floating racetrack concept and Amphibious House are all impressively presented with illustrations and accompanying explanations.  The timing of the book’s release coincides perfectly with the appearance of the Amphibious House on Channel 4’s Grand Designs show at 21:00 on Wednesday the 15th of October 2014.Built on Water is available for purchase via the following link  http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/episode-guide   Follow us live on twitter during the show@Baca_Architects     

The Amphibious House will be unveiled for the first time at 21:00 on Wednesday the 15th October on Channel Four’s Grand Designs show this week. It has been a challenging design and even more challenging build. What an amazing project to work on. We are pleased to see it nearing completion. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/episode-guide   Follow us live on twitter during the show@Baca_Architects     

Baca director, Robert Barker, has received two shortlists for his own house, Forest Mews. Not only did the judges recognise the scheme in the best housing development category but they also recognised the complexity of building the delicate brick piers and shortlisted the scheme for the Innovative use of Brick and Clay Products. If you think it is worthy of winning the Architect’s choice award, please cast your vote here: http://www.brick.org.uk/best-housing-development-1-5-units/  http://www.brick.org.uk/innovative-use-of-brick-and-clay-products/                   ​

 Another great Open House weekend this year and we were delighted to be featured in the catalogue under Design for Living. The day was completely booked up with people coming from Ipswich and Bournemouth specifically to see Forest Mews. One visitor said ‘Really inspiring talk by Robert – has further excelled my interest in smaller scale residential architecture. Thank you both for taking the time to show us around!’ And our favourite remark of the day was – ‘I would love to come back next year to see how the garden has grown’. Thank you for all of those who attended and thank you for your kind words of praise.        ​

Evening Standard’s Philippa Stockley meets Robert and Jessica Barker at Forest Mews. Robert and Jessica are featured on the front cover of this weeks Homes and Property in the wonderful Thomas Heatherwick golden spun chairs. Given a full tour of the house, Philippa was impressed by the attention to detail and exquisite finishing, not to mention the added value brought about by the architectural design. To read the full article on the Evening Standard website, click here           ​

Baca Architects is seeking enthusiastic and talented Part I, II and III Architects to join the vibrant established London studio, to work on a variety of projects in the UK and abroad. We offer good career progression opportunities in this growing practice. Please send a copy of your CV with illustrations of your work, by post, to Amy Dron: Baca ArchitectsUnit 1, 199 Long LaneLondon SE1 4PNjobs@baca.uk.comBaca is an equal opportunities employer.            ​