Now is a truly remarkable time for residential architecture in London. In addition to the many projects which seem to be forever underway, there are a number of exciting, informative and fascinating exhibitions currently ongoing and being held soon. We’re very proud to be participating in a number of them, but for now we’d like to speak about one which we are very much looking forward to attending. The At Home In Britain exhibition runs from May to August at the RIBA Architect Gallery, and is a joint presentation between RIBA and the BBC.

The predominant focus of this exhibition is British housing in the 21st Century. Six projects have been commissioned to look at the needs and requirements of housing in Britain, with particular emphasis on what impact architecture will have on this. Whilst one might think that we simply adapt our current way of life around the existing buildings in place, it is truly breathtaking to see how rapidly it really evolves to meet what we need of it.

One way to highlight this is by a look at a room which is now taken as a given in virtually every home in the country – the bathroom. We take it for granted that homes in the UK will have bathrooms and a toilet in them, as most of us will have been born in an era when we knew no different. In the grand scheme of things, though, the idea of a bathroom inside a home remains a relatively new architectural concept. It was only at the turn of the 20th Century that bathrooms and toilets were designed to be part of a house, with the indoor ones we know now only becoming part of the residential architecture in London from the 1920s.

If such a feature as this has become an accepted given in architecture within a small amount of time, one can but wonder at what new, innovative features will also soon become the expected standard. We look forward to seeing the possibilities in this regard ourselves at the exhibition.