Prefab technology applied with singular purpose: the result is worth the effort put into every detail.

By thinking through everything we have succeeded in keeping the concrete walls, floors, ceilings, stairs completely unfettered and clean and pure. The route through the house is a toplit shimmering concrete causeway. Ascetic poetics.

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For their annual outing this year AJA took the train under the Channel to savour the extravagant Art Nouveau delights of Brussels, cycle around the architectural highlights of Antwerp, and enjoy chips with mayo, crisp northern light and Tintin.

If Antwerp – at the same latitude as Croydon - can have such a rich pavement life in their graceful cobbled streets and squares, in November, then why can’t we?

Now reborn as a slender tower of 29 smart student residences, right in the heart of Oxford, the new design once again won the full support of the planning officers and the planning committee as a radical solution to a tricky site, which will make a positive contribution to the city’s Central Conservation Area.

The key design decision here was not to pussy-foot around but to go for broke: the design does not take the easy path and mediate between its 3-storey and 7-storey neighbours. Instead the strategy is to disguise the ugly rear-end of the tall department store next door by matching it to its full height and effectively re-facing it with a sculptural architectural delight.

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The dynamic rippling brick wall of our small but special domestic leisure building has been shortlisted for a brick award in the “Innovative Use of Brick” category.

It’s up against much larger projects but the radical use of these wavy bricks – many of which had to have bespoke moulds made so the waves could flow around the corners – has been recognised for its joyful invention.

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The Bishop of Oxford opens the new St Peter’s church meeting room, now completed.

The unstinting fund-raising efforts of the congregation and its buildings committee finally bear fruit; a small but perfectly formed building which will be of real benefit to the Wolvercote community.

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The twin villa houses in Jericho are now finished, after a complex build programme with full basements sunk on a tight urban site.

The developer has moved in to one and sold the other. The copper has gone a deep lustrous brown and the garage doors are a rich nutty hardwood; only just finished but they feel as if they have been there forever.

Client’s post-occupancy email 18.5.11: “You designed a super building.”

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Berlin: for their annual office outing the AJA team head east to marvel at the extraordinary building programme transforming the German capital.

An intensive cultural dip combining sobering reminders of twentieth century history with some virtuoso twenty-first century architectural meisterwerks.

We are now working with St Hilda’s on their various building projects, both within their grounds (What a superb setting: beside the Cherwell looking over Christ Church meadows!), on their several Listed buldings, and elsewhere in east Oxford.

A good month: 2 radical new houses get planning permission (plus a new Oxford University hall of residence)

The houses are very different in scale but both very special.

The first, Oaklands 2, is a no-holds-barred dynamic sinuous architectural sculpture. The two floors of the 600 sqm house weave through the 8-acre sylvan setting meeting and separating as they go, creating dramatic cantilevers hanging among the trees. The house has a central double-height living area with a focal open fire suspended 5 metres down from the ceiling, and a 15-metre indoor pool with accoutrements.

It will also be highly sustainable: the heating will be provided by ground source heat pump and solar panels, and the pool will be used as a heat sink for the whole house.

The second, Appleton, is modest by comparison but nonetheless radical in its way; a calmer but still curvaceous composition which will add a new flavour to the small Oxfordshire village.

Email from satisfied client

"The dust is beginning to settle here after our move in and we are beginning to find our way around our fabulous new premises!

I can hardly believe that we have managed to go from where we were in December of last year to where we are now... in my inexperienced view, it is nothing short of miraculous. From my perspective, a wonderful job has been done... It is absolutely fabulous to be here! Warmest congratulations to all of you and your teams who actually made it happen: I have the utmost respect for all of you, I know you will say you were simply doing your job but nonetheless, credit must be given where it is due."

More planning permissions won, including a radical seven-storey sliver in the heart of Oxford.

AJA has recently won permission for 2 one-off houses, one in Oxfordshire, one in Berkshire, both in the Green Belt, both recommended for refusal by the planners. In both cases the planning committees were so impressed with the designs that they over-ruled their own officers and granted permission.

Plus, AJA have won planning permission for a dramatic new tower of luxury duplex apartments right in the centre of Oxford. Through careful negotiation the highly visible radical design won the blessing of the city’s conservation and planning officers, there was not a single letter of objection to the application, and the planning committee approved it unanimously and congratulated all involved on the result.

The new building will screen the bulky backside of the department store it abuts, creating a new frontage and a new profile for the Oxford skyline. It will actually exceed the city’s guidance on building heights, but because of its role in improving the character and appearance of the historic context the local authority recommended the modern design for approval.

More information on Friars Entry

AJA wins the Special Award for Architectural Merit at the 2008 biennial national Clay Roofing Awards.

AJA had 2 projects shortlisted in the New-build Housing Category and the New Self-build Category. The judges were so impressed by the design quality and the innovative use of roofing tiles that they decided to create a new Special Award for Architectural Merit. So Adrian James walked away with not only 2 Commendations in the respective categories but also the first ever award for pure design excellence.

The 2 projects which so impressed the judges were:
88 Cumnor Hill
Muswell House, Piddington.

Email from satisfied client

"I wanted to drop you a note to say thank you for designing such a spectacular and perfect house. I keep looking at it from the garden and marvelling at how amazing it looks. And inside every room works as it should and the space you have created is just perfect."

Walton Lane Villa Approved.

Planning permission has been granted for a new pair of houses in central Oxford.

AJA have fitted two 4-bedroom 4-storey houses into this modern villa on a derelict site in Jericho, within the central Oxford Conservation Area. The planners agreed the proposed design suited its location; a quiet lane with a collection of mews houses and industrial units. The street façade of the houses is muted: large windows hide behind tall timber louvres to prevent overlooking and the top floor is contained behind a standing seam pitched roof which drops low to match neighbours' eaves. But at the rear the houses open up: full height glazed walls to the living spaces are set within a deep brick proscenium.

More information on Walton Lane Villa.

AJA have won planning permission for the new Institute of Reproductive Sciences.

The building will house the Oxford Fertility Unit (one of the most successful IVF units in the UK) along with the associated state-of-the-art clinical and research laboratories, an integrated facility for Oxford University's reproductive science research department and a conference suite - all under one roof.

The building will occupy a brownfield site overlooking the Oxford Science Park, a regional focus for hi-tech R&D businesses which has a whole cluster of new office buildings. Where it differs from these business park neighbours is in its approach to sustainability and in its skin:

1. Much attention has been focussed on how to make a building which absolutely has to have highly serviced spaces as green as possible: in fact the number of spaces needing treated air can be reduced to a minimum, and the building is largely naturally ventilated.
2. The building eschews the usual approach of applying a cladding system with an exo-skeleton of solar shading devices. Here a new approach is taken: the building is wrapped in a masonry skin which is strongly modelled with deep cut-outs and tall thin fins to protect the windows from the sun. This thick masonry envelope will perform all the cladding jobs in one, with no need for maintenance and with serious longevity.