Balan House, Wythall: a white rendered two-storey house with oak-framed bays and a gravel drive

Balan House · Wythall · 2026

Architectural practice · Sutton Coldfield

Practical architecture, drawn by someone who has laid the bricks.

J34 Architecture is an independent architectural practice working across residential, commercial and care projects in the West Midlands. We take a project from first sketch to planning, through Building Regulations, and on site to completion.

Start a project See our work

About the practice

Design that understands how a building actually gets built.

J34 Architecture was founded in April 2025 by Sam Ashmore, an Architectural Technologist with more than a decade of practice experience and a background on site as a bricklayer. That combination shapes everything we draw: designs that are considered and well resolved, and drawing packages a builder can actually work from.

We work with private homeowners, developers, business owners and care providers. Whether it is an extension, a new dwelling, the conversion of a commercial unit or a specialist residential setting, we treat every client as an individual and every project as bespoke.

We use Revit and Building Information Modelling throughout, so plans, elevations, sections and 3D visuals all come from one coordinated model. Changes made in one place carry through to everything else, which keeps the drawings consistent and the approvals process moving.

Services

RIBA stages 0–2

Feasibility & concept design

Measured surveys, site appraisal and early options. We can develop your own ideas or start from a blank sheet, and tell you plainly what planning is likely to allow.

RIBA stage 3

Planning applications

Full and householder applications, lawful development certificates, change of use and prior approval, with the drawings, design statements and liaison the local authority needs.

RIBA stage 4

Building Regulations & construction drawings

Technical and working drawings for Building Control approval and for pricing and construction, coordinated with structural engineers and other consultants.

Visualisation

3D modelling & visuals

Rendered views and walk-throughs from the same model as the drawings, so you can see the scheme before anything is built and share it with lenders, planners or neighbours.

RIBA stages 5–6

Construction support & completion

Site visits, queries answered quickly and drawings revised as the job develops. We stay involved until the building is signed off and in use.

Throughout

Professional liaison

One point of contact between you, the builder, Building Control, structural engineers, fire consultants and any regulator the end use requires.

How we work

Three stages, one set of drawings, no hand-offs.

Design

Listen, survey, draw

We start with how you want to use the building and the budget you have for it. The first drawings are there to be challenged.

Plan

Approvals and detail

Planning, then the technical package. Because the model is built properly from the outset, the construction drawings follow quickly once the design is agreed.

Build

On site to sign-off

We enjoy working alongside builders and get a real thrill from seeing a drawing become a building. That is where the design is finished, not on paper.

Projects

Recent work

A selection of projects by the practice, and from Sam's earlier work at CR8 Architectural.

Wythall, WorcestershireSpecialist residential care2026

Balan House

A former family home, stripped back to brick and rebuilt as a five-bed residential service for adults with learning disabilities and complex needs, operated by Rdential Ltd.

The main house holds four self-contained suites, each with its own living and dining space and en-suite bedroom, arranged around shared communal areas, with a sensory room and staff office in the roof space. A detached annexe in the grounds provides a fifth, fully independent suite for someone who needs a quieter setting, and the former garage has become a residents' cinema room and gym. The whole site runs to around 500 m².

The brief was for a building that is robust without looking institutional: capped-and-coved safety flooring laid as wood-effect planks, bathrooms in reinforced boarding rather than tile, each floor's services isolatable from a central plant room, and bedrooms left white so every resident sets their own colour scheme.

J34's role

Planning permission and the change of use to a care home were secured by others before our involvement. J34 was appointed during construction to survey the building and produce the full set of detailed as-built architectural drawings, turning the client's marked-up layouts into a proper, coordinated drawing package. Those drawings now underpin the Building Control process and the final approvals ahead of CQC registration, with J34 acting as the designer and Building Control's design contact through to completion.

Redditch · Specialist residential care · Design while at CR8 Architectural

Haversham House

Conversion of a former elderly persons' care home into a specialist residential service for adults with complex needs, for the same client as Balan House. Individual suites, each with its own kitchenette, sit alongside a shared kitchen and living spaces, a cinema room, a de-escalation zone and a sensory room. Sam was closely involved in the design and the drawing package from concept through to construction.

Commercial · Healthcare · Current project

Church Street Dental Practice

Proposals for the redevelopment of an established dental practice, developed with the practice owner over a series of meetings around his vision for the future of the building. Street scene, elevations and 3D massing prepared for pre-application and planning.

Photograph to follow

Residential · Extensions, conversions and new build

Homes across the West Midlands

Single and two-storey extensions, loft conversions, garage conversions and new dwellings for private clients across Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham and Worcestershire, from first ideas through planning and Building Regulations to a set of drawings the builder can price and build from.

The practice

Sam Ashmore ACIAT

Director · Architectural Technologist

Sam's route into architecture began on site as a bricklayer, and that hands-on experience still shapes the way he designs. He understands how a drawing becomes a wall, which is why builders like working from his packages and why he enjoys being on site as a project comes together.

He graduated from Sheffield Hallam University in Architectural and Building Sciences in 2014 and spent the next decade in practice in Sutton Coldfield, most of it at CR8 Architectural, delivering a wide range of residential, commercial and care projects from concept through planning, Building Regulations and construction. He founded J34 Architecture in April 2025.

Sam is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists and takes pride in the relationships he builds with clients and contractors, so that projects run efficiently, meet planning and Building Regulations, and are finished to the highest possible standard.

Professional bodyACIAT, Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists

EducationBSc (Hons) Architectural and Building Sciences/Technology, Sheffield Hallam University · BTEC National Diploma, Construction Management

ToolsRevit · BIM · CAD · 3D visualisation

ExperienceArchitectural Technologist since 2014 · CR8 Architectural · Pinnegar Hayward Design

Contact

Tell us about your project.

A phone call or a short email with the address and a few lines about what you have in mind is all we need to get started. We will come back to you with an honest view of what is possible and what it is likely to involve.

Based in Royal Sutton Coldfield and working across Birmingham, the West Midlands, Worcestershire and Staffordshire.

Emailsam@j34-arch.co.uk

Phone+44 7772 792042

StudioRoyal Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands

LinkedInSam Ashmore ACIAT