Kevin Goh

Partner

Kevin's passion for joinery and making fuels his interest in how buildings are put together. This naturally feeds into his approach to design, which is driven by his belief that great design comes from an interrogation of the brief at all levels of detail, and collaboration with the client teams and project stakeholders to create richly multi-layered and crafted buildings and spaces.

Kevin has been part of the Cullinan Studio team for over 15 years during which he has run projects at various scales across many sectors - ranging from the bespoke fit-out of the British Film Institute's new Mediatheque on London's Southbank to enhance user experience, to masterplanning large scale, complex regeneration of whole housing estates into people friendlier, better connected and sustainable neighbourhoods.

As Project Director overseeing the studio's smaller projects, Kevin uses his strong design, management and technical skills to deliver schemes, maintaining the original design intent from concept to completion.

Outside the studio, when not playing with his two young children, you will probably find him ‘playing’ in his workshop, making things out of wood.

Project Experience

From source to site to sauna

Located on the outskirts of the Chilterns, this tricky but exciting project to design both a work and a play building in the grounds of a Grade II* listed house also lies in the Green Belt and an AONB. The approach from the outset was to design the buildings to have minimal impact on the land and environment. Woodland within the grounds provided us with the opportunity to propose the use of on-site timber for the new structure, cladding and furniture. The processing of the wood would happen on site, minimising transport and allowing waste to be used to provide heating for log burners.

Although the client was excited by the prospect of the using their woodland as a source for materials, there was still some convincing required from our side. We took the client to Hooke Park in Dorset, where we have also designed and built a green wood lodge. This helped them to understand the processes that would be involved giving them more comfort and therefore the confidence to commit to progressing with the on-site timber approach.

Creating a new hub to the family home

Set in the leafy streets of Hampstead Heath this Grade II Listed Georgian house had suffered several unsympathetic extensions that had left the lower ground floor sub-divided into small awkward living spaces, with poor connections to the mature garden.

A big design move was required. We swept away the ‘modern’ additions to make way for a new main living space to form the heart of the house. Smaller places spring from here that the younger members of the family can retreat to, yet still feel connected to the centre of the home.

Natural, local materials make a light-filled home

With embodied emissions contributing significantly to a new building’s carbon impact over its whole life cycle, it is imperative we specify responsibly. This was at the forefront of our minds when designing this family home. A cross laminated timber structure, timber cladding and locally sourced bricks were some of the natural materials used to minimise the carbon associated with their manufacture and transport.

Circularity is an important aspect that needs to part of the solution as we strive to net zero in 2050. Lime mortar was used for the brick walls as opposed to cement which uses more energy to produce and allows the bricks to be recycled at the end of the building’s life.

Embodied carbon is only part of the challenge, we must also work hard to minimise a building’s operational emissions. The family’s previous house lacked natural light, so the new house uses a well insulated envelope that ‘splits’ and ‘stretches’ to allow natural light to flood into the interiors throughout the day, providing an ever-changing, sun-lit and healthy environment.