Sustainability is now one of the most important issues for London, the country and the planet. As a practice we are actively up-skilling to be better able to help our clients and communities reduce their global warming impacts. We are acutely aware of our own responsibility as urbanists and architects to help London meet the Mayor’s climate commitments. 

As a practice we are well versed in a fabric-first approach to building and with the integration of low carbon energy systems into our projects. We have also been long-time advocates for and designers of local community living (15-minute communities). We are now also striving to go beyond this and consider the whole life carbon cycle in a project and looking at how a site can be regenerative (not just sustainable) for flora, fauna and local community living. We are questioning how we can re-use existing structures in our projects and thinking hard at the outset about the end of life re-purposing potential for new buildings. We are excited about tackling the bio-diversity loss crisis through the amplification of and maximising of green infrastructure in our work.

A prime example of our new focus on adaptive re-use is our Basildon Town Centre project, where we have taken a large retail site in a dying town centre and re-purposed vacant retail buildings to create use diversity, better permeability, improved active frontages and have added residential uses above with wonderful community gardens on the existing rooftops.