Michael Kendrick explains how he navigated Covid to found a practice with what would be an award-winning approach to designing high-quality, sustainable homes

Michael Kendrick has a background working in relatively large design firms such as Glenn Howells Architects and Ian Simpson Architects, spending his early career primarily in Manchester and Birmingham. When he decided to go solo, he was working as a project architect on high-profile projects at Glenn Howells, including the National Memorial Arboretum, which won the West Midlands RIBA award, and the English National Ballet HQ in Tower Hamlets.

By around 2017 this upwardly mobile architect had increased his smaller-scale private design work, and won a design competition with a colleague at the practice, and the private work “took over,” says Michael. Asked why he decided to form his own practice, Kendrick says that “I just wanted to get back to something a bit smaller, and explore different ways of working – new techniques and construction processes – and working more closely with clients and end users.”

So on founding his practice in Leamington Spa in 2018 (following a stint in London with Paul Miller as Miller Kendrick), he continued and consolidated a growing reputation for one-off private residential commissions, letting Kendrick nourish a desire for a more hands-on relationship with his customers. He says that with his strong interest in this particular sector, he’s not looking to voyage far beyond it in the short-term at least, instead to “become a specialist in that field and explore ideas, techniques and processes of sustainability.”

Kendrick speaks candidly about the onus on architects in the face of our demanding zero carbon targets. Architects “have a big responsibility to design buildings which are environmentally and socially responsible, and we need to lead on that.” He asserts that in the small-scale residential market there is a particular opportunity to “influence the client in a way they may not be aware of” to achieve higher levels of sustainability, “guiding them through the principles of low carbon design.”

He says he doesn’t believe he can yet call himself a sustainability expert, but is prioritising investing time in further developing his eco knowledge, within an overall rigorous design approach. The timber-framed house he designed in Leamington Spa which recently won a 2022 RIBA regional award (Mill Lodge House) features elements such as a heat pump, high insulation levels and MVHR, and a rain garden. Kendrick says that the win has given the practice “a big boost” as well as “exposure to a wider market.”

This was the practice’s first completed project, and was the result of “very good, hands-on clients,” says Michael, without being free of planning, site and timeframe challenges. Covid was more of a disruption from the client’s point of view than his, as it was completed the week of the first lockdown, but they had to wait around nine months to move in.

Flexible growth

Michael says that the growth plan was “always to get a couple of jobs on the board, then look to employ staff.” However when Covid hit, those plans were put on hold. He has three children with his partner, a GP who had to continue working through the pandemic. Michael took on the home schooling duties, which he admits “made it difficult to commit to taking on staff!” Kendrick adds that he couldn’t commit to taking on too much work during that period, and needed to be “a bit more selective” than you might normally be launching a practice.

This did however mean Michael Kendrick Architects were able to select the more interesting projects, not merely as many as they could tackle – “a small portfolio of very good projects.” Now through that limbo period, he says he’s looking to take on “one or two” staff this year, enabling him to “push on with the workload” without spreading himself too thinly.

Michael works effectively as a sole practitioner, but contracts out packages of technical work on a job-by-job basis to professionals such as CGI artists, architectural technologists, and specification writers. All of the face-to-face client work and design per se is undertaken by him currently. He says that in the ongoing inflationary climate, clients aren’t keen on him outsourcing QS work, to try and get costs nailed down, preferring to prepare tenders then see what the market will offer. He says that currently, it’s “difficult to manage expectations” for clients, and contractors are “struggling to price jobs with any certainty.”

As the practice’s staff grows, he foresees buying a studio space, but remaining in Leamington Spa. Michael says it’s a useful place to be not only because of its affluent residential customer base – despite the “very conservative” planning authority, at least when it comes to the conservation area. An additional bonus is its central location, giving the firm the opportunity to tackle projects “anywhere in the UK.”

Challenges

The big challenge of moving from a large firm to being a start-up, says Michael, has been “going from managing design and delivery, to doing everything that’s encompassed in running a business.” The paperwork, book-keeping, contracts management and CDM requirements all need to be done, whereas “in a big practice you have a practice manager and a CDM adviser.” And, he adds, “you don’t have a cost consultant – the client expects you to be a one stop shop.”

However, of course the flipside is the ability to choose the projects that you want to pursue, which was necessitated in his case by the Covid ‘waiting game.’ Being the only point of contact however means that face-to-face work with clients, despite him enjoying it, takes up a lot of Kendrick’s time. Drawing work needs to be “packaged up” where possible and delegated to outside providers.

The future

In terms of upcoming projects for the architect, an “interesting” glass and timber holiday let lodge is currently underway in Fairlight near Hastings in rural East Sussex, in established woodland near an AONB. It is being featured on (George Clarke’s) Amazing Spaces, which will provide some invaluable publicity for the nascent practice. Michael says the project has a range of ecological issues, such as a protected species of bats. To stop them being harmed he specified electrochromic glazing which turns opaque when artificial lighting activates the sensors. In addition, the house is raised off the ground using screw piles to allow animals to exist underneath.

With his background being in larger projects, including commercial and education projects, Michael is keen to explore larger schemes in the future, and he is in discussions with a developer (albeit of relatively small plots) currently. While he initially wants to establish a “solid grounding” in his familiar territory of one-off residential projects, he “doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as solely a residential architect in the long-term.”

Conclusion

One of Kendrick’s big goals for his practice is to deliver a Passivhaus scheme. He has been meaning to embark on the journey of learning the ropes “for a couple of years,” however Covid appeared during that time, putting things back, with the ability to book face-to-face training places very limited.

The extended wait-and-see period of the pandemic has been a “massive learning curve,” he says, including realising that launching a practice is about “building slowly. Happily, he says the enquiries are now “flowing in.” Michael now has a potential solid pipeline of “simple, well-crafted buildings,” working with clients with a similar sustainability ethos, thereby fulfilling his design aims. Having had something of a hobbled early gestation following a successful start, Hendrick says he’s now “keen to push forward.”