Stefan Pitman: Making great country houses cost less to heat than a suburban semi

Ten years ago, Stefan Pitman set up SPASE Architects. Right from the start, he realised many of his clients were coming to him with one big problem: they might own beautiful old buildings, but they cost a fortune to run.

'We have really close connections with our clients,' he tells James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast, 'and we talked about what is it like to actually have the responsibility and the upkeep of these old buildings? And that's when, certainly for a number of owners and clients, we very quickly realised that there is a vast cost to keeping these buildings in use, and comfortable, and many of them aren't comfortable because of that. And because of that they fall into a state where they begin to get damp, and then you get some timber decay, and it all starts to snowball a little bit.'

Fixing those problems began to become one of the firm's specialities, until one key project which made a huge impact: their work on Athelhampton Manor, where they cut a monthly energy bill that was well into six figures to between £0 and £500, saving over 100 tons of CO2 annually.

We're delighted that Stefan was able to join James on the podcast to talk about that project — which won them a string of architecture awards — as well as how the landscape of preserving and insulating old buildings has changed in the last five years, and how the same principles can be applied to almost any building, 'from a two-bed terrace to Hampton Court'.

Find out more about SPASE Architects at their website.

Episode credits

Host: James Fisher

Guest: Stefan Pitman

Editor and producer: Toby Keel

Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

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