The notion that turning an office building into residential means dispensing with the services of an architect (Leader January 25) is perhaps too glib. We have carried out a number of such projects — and not, incidentally, for Tesco or “big business”.

Before

Before Signal Court, Mortlake, as offices.

After

After: Signal Court, Mortlake, as homes.

These have not only been interesting and rewarding to work on, but have brought new life to redundant buildings, rejuvenated the local area, and in some cases have provided both private and affordable housing.

The “before and after” pictures show a project in Mortlake, London, which received an award for “Best Conversion”. Such conversions would of course still require planning permission even if not for change of use.

Edward Hill
London W8

Perpetual motion

Eureka, I think they’ve got it. Convert offices to housing via one ministry and convert tower block housing to offices via another. Perpetual motion and perpetual work for all. Both are backed by government ministers — see press reports, especially BD’s spot-on and succinct Leader (January 25).

As so many businesses work from home, why not design family-friendly dwellings with their own offices in existing office blocks? These panic deregulation measures to help the market will fail and reduce standards, whereas dropping VAT would spur building on.

Peter Somers
London SE26

Postscript

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