020 REPORTER
Right An external view of Nissen House in Essex, completed in 2020
Below left James Soane, right
Below right The kitchen of the Grove Cottage in Lavenham, completed in 2019
PROFILE James Soane
As an architect and co-founder of the Project Orange practice, James Soane has had an intriguing career. Far from obsessing over more stereotypically high profile London projects, he and his partner have instead turned their gaze to improving rural communities
WORDS BY EMILY MARTIN
IN THE SUMMER I visited the beautiful village of Laversham in Suffolk to meet the co-founder of Project Orange and architect James Soane. Having never met the practice before, I did the normal thing of checking the company website as well as other internet searches to cover my groundwork. ‘We are unusual as a practice in placing equal importance on architecture and interior design, and excel in those projects seeking a seamless marriage of the disciplines, be they homes, hotels or ofices,’ says the text on the practices website. And, while driving through the glorious Suffolk countryside, instead of cramming myself into somewhere in central London, I thought it best to visit the
practice’s HQ, where I was somehow sure that things were certainly different at this practice. Partners in practice and partners in life,
Project Orange was founded by Cambridge University graduates Cristopher Ash and Soane in 1997. Having spent some 25 years living near Old Street working on several ‘urban’ projects in London, around the UK, and overseas, the couple relocated their practice HQ and home out of London to the idyllic Suffolk village of Laversham – a conservation area with the highest concentration of medieval buildings in Britain. While Project Orange maintains a workforce in London, Soane tells me his focus is moving away from the corporate sector into
housing, something the practice has always done, with a new emphasis away from urban architecture.
‘The idea is to embed ourselves into the community and do more local work. Particularly as architects based in London, you always talk about the city or other cities, but because we’ve been coming here for 20 years – we know people that we’ve experienced and we love it – I think there’s perhaps not enough discussion on rural areas and particularly in housing.’ Laversham is a village well-known to Soane
and Ash. It’s a place they’ve have visited and loved for many years, a second home if you like, before becoming their permanent home. Located near the village market square is their home, aptly named Orange Cottage, which Soane invites me to look around – a new purpose-built building set among some of the more ancient dwellings of the village, which are all listed.
Orange Cottage is located behind an existing brick and flint wall, and its design
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