September 2024: We are delighted to have been selected by a panel of residents from the Hamilton Square, Crosby Row and Lockyer Estates in Southwark to develop design proposals to improve the three estates. Over the past couple of months, we have engaged with residents and other stakeholders in a genuine collaborative process to understand their needs and vision and develop initial design proposals that resonate with everyone using the spaces. We are now looking forward to the next set of community design workshops to discuss and develop the proposals.

March 2024: Together with Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) we have launched a design guidance document to help people who manage community buildings in their journey to net zero. Focussing on village halls, but applicable to many community buildings, the document explains what measures committees can take and how to go about the project. It was fantastic to travel the country and meet so many teams of dedicated people who have already transformed their hall.

January 2024: We're very excited that the train carriage cafe at The Old Ambulance Station in Bexhill will be up and running this year. This incredible social enterprise provides affordable studio space for world class artists and artisans, each giving a minimum of three hours a month volunteering in the community. Whether teaching a child who is struggling, creating an art project for the community or helping mount pictures in a care home, the Old Ambulance Station is a space with its community at its heart. The amazing video is by Gersende Giorgio.

November 2023: We're really pleased to have been a small part of this amazing project at The Bell in Ticehurst. Designed by Rich Brett and built by Chris Baxter, this small and beautiful kiosk can be rented for free by local suppliers and small businesses to sell things local, sustainable and ethical, and support the vibrancy of the village. It's about re-invigorating the High Street to benefit Ticehurst while demonstrating to others how great art and design (with a bit of generosity) can drive footfall, create opportunity, attract investment, and create real economic, social and cultural value. The brilliant video is by Gersende Giorgio.

March 2023: We ran an architectural workshop at Stanley Park Junior School in Sutton to teach Year 6 students about the built environment in a fun and engaging way. Over two workshop sessions the children learned about architecture and their neighbourhood, what architects really do, and why it is so important to be mindful to the environment looking at the principles of reduce, reuse and recycle.

  • Applying their newly gained knowledge they were then given the task to design and present their own project repurposing an under-used park pavilion located adjacent to their school to enhance the park facilities to benefit the wider community. Armed with cereal boxes, wooden skewers and rolls of masking tape the children were thrilled to be designers for the day and worked in groups to come up with some fantastic concepts ranging from cafe, bike repair shop, childcare facility to bird hide. They incorporated green roofs, wildlife ponds, community gardens and solar panels in their design amongst other measures to make it a stand-out sustainable project.

    One teacher noted ‘This has been a valuable experience for the kids. They were really excited to be adding their own design to something that exists in the real world and that they see every day on their way to school. It will help them put what they have learned in the workshop into context’.

 

We always are out and about making contact and building relationships with community groups, heritage groups, community land trusts, charities, councils, and like-minded developers. If you have a project and need architects who will listen, engage, and help deliver your vision please get in touch.