British Pub, Crihana Veche

The client wanted a British-style pub and garden restaurant on an open rural site — a building that would read as unmistakably British in a place where nothing else does, and that could seat as many people outdoors in summer as indoors in winter.

An open site gives you no context to respond to, which sounds like freedom and isn't. With no street, no neighbours and no established grain, the building has to generate its own sense of arrival or it just sits in a field.

The second problem was seasonal. A pub that only works indoors wastes the site; one that only works outdoors is empty for half the year.

The approach was made deliberately theatrical. A row of cypress screens the car park from the building, so the pub is revealed on foot rather than seen across parked cars. Red telephone and post boxes at the threshold do the cultural signalling before you reach the door.

A deep timber veranda wraps the hipped-roof volume on two sides. It is covered and lit, so it works as a room rather than as an overflow — which is what lets the building trade through the shoulder seasons instead of just July.

Green joinery and gold lining give the exterior its character; inside, a coffered ceiling and panelled walls carry it through. Drawn at 1:50 through plans, elevations and sections, and approved by the local authority.

Moldova operates a different planning system to England, so this is not a UK consent — but the design and technical work is the same discipline applied to householder projects here.