Blog posts by Guest

DKA are Passivhaus Ready!

DKA are committed to developing design solutions to improve the built environment. In partnership with clients, consultants, contractors, local authorities and other participants in the development process, we seek to control the impact of our projects on the natural environment and local communities. We have been delivering highly sustainable buildings for over 25 years, reducing the energy consumptions of our clients’ buildings and improving the experience of the building users. Passivhaus is becoming an aspiration for many of our clients, particularly in the public sector for new school projects. The combination of a ‘fabric first’ approach combined with low energy… READ MORE

Celebrating 25 years in style

It was with an overwhelming sense of pride that DKA Founder and Director, David Kent addressed staff and invited guests at the DKA summer garden party this month – a milestone event to celebrate the DKA journey over the last 25 years. The Holburne Museum in Sydney Pleasure Gardens was the backdrop to the garden party themed event in which Directors welcomed over 100 staff, clients, friends and supporters to raise a glass to the last 25 years and toast the next 25! Guests partied the evening away with Aperol Spritz and Garden of Eden cocktails, a fire pit BBQ… READ MORE

My DKA story | Simon Lawrence

After graduating from the Welsh School of Architecture and qualifying in 1981, I moved from London to Bristol in the late 1980’s working in private practice and at the University of Bristol till joining DKA . The practice started in 1993 and I joined a year later. Like any organization in the construction industry and certainly any architects’ practice, we’ve experienced a few ups and downs since then but the practice is in great shape with a strong and varied client base, some really talented people supported by the latest computing technology and software and a newly refurbished office. From… READ MORE

DKA refurbishment

For those of you who follow us on social media, have been to the studio in the past 6 months, or have called up for a chat and heard the echoes of a building site in the background will know we’ve been undergoing a studio refurbishment. We’re so close to the finish line we can almost taste it! We’ve been planning this for some time now and over the last year we felt we were in the right place to bite the bullet and go for it. We’ve still got a few loose ends to tie up but the majority… READ MORE

National Don’t Step On A Bee Day

For us honeybees, six not three is the magic number. It’s the amount of sides each of our cells in the hive have. Having six sides creates the best shape for honey production because they require less wax and can hold more honey, and we all know, the honey makes the money! The hexagonal cells are used to house larvae, as well as store honey, nectar and pollen. How about that George Clarke? I think that’s a pretty ‘amazing space’. When beekeepers extract our hard earnt honey from our hives, the comb is easily left intact, though beekeepers sell honey comb… READ MORE

My Work Experience | by Poppy Jableman

When I was younger, I always looked forward to watching Grand Designs at home with my Dad after school. I loved watching the original animated plan come to life, as Kevin McCloud gave us a commentary of what new building was to come. I enjoyed seeing a few sketches develop into a finished building, and watching the whole process along the way. Nowadays, I enjoy Design and Technology at school and am doing a GCSE in Resistant materials with Systems. I wanted to do my work experience in an architects practice, so that I could channel my love for Grand… READ MORE

My Work Experience | by Imogen Cartwright

Since I was young I have always wanted to pursue a career in design and architecture or design engineering was ideal due to my love of designing. Enrolling in an architect’s office for work experience would be perfect in acting as a springboard to my career development and would really benefit me in the future. It would also allow me to see what an architect does on a daily basis and would then allow me to see if I would like to pursue a career in it. The reason why I picked DKA is because it would allow me to… READ MORE

#MondayMotivation?

If you’ve been following us on twitter, you may have noticed we’ve jumped aboard the #mondaymotivation band wagon…. …and why not?! Motivation at work is such an advantage. We spend approximately one third of our lives at work, so it goes without saying we should feel motivated when carrying out our day job. So what is ‘Motivation Mapping’? Motivational mapping is a tool to help us discover what our individual motivators are and therefore enable us to get the absolute best from our team by understanding what’s important to each of us. Motivational maps start with a simple on-line questionnaire… READ MORE

Every day’s a school day | working at DKA

‘You learn something new everyday’ I love that phrase, it’s so true. Everyday’s a school day. You may have worked with architects before, but I have compiled a list of things I’ve learnt from working with them at DKA for 3.5 years, lessons and top tips which are applicable to many a workplace I’m sure!   Be neat There was a time (I’m embarrassed to admit this) when I didn’t line things up. I was haphazard, slapdash, preferred speed over consideration and this is clearly visible in my old work and portfolio. While doing my stint as an ‘Architectural Assistant’ I had… READ MORE

Welcome, to the DKA blog

Firstly, welcome to DKA’s Blog! It is a great pleasure to welcome you, and be one of the first people to write a post on our shiny new blog. I can’t remember precisely when we decided to add a blog feature to our website, but someone mentioned it in a meeting and I snuck off to do some research and design, then pitched my ideas to the team. I got excited at the prospect of blogging, probably because I knew it had the potential to be a real success. Not only are our team a collection of very talented architects,… READ MORE