Yay! Its the 4th of July. This is the flag cake that Sarah baked. We ate the strawberry bits first. Then we ate it all. Hawaii tasted best.

This week sees the completion of a fifth house in the Addison Gardens area in Holland Park. HEAT and contractors Bhuva Construction have been recommended by word of mouth from one successful project to the next. The latest project combines four apartments back into a single family house with a glass extension overlooking the communal gardens at the rear. To maximise the light the basement floor is a seamless poured white gloss resin. Glass floors bring light into the heart of the house. Advantageous rates of VAT apply to conversions where the number of dwellings is changed in the course of development. Contact Charles Humphries at HEAT for further details.

HEAT's successful residential conversion in Clerkenwell has been highlighted in this month's copy of Inside, the official magazine of the Interiors Association. They singled out the design of the bathrooms, incorporating full size photographic images sandwiched into glass.

HEAT have secured full planning permission for a high profile mixed use development in Hammersmith and Fulham. Including 3 Ground Floor commercial units, 675 sqm of offices and 9 luxury residential units with an elevated garden. The development respects the materials and scale of the surrounding residential location, but with a contemporary and light touch.

This year HEAT has welcomed pupils from Rodborough Technology College and Inspire!, the Education Business Partnership for Hackney under our work placement scheme. Spending up to two weeks working in the office shadowing the HEAT Team on CAD drafting, administrative work and supervised site visits the students, considering a career in design, learned more about the practice of architecture and had hands-on experience of the work environment.

The Zinc House in Barnsbury has been featured in the Sunday Times "Home" section in a review by Hugh Pearman. Described as the ultimate makeover of a plain 1950's house into an "icon of modernist cool". Read the full text of the article at the Times Online.

Last week, as part of an exercise to involve students and staff at St Martin of Porres Primary School, the HEAT team ran a hugely popular "Architecture Day" with Key Stage 2. The children divided into four teams, and after a series of workshops on scale and measurement, environmental architecture and materials sciences each team went on to build an architectural model of part of the new school at 1:25 scale. At the end of the day each team presented their design to the rest of the school.

The day was part of a series of events and consultations to draw up a brief for the new school. Try the Carbon Quiz we set the students and see how you do.

At a lunch at the Royal Aeronautical Society today Charles Humphries and Robert Ellis of HEAT Architects were presented with first prize in the Hot Dip Galvanizing Awards 2007 for the Zinc House in Islington. The judges praised the tenacity and vision of the project which used galvanized W20 window sections and exposed steel structure. The £1000 prize was accompanied by this fine galvanized watering can!

Our Clapham High Street mixed use development achieved Practical Completion on the 5th May. The ground floor retail units are currently being fitted out with Tesco's taking the main high street unit.

For a private client in Hampshire HEAT are designing a new internal staircase, working with specialist joinery company Higginson to develop a helical form in cold moulded plywood. This is a development of the technique used for the award winning oval staircase in West London. These lightweight materials, used in boat building will allow an effortless smooth shape which will be structurally rigid.

The stair will be finished in oak veneer with tapering painted balustrading.

HEAT's entry for the extension to Asplund's library in Stockholm has been published on the BD Online website. This photograph shows the exhibits chosen for exhibition in Stockholm earlier this year. The competition, one of the largest architectural competitions in history with over 1200 entries was to design an extension to the world famous Stockholm Public Library by Gunnar Asplund.

HEAT worked with Giancarlo Alhadeff on a design which cut into the gravel escarpment behind the site and terraced down to the street with a series of enclosed roof gardens. Light was brought into the deep plan with a series of glazed slots. The structure relies on a forest of fabricated timber masts echoing the birch forests of northern Sweden.

Original competition entries are available for download from our downloads page.

HEAT have been commissioned to carry out the first stage of an exciting project for a new Primary School in Bounds Green, North London. As part of the initial exercise HEAT will be carrying out workshops with stakeholders including staff and pupils to establish the brief for the new school.

HEAT have expanded their Education practice with a recent appointment as architects to Oxford House College, a school for English Language Studies in central London. HEAT will be advising the College on an expansion to exciting new premises in Oxford Street which will include classrooms, admin block, and a double-height cafeteria/library in a former ballroom.

HEAT have been appointed to design 11 flats with private parking in Notting Hill. They will comprise a mixture of duplex units suited to the small scale of the surrounding streets, replacing a mixture of run-down buildings on a dense urban site. Planning will be submitted this month.

In the Education sector HEAT have been appointed to advise the prestigious Ashbourne Independent Sixth Form College in Kensington on their plans for development and expansion of their facilities including a purpose-designed top-lit art studio.

The scaffolding has been struck and the topping out ceremony held at the £4m mixed use scheme in Clapham for which HEAT obtained planning permission last year. HEAT are acting as Executive Architects for the developer Starcrest Properties.

HEAT have negotiated a sensitive planning permission and listed building consent for an extension to a listed Edwardian cottage in Hambledon, Surrey with Waverley Borough Council. Built as the Lodge Cottage for a small estate in the same family for four generations, the improvements maximise the space in the cottage and add a dormer window to the roof. Storage, always at a premium in a small cottage, is cleverly worked into unused areas of the plan. There is now a connection to the South-facing garden and a new family/dining room as well as a guest suite with en-suite shower.

Our valiant photographer braved the weather last week to capture this image of our recently completed house in Islington. Fortunately this project has several inches of high performance insulation and low-emissivity glass to keep it snug.

HEAT have been commissioned to prepare a suite of offices in a dramatic Clerkenwell warehouse for letting. The 3000 sq ft office floors have had the original cast iron columns, stripped wood floors and features restored. New ceilings contain service runs and provide discrete cove lighting. The unit is air conditioned and heated with state of the art heat pumps. Thermal efficiency and access to the offices have been improved in line with modern standards.

The offices are being marketed for rental through Nelson Bakewell.

HEAT have been appointed to carry out the extension of an important Arts and Crafts house in Hampstead, North London. The owners have carefully looked after the original interior fittings and finishes and have a collection of furniture to match. The new extension will include a kitchen, larder dining and family room using traditional joinery in an arts and crafts style together with a contemporary minimal glazed extension.