# About Name: Folio Description: An architecture and interiors journal: houses, rooms, materials, and the reasons behind them. URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click # Navigation Menu - Houses: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/houses - Interiors: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/interiors - Materials: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/materials - About: https://demofolio.superblog.click/about - Subscribe: https://demofolio.superblog.click/#main-leadgen-form # Blog Posts ## About the studio Author: Hana Sato Author URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/author/hana-sato/ Published: 2026-09-01 Meta Title: About the studio · Folio Meta Description: Folio is an architecture and interiors journal from a small practice in the west of England. URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/about/ Folio is the journal of a small architecture practice in the west of England: four architects, one photographer, and a workshop we share with a joiner. ## What we build Houses, mostly, and the repair of old ones. Occasionally a chapel, a school hall, a garden wall. We like buildings that do one thing well and materials that are what they look like. ## Why the journal Because the reasons behind a building are the interesting part, and they are usually lost by the time the photographs are taken. Each post is one building or one material, and one reason. ## Visiting The studio is open on the first Friday of the month. Write first, and we will put the kettle on. ## Contact hello@folio.example, or the form at the bottom of any post. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## A house that is mostly roof Author: Hana Sato Author URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/author/hana-sato/ Published: 2026-08-29 Category: Houses Category URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/houses/ Meta Title: A house that is mostly roof · Folio Meta Description: A single-storey house in the Welsh hills where the roof does the work of walls, and the walls barely exist. Tags: roofs, rural, slate, timber Tag URLs: roofs (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/roofs/), rural (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/rural/), slate (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/slate/), timber (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/timber/) URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/a-house-that-is-mostly-roof/ ![A timber house on a hillside under a wide roof](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1759435530019-10b2c9f0f315?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw2fHxtb2Rlcm4lMjBob3VzZSUyMGhpbGxzaWRlfGVufDF8MHx8fDE3ODg2MzQ3OTd8MA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop)The roof reaches almost to the ground on the weather side. The brief was two words: keep dry. The site is a shelf on a hillside that takes the rain from the west for most of the year, and the house answers it with a roof that starts at the ridge and does not stop until it is a metre off the ground. ## What the roof does - It is the weather wall. The west side has no wall to speak of, only roof. - It is the porch. The eaves are deep enough to leave boots under. - It is the room. Inside, the ceiling follows the pitch and the house is one tall space with a sleeping loft at the high end. ## What the walls do Not much, and that is the point. Glazed to the valley on the east, blank to the lane on the north, and a single door in the south gable. The structure is in the roof; the walls are infill. > A house is a roof with somewhere to stand under it. Everything else is negotiable. ## Materials Slate on the roof, which is what the hill is made of. Larch inside, left to grey. A concrete floor that holds the day's heat into the evening. Nothing that needs painting. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The staircase as furniture Author: Hana Sato Author URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/author/hana-sato/ Published: 2026-08-22 Category: Interiors Category URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/interiors/ Meta Title: The staircase as furniture · Folio Meta Description: In a narrow London terrace, a staircase built like a bookcase, and the room it made on the way up. Tags: stairs, joinery, oak, terrace Tag URLs: stairs (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/stairs/), joinery (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/joinery/), oak (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/oak/), terrace (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/terrace/) URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/the-staircase-as-furniture/ ![A timber staircase with shelves built into its side](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1758801305115-9738a1939065?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw0fHx0aW1iZXIlMjBzdGFpcmNhc2UlMjBib29rc2hlbHZlcyUyMGludGVyaW9yfGVufDF8MHx8fDE3ODg2MzQ3MjN8MA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) A terrace house has one problem it cannot solve: the stair takes a third of the width and gives nothing back. This one gives it back. ## The idea Treat the stair as a piece of furniture rather than a piece of structure. Build it from the same oak as the shelves, and let the shelves run up its side, so the wall that would have been dead becomes the library. ## The landing Widened by a foot, which cost the bedroom a foot and gave the house a room. A reading chair, a window, and the shelves within reach. It is where everyone ends up. ## The joinery Housed treads, no risers, so the light from the landing window falls through to the hall. The shelves are the same thickness as the treads and line up with them, which is the detail that makes it read as one thing. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Concrete, and what it does with light Author: Hana Sato Author URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/author/hana-sato/ Published: 2026-08-15 Category: Materials Category URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/materials/ Meta Title: Concrete, and what it does with light · Folio Meta Description: Three buildings, one material, three completely different rooms. On board-marked, polished and pigmented concrete. Tags: concrete, light, materials Tag URLs: concrete (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/concrete/), light (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/light/), materials (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/materials/) URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/concrete-and-what-it-does-with-light/ ![Light falling across a concrete wall](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1630147278961-cf69d2c94ace?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw1fHxjb25jcmV0ZSUyMHdhbGwlMjBsaWdodCUyMHNoYWRvdyUyMGFyY2hpdGVjdHVyZXxlbnwxfDB8fHwxNzg4NjM0NzIzfDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) Concrete gets called cold by people who have only seen it in car parks. In a room it does something to light that no other material does: it holds it. ## Board-marked Cast against rough timber, so the grain prints into the surface. Raking light picks out every board. It looks like a wall that remembers being built. ## Polished Ground back until the aggregate shows, then sealed. A floor that reflects the window in a soft way, like water at dusk. ## Pigmented Iron oxide in the mix, a few percent, and the whole building goes the colour of the local earth. The chapel in the third photograph is the same colour as the field it sits in. ### The trick Concrete is only as good as its formwork and its curing. Both are slow and both are boring, which is why most concrete is bad, and why good concrete is worth a whole post. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Why the window is where it is Author: Hana Sato Author URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/author/hana-sato/ Published: 2026-08-08 Category: Houses Category URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/houses/ Meta Title: Why the window is where it is · Folio Meta Description: A window is a decision about what to look at and when. Four windows from one house, and the reasons for each. Tags: light, windows, houses Tag URLs: light (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/light/), windows (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/windows/), houses (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/houses/) URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/why-the-window-is-where-it-is/ ![A window seat in afternoon light](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1763477899299-912835fff556?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw0fHx3aW5kb3clMjBzZWF0JTIwaW50ZXJpb3IlMjBkYXlsaWdodHxlbnwxfDB8fHwxNzg4NjM0NzI0fDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) Nobody notices a window that is in the right place. Everyone notices one that is not. So here are four that are, and why. ## The kitchen window Low and long, at the height of the worktop, facing the garden. You look at the garden while you cook, and you do not look at the neighbour's fence, which is one metre higher than the frame. ## The stair window Tall and narrow, north-facing, no view at all. It is there for the light, which falls down the stair all day without ever being sun. ## The bedroom window East, and small. Morning light, and no more of it than you want at six. ## The one that is not there The south wall of the living room has no window, because the south is the lane. The room takes its light from the roof instead, and it is the brightest room in the house. _Revised in August with the roof light, which was added after this was first written._ --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The courtyard house, revisited Author: Hana Sato Author URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/author/hana-sato/ Published: 2026-08-01 Category: Houses Category URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/houses/ Meta Title: The courtyard house, revisited · Folio Meta Description: The oldest plan there is, built again on a suburban plot. Owen photographed it a year after the owners moved in. Tags: houses, courtyard, plans, gardens Tag URLs: houses (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/houses/), courtyard (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/courtyard/), plans (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/plans/), gardens (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/gardens/) URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/the-courtyard-house-revisited/ ![A courtyard with a tree, seen from inside the house](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1777620817586-f06aae288691?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw4fHxjb3VydHlhcmQlMjBob3VzZSUyMHRyZWUlMjBpbnRlcmlvcnxlbnwxfDB8fHwxNzg4NjM0NzI0fDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) A courtyard house turns its back on the street and its face to the middle. It is how people built in hot places for three thousand years, and it works in a cold one too, for a different reason: privacy. ## The plan Four wings around a square of garden, each one room deep, so every room has the courtyard on one side and the world on the other. The front door opens into the garden, not the house. ## A year on The tree has grown into the space, which was the plan. The owners eat outside from April to October. The street side, blank when we photographed it at completion, has a climbing rose on it now. > The house is not the building. It is the square of sky in the middle. ## What we would change The kitchen wing faces north. In a courtyard house that is a mistake you notice in January. Next time the kitchen goes on the south side and the bedrooms take the shade. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Restoring a mill without pretending Author: Hana Sato Author URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/author/hana-sato/ Published: 2026-07-25 Category: Restoration Category URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/restoration/ Meta Title: Restoring a mill without pretending · Folio Meta Description: A water mill turned into a house, where the new work is plainly new and the old work is left alone. Tags: timber, restoration, stone, mills Tag URLs: timber (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/timber/), restoration (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/restoration/), stone (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/stone/), mills (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/mills/) URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/restoring-a-mill-without-pretending/ ![A stone mill with its wheel, beside the river](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1762592033388-100557e05884?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw0fHxvbGQlMjBzdG9uZSUyMG1pbGwlMjByaXZlcnxlbnwxfDB8fHwxNzg4NjM0NzI1fDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) There are two ways to restore an old building. You can make the new parts look old, or you can make them look new. The first is a lie that gets found out. The second is honest, and it is what we did here. ## What was kept The stone shell, the roof timbers, the wheel pit and the race. The floors were rotten and went. The wheel had gone a century ago. ## What is new A timber box inside the stone shell, holding the floors and the stair, standing clear of the old walls so you can see where one stops and the other starts. Steel where the loads needed it, painted the same dark grey as the frames. ## The wheel pit Left empty, glazed over, lit from below. It is the dining room floor. Guests stand on it and look down at the water. ## FAQs Q: Do you take on listed buildings? A: Yes. Most of our restoration work is listed, and the conservation officer is part of the design team from the first meeting. Q: How long did the mill take? A: Two years from the first survey to moving in, of which eight months were waiting for consents and the winter the river flooded. Q: Is the wheel coming back? A: No. A working wheel would need the race rebuilt and the house would be a museum. The pit tells the story better empty. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## A kitchen with one worktop Author: Hana Sato Author URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/author/hana-sato/ Published: 2026-07-18 Category: Interiors Category URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/interiors/ Meta Title: A kitchen with one worktop · Folio Meta Description: Nine metres of oak in a straight line, and a kitchen that needs nothing else. Tags: oak, kitchens, interiors Tag URLs: oak (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/oak/), kitchens (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/kitchens/), interiors (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/interiors/) URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/a-kitchen-with-one-worktop/ ![A long worktop under a window](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1723810389045-60e651a4e9c1?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwyfHxtaW5pbWFsJTIwa2l0Y2hlbiUyMG9hayUyMHdvcmt0b3AlMjB3aW5kb3d8ZW58MXwwfHx8MTc4ODYzNDcyNXww&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) Most kitchens are designed by adding. This one was designed by taking away until one thing was left: a worktop, nine metres long, under a window that runs the same length. ## What is on it A sink at one end, a hob at the other, and seven metres of nothing in between. That nothing is the kitchen. ## What is under it Drawers, all the way. No cupboards, because a cupboard is a drawer you have to kneel for. The fridge is a drawer too. ## What is above it The window, and a single shelf for the things that are used every day. Everything else is in the drawers. The wall is empty, and the room is calm because of it. The clients said they wanted a kitchen that looked like a workshop. This is a workshop that happens to make dinner. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## On not drawing the furniture Author: Hana Sato Author URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/author/hana-sato/ Published: 2026-07-11 Category: Studio Category URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/studio/ Meta Title: On not drawing the furniture · Folio Meta Description: Why our plans show empty rooms, and what that asks of the people who live in them. Tags: drawings, practice, studio Tag URLs: drawings (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/drawings/), practice (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/practice/), studio (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/studio/) URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/on-not-drawing-the-furniture/ ![A drafting table in a studio, with sawhorses](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1782290547018-8bb89b8edf07?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwxfHxhcmNoaXRlY3R1cmUlMjBzdHVkaW8lMjBpbnRlcmlvciUyMGRlc2t8ZW58MXwwfHx8MTc4ODYzNDcyN3ww&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) Our drawings have no furniture on them. Clients notice, and some of them mind. Here is why we do it. ## Furniture is a promise A sofa drawn on a plan says: this is the sitting room, and this is where you will sit. It is a promise the architect has no right to make. The room might be a study in five years. The sofa might be a piano. ## An empty room is a question A room with nothing in it asks: what is this for? If the answer is obvious from the shape, the light and the door, the room is good. If the answer needs a sofa drawn in to be obvious, the room is not finished. ## What we draw instead - Where the light comes from. - Where the doors are, and which way they open. - Where you can put a table without blocking a door. That is enough. The rest is the client's, and should be. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Brick, laid the slow way Author: Hana Sato Author URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/author/hana-sato/ Published: 2026-07-04 Category: Materials Category URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/materials/ Meta Title: Brick, laid the slow way · Folio Meta Description: A garden wall built by one bricklayer over a summer, in Flemish bond, with lime. Tags: materials, gardens, brick, lime Tag URLs: materials (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/materials/), gardens (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/gardens/), brick (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/brick/), lime (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/lime/) URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/brick-laid-the-slow-way/ ![An old brick wall, close up](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1592853598064-5a7fa150592c?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw3fHxicmljayUyMHdhbGwlMjB0ZXh0dXJlfGVufDF8MHx8fDE3ODg2MzQ3MjZ8MA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) Cement mortar is fast, hard and grey. Lime mortar is slow, soft and the colour of sand. A wall laid in lime moves with the seasons and can be taken apart and relaid a century later. A wall laid in cement cracks, and the bricks crack with it. ## The bond Flemish: a header and a stretcher alternating along each course, so the wall reads as a pattern rather than a surface. It is slower to lay and it uses more bricks. It is the one you look at. ## The bricks Handmade, from a yard forty miles away, with the slight sag that comes from being thrown into a mould rather than pressed. No two the same, which is why the wall never looks flat. ## The summer One bricklayer, four months, a wall sixty metres long. It is the best thing on the site and it does not have a roof. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## A room for one window Author: Hana Sato Author URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/author/hana-sato/ Published: 2026-06-27 Category: Interiors Category URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/interiors/ Meta Title: A room for one window · Folio Meta Description: A reading room built around a single north window, and the chair that was made to fit it. Tags: joinery, light, windows, interiors Tag URLs: joinery (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/joinery/), light (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/light/), windows (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/windows/), interiors (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/interiors/) URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/a-room-for-one-window/ ![A reading chair beside a window](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1773061865077-12120d59a217?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw0fHxhcm1jaGFpciUyMGJ5JTIwd2luZG93JTIwcmVhZGluZyUyMHJvb218ZW58MXwwfHx8MTc4ODYzNDcyNnww&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) The client asked for a room to read in. Not a library, which is a room for books, but a room for reading, which is a room for light. ## The window North, tall, deep-set, with a seat in the reveal. North light is flat and does not move across the page as the day goes on. It is the light painters ask for and readers are given by accident. ## The chair Made by a joiner in the village to a drawing we did on site, at the height that puts the page in the light and the reader's back to the wall. It does not move. Nothing else in the room does either. ## The rest Shelves on the wall behind the chair, out of the light. A rug. A door that closes. It is the smallest room in the house and the one the client talks about. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Repairing a slate roof Author: Hana Sato Author URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/author/hana-sato/ Published: 2026-06-20 Category: Restoration Category URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/restoration/ Meta Title: Repairing a slate roof · Folio Meta Description: How a two-hundred-year-old roof was stripped, sorted and relaid with the same slates, in the same order. Tags: roofs, slate, restoration Tag URLs: roofs (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/roofs/), slate (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/slate/), restoration (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/restoration/) URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/repairing-a-slate-roof/ ![Slates on an old roof](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1548254689-2d7a62331d96?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw2fHxzbGF0ZSUyMHJvb2YlMjB0aWxlc3xlbnwxfDB8fHwxNzg4NjM0NzI2fDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) A slate roof does not wear out. Its nails do. After two centuries the iron has gone and the slates slide; the slates themselves are fine and will be for another two. ## Stripping Every slate off, numbered, stacked by course. The roofer's apprentice spent a week with a paint pen. ## Sorting The broken ones out, about one in twenty. Replacements from the same quarry, which still works the same bed, so the colour matches once it weathers. ## Relaying Copper nails this time, which will outlast the slates. The same diminishing courses, larger at the eaves and smaller at the ridge, which is how the old roofers did it and why the roof looks the way it does from the lane. It took six weeks. From the ground you cannot tell anything happened, which is the whole point. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## What we learned from a very small house Author: Hana Sato Author URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/author/hana-sato/ Published: 2026-06-13 Category: Studio Category URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/category/studio/ Meta Title: What we learned from a very small house · Folio Meta Description: Thirty-eight square metres, one person, and the rules it taught us about every house after it. Tags: plans, studio, small houses Tag URLs: plans (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/plans/), studio (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/studio/), small houses (https://demofolio.superblog.click/tag/small-houses/) URL: https://demofolio.superblog.click/what-we-learned-from-a-very-small-house/ ![A small living room with one large window](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1657222669925-a3c046866763?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw0fHx0aW55JTIwaG91c2UlMjBpbnRlcmlvcnxlbnwxfDB8fHwxNzg4NjM0Nzk4fDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) The smallest house we have built is thirty-eight square metres, for a retired teacher who wanted less. It taught us more than the largest. ## Rule one: one good room A small house cannot afford a mean room. So it has one room, tall and bright, and the sleeping and washing are alcoves off it. ## Rule two: storage is architecture Every wall that is not a window is a cupboard, floor to ceiling, built in. Nothing stands on the floor except a table and a bed. ## Rule three: the outside is a room A terrace the size of the house, with a wall on the windward side. For half the year the house is twice its size. ## Rule four: height is free Floor area costs money. Air above it does not. The one room is four and a half metres tall and it feels like a bigger house than most we have built. We now apply all four to houses ten times the size, and they are better for it. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. ---