T: 01752 213460
Cura Design are one of the first architectural practices in the UK to offer biophilic design services and have over 14 years of award winning architectural design and place making. With over 175 completed projects, we are experts at gaining planning approvals for residential and cultural projects in stunning landscapes, including Para 84e and Para139 residential applications.
Please note that Cura Design take on a limited number of projects each year. We are now fully booked with projects through to 2026.
The common thread that runs through all our projects are a love of nature, a love of architecture and a love of life.
Cura can be translated in Portugese as "the process of making or becoming sound or healthy again".
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Click on an image to access a selection of current and past projects. All images and text copyright Cura Design 2025
This house connects with a hilll in Devon. Many of Cura Designs projects are concerned with the way the landscape interacts with the construction.
WHAT WE DO
We provide full design and research services for the creation of architecture and spaces by placing connections with the natural world as a core design value.
Refurbishment and extension to a Grade ll listed home in Devon
Stiltskin Childrens Theatre in Devon
HOME IN DEVON
At its heart biophilic design is about designing buildings that embrace nature for the well being of the occupants and as well protect and enhance the biodiversity in the area by helping to support new habitats for the existing plant , bird and animal populations.
STILTSKIN CHILDRENS THEATRE -SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGIES
Cura Design works with a range of consultants in order to maximize the benefits of connecting with nature for both occupants and the nature that surrounds the site. Green walls, air and ground source heat pumps, solar pv collectors, thermal collectors and rainwater harvesting were all considered and utlized in this project.
New Street Project Photo: Joakim Boren Photography
GREEN CONSTRUCTIONS AND NATURAL ELEMENTS
The Stiltskin Theatre project facade was inspired by traditional ivy covered buildings. This example is a hotel in Rome which has Wisteria and Japanese Creeper planted on the roof. This is an achievable and affordable way of integrating nature with the building. (credit: shepardsgrove.blogspot.com)
NEW HOME - VENTILATION
A love for nature can extend to the way that a building is heated and cooled. Ventilation and thermal benefits are improved in this Siberian Larch clad extension by warming internal air in the stairwell with winter sunlight.
All timber cladding, joinery and stair construction is Siberian Larch and is from FSC accredited sources and renewable stock.
Proposal for a swimming pool in a new home
NEW HOME - VISUAL CONNECTIONS WITH NATURE
This was a proposal for a house on a hill in Devon which endeavored to connect the Clients with the hillside and the sites surroundings. The adjacent river and the sky connect with the pool.
Union Corner Community Centre and Garden
COMMUNITY CENTRE - NATURE AND CONSTRUCTION - THE SPACES INBETWEEN
Union Corner Community Center was a grass roots and crowd funded project that included a community garden.The proposed facade that surrounds the building and the garden envisages all of these boarded up buildings opening up and becoming inhabited with nature and people. Facade panels that initially give the proposal a boarded up and closed appearance, open in the morning to create places to sit and talk. In this way the space between the private space of the garden and the public space of the pavement is reclaimed by the local residents. The new openings in the construction admit light, air and people into the the centre – everytime a visitor walks through a door or opens a window they come in direct contact and touch local artist fabricated elements and become more aware of these natural materials.
Union Corner Community Centre and Garden
COMMUNITY CENTRE GARDEN - SUNLIGHT AIR AND PLANTS
In conjunction with permacultural designers, the garden is devloped and grown both from the ground and from planters in the courtyard and many of the wall surfaces are utilized.
Seaside Flat interior
Working Sketches by Peter Warm Consulting
PASSIVEHAUS TECHNOLOGIES
Cura Design worked with Peter Warm Consultants on initial studies to enhance the Stiltskin Childrens Theatre building fabric and envelope with Passivehaus detailing. This kind of building technology can massively increase the buildings heating efficientcies to the point of not requiring gas heating except as a backup. This is a highly sustainable way of contsructing and refurbishing buildings and vital in this time of climate change and mass extinction.
Feasibility Study for small care homes in the UK
RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR - MATERIALS
The materials that are used in construction have an impact on nature and on ourselves. This interior project for a two bed flat endeavored to incorporate materials that were either already existing on site or reclaimed and natural. The material selection endeavors to be non toxic and not to harm people plants or animals. The floor is reclaimed teak, the brick is the existing substructure of the flat, the bench is reclaimed solid teak and the paint is lime based. The doors are made from birch ply and have imitation leather handles fabricated on site.
COMMON SENSE
It is common sense.
We are part of nature.
We have a duty to protect and enhance nature in our built environment, both for the benefit of nature and for the benefit of ourselves.