Tommy Jay Architects Ltd is a London-based architectural practice, specialising in sustainability, heritage and the home.
Initial Consultation
This is free and can be arranged here. Talking points typically explore:
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Project milestones
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Costs and resourcing
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Site challenges and opportunities
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Conflicting requirements
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Planning queries
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General curiosity
Architectural Services
TJA offer end-to-end architectural services from concept to completion:
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Measured surveys and briefing drawings
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Feasibility studies and concept design
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Planning applications for challenging sites
- Working with Listed buildings and Conservation Areas
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Visualisation for fundraising and marketing
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Coordinating with engineers, builders, planning officers, etc
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Drawings and schedules for pricing
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Project management
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Administration of contract between client and builder
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Interior design
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Maintenance and conservation design
To suit different needs the work can cover a range of requirements or be trimmed to a lite programme. Examples of TJA's work can be seen here.
Sustainability
Whether adapting old housing stock to modern standards or building anew, TJA promote a fabric-first approach, maximising the performance of the building envelope before investing in new MEP equipment. This is about insulation, air-tightness and smart use of thermal mass, solar-gain and natural ventilation. Other sustainability considerations include lighting, drainage, biodiversity and running costs, but the most valuable starting point is to explore the potential in what has already been built.
Heritage
We are custodians of our built past. Reciprocally the built past must also be custodian of our present. TJA understand this relationship and enjoy the research that underpins designing within sites of historic significance. It requires care and confidence and the result should be a celebration of both old and new.
The Home
TJA began with projects for people adapting to new ways of working and being at home in 2020. The architecture of domestic life remains the focus of the practice, working across a range of budgets and typologies - room, flat, maisonette, townhouse, summerhouse, garden, campus and even a Dutch barge. Home means different things to different people and that’s what interests TJA. The process of creating or adapting that home should be exciting and rewarding. However, people can easily become alienated from this process by the officious language of architects, planners and builders. TJA believe architects should instead be empowering people to shape their built environment, using drawings as a collaborative tool with which constraints and opportunities can be explored and understood - from start to finish - diagram to detail. Good design matters, especially where we live. After all, home is where we start from.
Tommy Jay
BA (hons), Dip Arch, ARB, RIBA
Tommy is an ARB-registered architect, a chartered member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and founding Director of TJA. TJA began with a piece of furniture for working from home. Then came an allotment project with Tommy's neighbours, followed by a number of home alteration projects for friends. Under lockdown these were for people adapting to new ways of working and being at home. The company was subsequently established in 2021.
Prior Experience
Tommy worked for six years at Wright & Wright Architects in London. This involved working alongside exceptional clients, architects and collaborators to deliver ambitious library, gallery and museum projects on challenging historic sites, such as Lambeth Palace and the Geffrye Museum. He worked directly with Project Partners across all work stages - concept design through to planning applications and technical design through to construction.
School
Tommy graduated from Cardiff School of Art in 2010 and Kingston School of Art in 2014. Education in those schools was about neither the grandiose gestures of masterplanning nor the minutiae of facade detailing - it was first and foremost about people. This awoke an interest in architecture as a social art.
Teaching, Writing, Drawing, Making
Alongside practice, Tommy's other work has involved:
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Technical tutor for Modern Gazetteer’s postgrad studio at Birmingham City Uni
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Drawing tutor for Assemble’s undergrad studio at the Architectural Association
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First Year Lecturer at Kingston University
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Drawing tutor at the Royal Fine Art Commission’s summer school at Hauser & Wirth, Somerset
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Publications online and in print about the design of learning environments, campus architecture, student housing, special collections and listed buildings
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'Theatre Going' - Artwork for Hackney Empire to support theatres in the UK
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'History of the Geffrye' - Artwork now part of the Museum Of The Home's collection
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'The Kid of Ithaca' - Illustrations for an adventure novel set in ancient Greece
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Pavilion for Wandsworth Council
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Furniture and decor for Gottwood Festival in Anglesey
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Furniture and decor for Gingerline's immersive restaurant adventures
