The kitchen being the heart of the home is the best kind of cliché - it’s one that holds true.
On every home build project, we inevitably arrive at that pivotal conversation about the kitchen - its placement, the arrangement, key features, materials. To most clients it’s vitally important that it serves as both a functional place to prepare a meal and a pleasurable place to spend time. A kitchen can be a social hub, a haven from work - and even a place to work.
Founded by John Angus and Rhoda Mehigan, Edinburgh-based kitchen specialists Joseph / French are one of our most valued and trusted suppliers. Their forté is hand-made kitchens - beautiful materials used simply and well.
This aligns perfectly with our outlook as an architectural studio - to us it’s essential that we collaborate with a company who work on a truly bespoke basis and have a keen understanding of good design. All furniture is handmade by their trusted cabinetmakers in Fife - a relatively short hop from our north east Scotland base - and it’s a pleasure to see them ply their craft.
Photography © Martin Vrzal
We spoke to John Angus, Director of Joseph / French, to get his thoughts on working with us, designing kitchens and dream projects:
B&B: What are the most important factors in a working relationship with an architectural studio?
John Angus: Having a shared vision is always a great starting point! And communication from an early stage in any project. This ensures that the kitchen design can be worked out with a client ahead of final plans being approved and foundations poured!
B&B: Does anything stand out when working with Brown & Brown? (Be kind…)
JA: The work demonstrates an aesthetic that we are very fond of! That initial connection is so important as it gives us confidence that we are all at a similar starting point on any brief and that our initial conversation/design will be based upon a shared understanding of what the client is looking for.
B&B: What materials do you love to use in kitchens?
JA: It’s always nice to include an element of timber in a project. Whether in a traditional framed or a more contemporary kitchen the use of natural materials helps soften the practical, man-made elements of appliances etc.
We also love working with a combination of quartz and quartzite stone worktops – the beauty of some of the quarried stone currently available is incredible!
B&B: What’s your dream space to create a kitchen for?
JA: The Klein House, Selkirk (1957) by Peter Womersley is a great example of Scottish Modernist Architecture. Involvement in the sensitive and considered restoration of a property from this era would be something of a dream space for Joseph / French to work with.
In October 2019, Brown & Brown co-founder Andrew Brown did a short podcast interview with the Fifty7°Ten Architecture Society - the largest and oldest society at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.
Planning permission has been granted for our project in Seamill, North Ayrshire, a contemporary extension of concrete and timber, sitting aside a Victorian villa on the coast, with views across the Firth of Clyde to Arran.
Brown & Brown were recently selected by the RIBA Journal (RIBAJ) as one of its 'Future Winners 2020' and visited our Strathdon studio for an interview.