Practice
Five people, one floor of a former glove factory.
Hollowfield was founded in Frome in 2013. We have stayed deliberately small: five of us, four or five live projects at a time, and one architect who carries each of them the whole way through.
How we work
Most practices our size grow by taking more work and handing it down. We have chosen not to, because the thing clients actually value, and the thing we are actually good at, is that the person who drew the detail is the person standing under it on site.
It has consequences. We turn work down, sometimes work we would like. We are usually booked six to nine months ahead. And we are more expensive per square metre at the front end than a practice that puts a Part I on your survey. What you get for that is a scheme that has already survived the arguments before it reaches the planning portal.
One project, one architect
A director or the associate leads every job personally, from the first measured survey to the last defect. There is no delivery team to be handed over to, because there is no delivery team.
Existing buildings first
Roughly four fifths of our work involves something already standing, or a site where something already standing sets the terms. We do the survey, the fabric investigation and the heritage argument ourselves rather than buying them in.
Fabric before machinery
We would rather spend the budget on insulation, airtightness and orientation than on plant that has to be replaced in fifteen years. Tom is a certified Passivhaus designer and every scheme is modelled, whether or not it is going for certification.
People
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Rachel Ferrers
Director · RIBA ARB
Founded the practice in 2013 after eight years in a large London office working on schools and health buildings. Leads the public and health work, and does most of the talking at committee.
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Tom Brearley
Director · RIBA ARB · CPHD
Joined in 2016 and became a director in 2020. A certified Passivhaus designer who does the practice's environmental modelling in house. Leads the conversion and retrofit work.
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Aoife Lenihan
Associate · RIBA ARB
Joined in 2019 from a conservation practice in Bristol. Runs the listed and conservation area jobs and writes the heritage statements.
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Sam Odell
Architectural Assistant, Part II
Joined in 2023. Responsible for surveys, the model shop and, increasingly, the details nobody else wants to draw.
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Bea Coombes
Practice Manager
Runs the practice, the fee accounts and the calendar. If your call is answered, it is answered by Bea.
Practicalities
We are ARB registered and RIBA chartered, with professional indemnity cover appropriate to the value of the work. We work to the RIBA Plan of Work and are happy to be appointed for the early stages only, if what you need is to find out whether a site will take what you want to put on it.
Our fees are a percentage of construction cost on larger projects and a fixed sum by stage on smaller ones. We will tell you which we think is fairer for your job, and we will put the number in writing before you commit to anything.