CASE STUDY


LONG DISTANCE CHAMPIONS


How virtual project management was the answer for long-distance clients to turn a Victorian vicarage into a modern masterpiece


TEXT JAYNE DOWLE IMAGES MATTHEW CATTELL


W


hen the major renovation of Melinda and Chris Swann’s Victorian vicarage near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire


began, the couple were almost 7,000 miles away in Singapore. Chris, 62, a director in the oil and gas industry, was posted overseas to the Far East, so Melinda, 59, managed the first nine months of the build from the end of a phone and laptop, holding virtual meetings with her architect, Stuart Hall, and builder, Samir ‘Sammy’ Ene, to ensure that progress was being made. “We used Facetime, email and Dropbox to


share photos,” Melinda says. “I popped back every six weeks for the bigger decisions, and returned to the UK three months before the


30 www.sbhonline.co.uk


project’s completion, when we stayed in London before moving in.” Stuart and Sammy agree that this remote way of working was successful because Melinda, a volunteer for The National Trust and the Sue Ryder palliative care charity, was very proactive and directed all the project management and interior design herself, although she doesn’t have formal training.


“Melinda is an excellent client, because she knows how to make decisions, and sticks to them,” says Stuart, a co-founder of Colony Architects, a practice which is based in Reading and Guildford. “We’ve always been keen on collaborative working anyway,” he adds. “We started working individually, then we started meeting up in a shared office space, but we are


LOW POINT


“When the staircase company let us down regarding the timing, and didn’t communicate with us effectively. We did resolve it in the end with the help of the builders, but it was frustrating.”


issue 01 2021


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