Part of working out how a building can be built and how it’s going to feel in real life can be really well explored using card models. Here’s one we made for our Belsize townhouse. It also comes apart like a little dolls house so we were able to work out how things like drainage, waterproofing and insulation could be detailed to work across the different floors and not interrupt the design. One of the trickiest details was creating a lovely flush level between the house internally and the new ground floor terrace - from the three arched sets of doors. We had so many drains, insulation and waterproofing details to incorporate that the easiest solution for the builder would have been to raise the whole terrace and hide all away. However, we wouldn’t have been able to have our doors open outwards or have the sense of inside and outside spaces running through seamlessly. Kudos to Phoebe in our office who is our resident construction detailing expert who worked out the detailing and built ...