Arthur Stanley House wins a 2024 AJ Architecture Award 05.12.24

At the annual awards ceremony on Tuesday 03 December Arthur Stanley House received an AJ Architecture Award in the Refurb category.

Located within the Charlotte Street conservation area, Arthur Stanley House sees the reinvention of a decaying 1960s office block in Fitzrovia, central London. Originally designed by TP Bennett Architects as part of the Middlesex Hospital estate in 1965, the building has been vacant for 13 years after the University College London Hospital Trust relocated in 2005.

The design has been driven from a low carbon approach with 73% of the original building retained. The new scheme has refurbished the retained brick work, added depth to the façade with the addition of generous stone reveals; and replaced the existing windows with new high quality triple glazing that meets modern standards whilst maintaining slim profiles typical of the Fitzrovia character. The upper floor which previously housed the plant rooms and loggia, have been replaced with a new office floor plate and a full-length south facing terrace with far reaching views across London. The internal finishes have been pared back to expose brick work and concrete resulting in huge reduction in plasterboard.

A new residential building has also been provided comprising ten new residential homes organised around a central internal core, with two apartments at each floor.

‘The jury was impressed by how the original modernist design ethos provided a jumping-off point for the refurbishment and the evident care and subtlety with which the new additions were integrated.”

Young City Makers Awards 2024 04.12.24

On Monday 25 November, Bonner Primary School, Bethnal Green, working with AHMM won the Materials category at the Young City Makers Awards.

As part of our Partnerships programme, a team from our London studio took part in Open City’s Young City Makers progamme which pairs primary schools with architecture practices to bring learning to life. Students develop their collaboration and model-making skills, together with their understanding of their role in shaping their city.

For this year’s Young City Makers, the AHMM team collaborated with sixty Year 5 students at Bonner Primary School, asking them to undertake a ‘live’ task on one of our projects at the same time as our architect team.

The school is very close to The London Chest Hospital in Bethnal Green, a project with Latimer by Clarion Housing Group transforming a disused site into a community of 274 new homes and reinstating the historic grounds, opening then up to the public for the first time in nearly a decade. The site includes an ancient mulberry tree, reputed to be the oldest tree in East London. We tasked the Y5 students with the same task we are undertaking of designing to not only protect but also celebrate the tree and secure its future.

AHMM provided a potted herb to represent the mulberry tree set within an A3 foamboard structure for each group of six students to explore their ides for a context of the mulberry tree. Drawing on their knowledge of the project built from a site visit and information shared by the architects and sustainability expert, as well as their own lived experience, the students created their own neighbourhoods and community.

The children’s models include ideas for: a museum of the mulberry tree; a plan to surround the tree with space for play, relaxation and enjoyment with plenty of rubbish bins to ensure the natural environment; siting a leisure centre next to it to bring the community into the space. There were also all kinds of structures created out of many different materials to protect, celebrate and cherish the tree.

Civic Trust Regional Finalist 2025 02.12.24

Arthur Stanley House has been selected as a Regional Finalist in the 2025 Civic Trust Awards and will now be considered for a National Award, with winners announced in January 2025.

Located within the Charlotte Street Conservation Area, this project has reinvented a decaying 1960s block in Fitzrovia, London. It was originally designed by TP Bennett Architects, part of the Middlesex Hospital estate, as a centre specialising in physiotherapy with wards and consultation rooms on the upper floors and a hydrotherapy pool in the basement. The hospital trust relocated in 2005 leaving the building vacant and in decline. The project has reinvented it to provide eight floors of modern office accommodation and a new residential building along Tottenham Mews.

The new scheme, which retains more than 70% of the existing fabric, has refurbished the brickwork, added depth to the façade with generous stone reveals, and replaced the existing windows with new high quality triple glazing meeting modern standards while maintaining slim profiles typical of the Fitzrovia character.

The design of Arthur Stanley House celebrates the original building alongside its 21st century additions and complements the conservation area which in parts is fragmented with post-war and recent large-scale developments interspersed with lower scale, historic terraces.

New and old is left exposed within the floorplates to represent the building’s development over a 60-year period, repurposing it for a new generation by creating a design led space for the next 60 years. Additionally, the characterful floorplates give a uniqueness not normally found in commercial floor space.

Saffron Hill receives planning permission 19.11.24

AHMM proposals for a new environmentally ambitious office building, to replace a multi-storey NCP car park on Saffron Hill, have been approved by Camden’s Planning Committee.

Working with our clients, Saffron Hill Investment Holdings, and advice from our in-house Sustainability team, the design proposals retain and re-use the foundations of the car park, as well as adopting a ‘long-life loose-fit low-carbon’ approach, to regenerate an under-used site in Hatton Garden.

The steel frame works to maximum efficiency spans, with floors to be made of CLT decks, and terraces and rooftops planted wherever possible. A lofty and lightweight building replaces the high-density concrete car park, self-shading and naturally ventilated, reducing energy use. Office spaces maximise flexibility and adaptability, and simple servicing and generous heights minimise the need for tenant interior design, in keeping with AHMM’s ‘Fit-out / Rip-out’ analysis of the environmental impact of repeated re-fits.

At street level, a new café will animate the corner of Saffron Hill. The pavement is extended to allow a moment to pause, with a landscaped pocket park designed in collaboration with MRG Studio. The architecture becomes more detailed at ground floor, with timber glazed screens between monolithic concrete piers supporting the lightweight facades above. The slope down Saffron Hill is used to achieve a taller, more prominent, office entrance closer to Farringdon Road.

The project aims to provide an exemplar new office: low-carbon, highly flexible and architecturally characterful as befits this historically varied part of the City fringe.

Time2Sketch 2024 Colouring Book 12.11.24

Partnered with the Architects Benevolent Society, a charity that offers confidential advice, support and financial assistance to the architectural community and their families in a time of need, AHMM helped bring to life the Time2Sketch 2024 Colouring Book. This is the third time AHMM has shared our graphic design skills to develop the charity colouring book as part of our ongoing support of the Architects Benevolent Society.

Celebrating the stunning sketches from this year’s national competition, themed ‘Looking Outside’, this colouring book dives into architectural inspiration and mindfulness with each page reflecting the imaginative entries of one of the 25 selected participants, offering a perfect creative escape.

Every purchase supports the Architects Benevolent Society in providing critical assistance to the architectural community. Help make a difference while celebrating art, architecture and community by securing your copy here.

World Architecture Festival Awards 2024 08.11.24

Two AHMM projects have been highly commended at this year’s World Architecture Festival Awards.

The masterplan for London Square Bermondsey, highly commended in the Completed Housing category, sees the regeneration of a run-down and disjointed industrial estate in south London, bringing many vacant and under-used buildings with local historic value back into use. The masterplan provides for more than 400 new homes, 35% of which is affordable and social housing, together with a new commercial hub of circa 20,000 sqm dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises. Following an invited competition, the masterplan and delivery of the project was supported by Coffey Architects. Phases 1 and 2 are now completed and phase 3 is due to start in 2025.

Edge Shoreditch, highly commended in the Future Office category, is an office-led mixed-use building that offers the opportunity to set a new standard for offices in London, achieve the highest sustainability standards, improve the health and wellbeing of the building users, and create and foster a new diverse and inclusive community. The stepped building will provide market-leading, flexible workspaces complemented by internal break spaces and generous roof terraces providing access to greenery and biodiversity. An internal street, located at the heart of the ground floor, provide access to the main reception and offers informal, flexible workspace breakout areas as well as internal links to the ground floor retail units and cycle facilities.

Brick Awards 2024 07.11.24

Last night, 06 November, Norton Folgate won the Urban Regeneration and Supreme Awards at the Brick Awards.

Comprising three urban blocks, Norton Folgate occupies a prominent position within the City Fringe between the City of London and Shoreditch. Rather than applying a blanket strategy, the masterplan employs a building-by-building approach to the retained existing buildings, utilising restoration, refurbishment, extension, remodelling, and façade retention to breathe new life into the architecture.

Given the variegated character, four different architectural practices were brought together to diversify the architectural approach and style. AHMM was appointed masterplanner and designed three buildings, Blossom Yard & Studios, Nicholls and Clarke and Loom Court. Stanton Williams, Morris + Company, and DSDHA designed Elder Yard and Studios, 15 Norton Folgate, and 16 Blossom Court respectively, with East leading the public realm strategy.

Brick, chosen for its robustness, quality and appropriateness to the Elder Street Conservation Area’s character was the material of choice for the majority of the refurbishment, restoration, extension, remodelling and façade retention. A comprehensive study of the local context was undertaken at the planning application stage to understand and develop the material palettes for the buildings, with the architects liaising and working together to produce a coherent approach to the masterplan materiality. Every effort was made to re-use reclaimed bricks from the site, which were mainly red and yellow London stock bricks, re-laid with lime mortar, to maintain the overall consistency and honesty of the weathered masonry.

Building 2024 Awards 06.11.24

Last night, 05 November, at the annual Building Awards ceremony Norton Folgate was highly commended for the Net Zero Award.

Comprising three urban blocks, Norton Folgate occupies a prominent position within the City Fringe between the City of London and Shoreditch. Rather than applying a blanket strategy, the masterplan employs a building-by-building approach to the retained existing buildings, utilising restoration, refurbishment, extension, remodelling, and façade retention to breathe new life into the architecture.

Given the variegated character of the site, four different architectural practices were brought together to diversify the architectural approach and style. AHMM was appointed masterplanner and designed three building, Blossom Yard & Studios, Nicholls and Clarke and Loom Court. Stanton Williams, Morris + Company, and DSDHA designed Elder Yard and Studios, 15 Norton Folgate, and 16 Blossom Court respectively, with East leading the public realm strategy.

Carbon reduction was intrinsic to the programme, achieving BREEAM Excellent and delivering a saving of more than 1,000 tonnes of CO2 against the original planning design. The project is British Land’s largest scale all-electric refurbishment scheme, which majors on heat sharing between six buildings whilst enabling the site to take advantage of future decarbonisation of the national grid.

AHMM named in Forbes America’s Top 200 Residential Architects List 05.11.24

AHMM have been named in Forbes’ inaugural America’s Top 200 Residential Architects list.

Conceived as a new platform for clients and architects to connect, this list celebrates architects who show commitment to enlightened living in their design, assembling a regionally diverse advisory board of leading experts on the American House. Using a singularly rigorous methodology and system of evaluation, Forbes have formulated an architects list unprecedented in its scope and diligence, representing firms in 42 states plus the District of Columbia. These are the nation’s finest practitioners of the creation of ‘home’.

AHMM’s Oklahoma City office has played a pivotal role in helping usher in a new era of architectural led design and environmental responsibility in Oklahoma City’s built environment. The recently completed Cumberland Court House, our featured project on the list, is a private home for a family of four in a newly developed section of the 1930s-era master-planned garden community of Nichols Hills, Oklahoma. The house, with its casual nod to Tudor Revival styling on its exteriors, its passive-solar-oriented courtyard plan and its high environmental-performance, acknowledges the neighbourhood’s mandatory adherence to an historical architectural style. It expresses contemporary open-plan living, whilst being aware and respectful of its surroundings.

Shape My City 2024 29.10.24

Earlier this month the Bristol office ran a Shape My City workshop with Hayhurst & Co. as part of our ongoing Partnerships Education work with the charity Design West.

Shape My City is an award-winning talent accelerator programme for 15-18 year olds that seeks to change the future workforce across the built environment. The programme is a year-long, free-to-access course, which gives talented young people opportunities they might not otherwise have, made possible by the support of built environment partners.

As the first session of the year, students were tasked with designing a community space which answered the question; what key ingredients create successful spaces for a community to come together?

The students used a series of paper nets to create forms on a given ‘site’, collaging onto these to create their chosen building for the community. Their proposals where then tessellated into a small city of buildings, including community centres, gyms, schools, bus stations, cafes, shopping centres and libraries. The collected proposals showed good consideration for user experience, accessibility, materiality and sustainability.

photography by Paul Blakemore

Building London Planning Awards 2024 16.10.24

Last night, 15 October, three AHMM projects received recognition at the Building London Planning Awards. 2 Ruskin Square won Best New Place to Work, 1 Berkeley Street won Best Mixed Use Development and The Brentford Project was Highly Commended in Best New Place to Live.

2 Ruskin Square is an environmentally ambitious ten-storey office development in east Croydon, part of the Stanhope masterplan connecting East Croydon Station to the town centre. The project is the second office building to be delivered as part of the scheme and is to be the new HQ for the Home Office, bringing together three offices spread across Croydon to one location. The Sustainability and Wellbeing vision for the project is to design and deliver truly great places for work that support smarter working in a modern civil service. The project aspires to be a Better Building Partnership Pioneer Project which will involve auditing energy used over the first two years of occupancy. It seeks to minimise embodied carbon and resource use, is designed for adaptability and re-use, and minimises operational energy use as a Design Performance (NABERS UK) pioneer.

1 Berkeley Street see the transformation of two 1970s buildings in Mayfair, London, into a mixed-use development showcasing an innovative approach to urban regeneration. Notable for its retention of 81% of the original structures, this project merges office spaces, retail, public realm and a prestigious hotel for 1 Hotels, making their European debut. Its innovation lies in the dedication to retaining the frame and facades, whilst significantly improving upon the existing condition in operational energy, functionality, accessibility, and longevity; ‘futureproofing’ the scheme to withstand future change and be accessible to all. This approach not only preserved the architectural heritage but also aligned with contemporary environmental goals. The introduction of a new pavilion, an annex office and a public courtyard exemplifies the creative reuse of urban space.

The Brentford Project, a collaboration between AHMM, Glenn Howells Architects, Maccreanor Lavington and Grant Associates for Ballymore, establishes a high-density, low-rise mix of uses to revitalise the High Street and create direct links to the River Brent, Grand Union Canal and related waterways. In addition to leading the masterplan, AHMM has designed a key plot within the first phase of the development which includes the retention of two brick warehouses and the creation of a group of buildings to accommodate 144 apartments over a plinth of high street retailers, small independent businesses and restaurants facing the waterfront to the south.

Acorn House tops out 14.10.24

The Acorn House team celebrated the topping out of the building at a ceremony in Kings Cross earlier this month.

Designed for our client Precis Advisory, and housing provider Newlon Housing Trust, this entirely affordable housing development will deliver 33 new homes, 60% of which are to be Social Affordable Rent (set by Camden Council), and 40% as Intermediate Rent tenures (in line with GLA household income caps). The building also provides flexible and affordable office space, a community room, play space and a retail unit for a local business on the ground floor.

Acorn House is being built as part of a two-site development, paired with the new Laboratories building at nearby Belgrove House, which will be MSD’s UK Discover Centre and Headquarters located in the heart of the Knowledge Quarter. Works will now begin to complete the façade and start the fit-out, with the building expected to open in 2025.

One Fairchild Street receives planning approval 11.10.24

On the 9 October Hackney Council unanimously approved One Fairchild Street, a 27-storey office building on Shoreditch High Street, for Rocket Properties.

Located on a prominent site within the South Shoreditch Conservation Area, the development will deliver 25,500 square metres of office space, including affordable workspace for start-ups and SMEs, as well as roof terraces, ground-level retail space, and market stalls.

With a contextually led approach to design and materials, the scheme will have a positive impact on the townscape by reinstating the missing frontages along Shoreditch High Street, Fairchild Street and Holywell Lane. Generous public realm repairs connect the site to the wider context with new public routes through the site, promoting active engagement between the adjacent streets and the generous public realm at ground level. A ‘multi-level base’ merges different spaces and uses, allowing for a seamless connection between the basement levels and the mezzanine floors of the building. This promotes social connections between users and increases active frontage to the public realm.

Targeting BREEAM Outstanding, the development seeks to achieve the highest environmental credentials that will meet and exceed current standards and best practice, to positively impact on the wellbeing of building users and to minimise the carbon footprint of the building.

British Construction Industry Awards 2024 10.10.24

Last night, 09 October, Norton Folgate received two British Construction Industry Awards, Commercial Property Project of the Year and Community Impact Initiative of the Year.

Occupying a prominent position on the City Fringe, a short walk from Liverpool Street Station, this office led development for British Land brings vacant or under used buildings back into use, reconnecting and enhancing the public realm. The masterplan employs a building-by-building- approach to the retained buildings, utilising restoration, refurbishment, extension, remodelling, and façade retention to breathe new life into the architecture. Sensitively designed new buildings have been introduced in a palette of materials, including brick which was selected for its robustness, quality, and appropriateness to the Conservation Area’s character.

Given the variegated character of Norton Folgate, four different architectural practices were brought together to diversify the architectural approach and style. AHMM was appointed as masterplanner, designing three buildings – Blossom Yard & Studios, Nicholls and Clarke, and Loom Court. Stanton Williams, Morris + Company, and DSDHA designed Elder Yard and Studios, 15 Norton Folgate, and 16 Blossom Street respectively, with East leading the public realm strategy.

To support the relationship with the community through the planning and delivery process, a Project Charter was set up so the project team could invest their time and energy in long term social value initiatives with repeat interactions, actively engaging with the community around development. The Project Charter was a social value plan specific to Norton Folgate established with the driver to ‘make a difference to the project teams’ lives, local community and those we interfaced with. It covered social value objectives across community, wellbeing, environment, diversity/inclusion and teambuilding.

Judges commented “The intent of the project, its execution, the complexity of the old and new buildings interlinked with one another and sensitivity of how that responded to the local area was outstanding.

The project sets a great example of how commercial property development can go wider than the client requirements and benefit the community too. The consideration of material use through to skills development made this project stand out.”

Regarding community impact the judges said “Great client engagement, defining the culture and approach to local community. Focus on project team development, community impact and supply chain integration. Authentic leadership driving the change showcasing humility and embracing the power of collaboration.”

BCO 2024 National Awards 09.10.24

Last night, Tuesday 08 October, two AHMM projects received a BCO National Award. 1 New Park Square received Best Commercial Workplace Award and Tower Hamlets Town Hall received Best Refurbished / Recycled Workplace Award.

1 New Park Square is the first building to be completed as part of the Dixon Jones masterplan to redevelop Edinburgh Park along the western edge of the city of Edinburgh. It forms an important landmark signalling the end of the existing park and creating a backdrop to a new civic square designed by Gross Max. At ground floor, a café and a restaurant / music venue opens out onto the new public square. The building also houses a 150-seat conference centre with four storeys of flexible office space above.

The judging panel awarded this building for its world-class arrival experience and open plan floors. Commenting that this is an exceptional building using high quality finishes and attention to detail throughout, the judges recognised its blend of natural materials and exposed concrete. The project showed “bravery, creativity and illustrated the crucial role that workplace can play as a catalyst for re-generation,” said the judges. Not only that, but it is more than an ‘office’ building having opened itself up to be part of a new community with places and spaces to be used by both tenants, and the public. The needs to tenants have been well understood with the provision of excellent health and wellbeing facilities as well as public restaurants, which has become an attraction in their own right. The panel commented that “1 New Park Square marks the start of the next exciting phase of development in Edinburgh Park”.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall, the new headquarters for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, encompasses the restoration of the Grade II listed former Royal London Hospital building and the addition of a new build extension. The move to the former hospital site consolidates a number of the council’s offices into one location and offers a broad range of public services to the borough’s residents, in a more accessible location in Whitechapel. The design responds to key eras of the existing building’s development, between 1757 and 1906, utilising the architectural character inherent in each to enrich the new internal environment, and ensuring the initial features of the listed building were retained, enhanced and showcased. This is particularly prevalent in the large, bright and inviting reception where the original retained façade is repurposed giving a dramatic entrance. The judges commented that “there is thoughtful consideration of the existing architectural throughout the building, ranging from staircases to historical features in the meeting rooms.”

The judges also said that it is a “superb example of how a London landmark has been brought back to life and reinvigorated with a new purpose at the centre of local democracy and a worthy winner of this very competitive category, all of which are excellent examples of what you can achieve with existing buildings. The project excelled in interfacing the old with the modern.”

Paul Monaghan selected to be part of the Town Architects Pilot Project 09.10.24

AHMM’s Co-Founder Paul Monaghan is one of 10 architects selected by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan to support the quality of London’s high streets and public spaces as part of the Town Architects pilot project.

The new scheme will promote good growth and design in neighbourhoods across the capital. The experts, known as ‘Town Architects’, will help to build much-needed capacity within local boroughs and will directly support Chief Placeshaping Officers and Design Champions to review project proposals and help develop a strategic vision for the local area.

Paul will be working with Croydon on the town centre ‘stewarding and guiding coherence, cohesion and exemplar design quality across all town centre projects and programmes whilst enhancing existing coordination and acting as a critical friend to review through all stages of the projects.’

Read more about the Town Architects scheme and the selected architects here.

Cornerstone Receives Planning Approval 07.10.24

Cornerstone, an office to co-living conversion at 45 Beech Street for developer HUB, in partnership with sustainable and impact investor Bridges Fund Management, has received planning permission from the City of London.

Located adjacent to the iconic 1950s Barbican Estate, the development will introduce a new type of community-focused housing to this part of the City, transforming disused office space at the end of its life into much needed homes for City workers, while also delivering significant embodied carbon savings.

Designed by AHMM, the scheme will deliver new co-living homes, state-of-the-art amenities and improved public realm with additional greenery, and ground floor amenities such as a café and co-working space that will be open to the existing local community. Located at the centre of the City’s largest residential area, the scheme will be more in keeping with the surrounding area and contribute to its revitalisation, while benefiting from existing transport connectivity.

In alignment with HUB and Bridges’ mutual commitment to reducing carbon emissions, the retrofit scheme utilises as much of the existing building as possible. This approach is projected to achieve a 34% reduction in total embodied carbon compared to a new build of equivalent scale. Additionally, the scheme will significantly improve the energy performance of the building, and targets industry-leading sustainability standards, including BREEAM Excellent and EPC A.

AHMM Director, Hazel Joseph, said “It has been a privilege to work on this strategically significant site on the fringe of the much-loved Barbican Estate. This opportunity has enabled us to explore how alternative typologies and sustainable retrofit can revitalise office buildings that are reaching the anticipated end of their lives.

Our proposals centre around sensitively restoring the building within the context. The design redresses the existing structure with high-performing and textured facades, creates a more consistent architectural language with the neighbouring buildings, and improves the surrounding public realm including along the Beech Street tunnel.

We are looking forward to taking the project forward with HUB, Bridges Fund Management, and the wider project team.”

Work underway at Plot 6 Deptford Landings 04.10.24

Construction has started on 189 low-energy affordable homes for local people at Plot 6 Deptford Landings, part of the ongoing regeneration of the former industrial site in southeast London, led by Lendlease.

The fully affordable development, designed by AHMM, will include 130 homes for social rent and 59 homes for shared ownership, providing housing opportunities for local people, including those on the council’s waiting list. Residents will enjoy carefully designed living spaces across three eight-storey buildings, complete with private balconies, a landscaped courtyard, and large roof terraces.

The development, led by Peabody with Higgins Partnerships will be built to Passivhaus standards, providing energy-efficient homes for residents, with drastically reduced energy bills, improved comfort, and enhanced air quality.

Simon Barry, Managing Director, Development at Peabody, said: "This project represents a significant investment of more than £75 million, including grant funding from the Greater London Authority, at a time when building affordable homes in London is increasingly difficult.”

Dominic Higgins, Chief Operating Officer at Higgins Group, said “This ground-breaking marks a significant milestone in the delivery of 189 much needed Passivhaus homes. Our commitment goes beyond building new homes. We are focused to making a lasting, positive impact within the local community by offering apprenticeships, work placements and nurturing future talent through our work with local schools, ensuring the development contributes to the area’s long-term growth and success."

Tom Copley, the Deputy Mayor of Housing and Residential Development, said: “I’m delighted by the progress at Deptford Landings, using funding from the Mayor of London to bring 189 genuinely affordable and low-energy homes to the local area. We are proud to have delivered millions of pounds in City Hall funding to help drive this regeneration, as part of plans which will ultimately deliver 1,500 new, high-quality homes as well as new student accommodation, offices and public spaces, in line with our mission to build a better and fairer London for everyone.”

Laura Stephenson, Director at AHMM said “We are very pleased that work has started on site at Deptford Landings, which is AHMM’s first residential Passivhaus project. Working with Peabody and Higgins Partnerships, we look forward to delivering much needed high quality affordable homes for Lewisham and for London.”

AHMM Publishes annual carbon emissions report 02.10.24

AHMM has published its annual carbon emissions report, as part of its commitment to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

The AHMM Carbon Emissions Annual Report 2023 includes an overview of the company’s Scope 1, 2, and 3 operational emissions for 2023, as well as the upfront carbon emissions of its architectural projects that achieved practical completion in 2023. These figures are reported in comparison to the previous year, as the baseline for the practice’s reduction pathway and carbon disclosure is the calendar year 2022. In recognition of the difference in scale of carbon emissions between projects and company operations, the report reviews the two measurements and their contributing factors separately.

The report shows that from 2022 to 2023 the company’s total operational emissions have reduced from 1406 tCO2e to 1006 tCO2e, with the 2023 figure being 323 tCO2e below target based on AHMM’s net zero trajectory plan. The biggest savings in operational carbon have been made in Scope 3, with a total reduction of 513 tCO2e; this has been attributed to changes made in IT equipment purchasing and the studio’s events programme. Scope 1 and 2 emissions, which derive from the gas boilers at AHMM’s London headquarters and purchased electricity across all location, have increased in 2023, which is a result of more staff returning to the office following the pandemic.

Although not a requirement of the SBTi, the report also includes the upfront carbon emissions of AHMM’s projects that achieved practical completion in the reporting periods, with a reduction trajectory target based on the upfront carbon intensity of AHMM’s 2022 buildings and working to LETI 2030 targets. This sets a target for 593 kgCO2e/m2 GIA for 2023. The report shows that the total upfront carbon emissions of AHMM’s projects that achieved practical completion increased from 80351 tCO2e to 102893 tCO2e from 2022 to 2023, but the carbon intensity of the projects reduced from 628 kgCO2e/m2 GIA to 553 kgCO2e/m2 GIA. This is due to AHMM delivering an increased proportion of retrofit projects, and buildings with larger footprints but greater carbon efficiency.

Download the report here.

Sir Ken Dodd Happiness Centre receives planning approval 01.10.24

Planning permission has been granted by Liverpool City Council for the Sir Ken Dodd Happiness Centre.

A partnership between the Royal Court Liverpool Trust, The Comedy Trust and The Ken Dodd Charitable Foundation, the new building will celebrate all forms of comedy and humour and provide opportunities for all to take part in a wide range of programmes, workshops and sessions with comedy, humour, health and wellbeing at the heart. A main element of The Happiness Centre will be a dedicated, permanent exhibition space to celebrate the life of Liverpool icon Sir Ken Dodd, charting his remarkable career as comedian, singer, actor and entertainer and his enduring impact on the comedy scene.

AHMMs executive director Paul Monaghan said “Having grown up in Liverpool in the 60s and 70s I was always aware of Sir Ken Dodd from his music, TV appearances and legendary performances. He was always a favourite because his humour was surreal and timeless, which is why he was still a popular entertainer up until his passing.

It’s therefore a great honour to work on the design for this building with Lady Anne Dodd and the Royal court Theatre on such a key site in Liverpool. The building will provide a great legacy for his work along with providing educational spaces for the youth of the City. Its multicoloured façade and sustainable design will provide a fitting landmark to a great man.”

Sir Ken’s widow, Lady Dodd, said “I am thrilled that my dream of creating a legacy to celebrate Ken’s life has reached such a landmark stage. I think the building looks fantastic and I know Ken would be delighted at its location, just a stone’s throw from his favourite building in the city, St George’s Hall.

I am thoroughly enjoying working with Liverpool’s Royal Court and architect Paul Monaghan of AHMM and very much look forward to getting on with the next stage, which will include planning a programme of events and activities to inform the design of the inside and outside of the Sir Ken Dodd Happiness Centre.”

Festival Market Place receives planning 27.09.24

AHMM’s proposals for a new Prairie Artisan brewery and indoor golf entertainment bar located off W 1st street in downtown Edmond, Oklahoma, has received planning approval from Edmond City Council.

Orientated to promote the existing axis of the Kentucky Daisy Monument and plaza, the new building continues the connection between the farmers market and the Edmond Railyards by utilizing two large brick archways to create a natural thoroughfare encouraging pedestrians through the ground floor of the building.

Site works is anticipated to commence in November with a Q3 2025 opening.

Structural Steel Design Awards 2024 27.09.24

Last night, 26 September, One Great Cumberland Place received a commendation for the high standard of design achieved at the annual Structural Steel Design Awards.

Located directly opposite London’s Hyde Park with Marble Arch as a prominent neighbour, One Great Cumberland Place delivers new flexible and significantly higher spec office space over seven floors within the enhanced envelope of a prominent heritage asset. A new internal steel structure with composite deck is tied into the façade which has been retained, carefully and respectfully enhanced and extended to accommodate an additional rooftop office floor which helps establish a new identity for the building.

10 years in the making, One Great Cumberland Place is an excellent example of the opportunities, challenges and debate in the strategy towards our existing heritage assets and how best to ensure their use and longevity.

The Judges commented “This high specification development, located directly opposite Marble Arch, is part of the prestigious Portman Estate, so demanded a sensitive response to modernise a valued period building. Comprising retail and high-quality office space, an efficient steel frame integrates a new 10-storey building within a retained 1920’s original façade, where new floors and openings had been sensitively designed to correspond with historic elevational details.”

Insider South West Property Awards 2024 shortlist 25.09.24

Assembly Bristol and TQEC Research Hub have both been shortlisted for an Insider South West Property Award in the Development of the Year category.

A mixed-use development in the centre of Bristol, Assembly Bristol reinvents a cleared site that had lain empty since 2008. Three buildings arranged around a new waterside garden provide a variety of flexible commercial floorplates, with food and beverage units activating the ground level. A new pedestrian connection reinstates a historic route through the site, giving the buildings a new address in the city.

One of the first completed components of the wider University of Bristol Innovation Campus, the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus (TQEC) Research Hub reinvents two Victorian industrial buildings that were once part of the Bristol Gas Light Company: the Retort House, which can be dated back to 1821, and the Coal Shed, circa 1885, into a dedicated state-of-the-art research facility for the Bristol Digital Futures Institute. The design principles for the new research facility focus on a light touch approach, making the most of the building’ idiosyncrasies while also delivering a high-quality academic building that suits the needs of its users, creating specialist facilities, workspaces, collaboration areas, and training and meeting rooms.

The winners will be announced in October.

AJ Architect Awards 2024 Shortlist 24.09.24

Two AHMM projects, Tower Hamlets Town Hall and Arthur Stanley House, have been shortlisted in this year’s AJ Architecture Awards.

Shortlisted in the Civic Project category, Tower Hamlets Town Hall encompasses the restoration of the Grade II listed former Royal London Hospital building into the new headquarters for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. With the addition of a new build extension, the new town hall consolidates a number of the Council’s offices into one location, and offers a broad range of public services to the borough’s residents, in a more accessible location in Whitechapel. The design responds to key eras of the existing building’s development, between 1757 and 1906, utilising the architectural character inherent in each to enrich the new internal environment. The Georgian formality of the external facades has been retained, the restored brickwork creating a backdrop to the council’s activities within the new extension.

Shortlisted in the Refurb Category, Arthur Stanley House sees the reinvention of a decaying 1960s office block in Fitzrovia, central London. Originally designed by TP Bennett Architects as part of the Middlesex Hospital estate, the new scheme has retained 55% of the original building, refurbished the retained brick work, added depth to the facade with the addition of generous stone reveals; and replaced the existing windows with new high quality triple glazing. The upper floor which previously housed the plant rooms and loggia has been replaced with a new office floor plate and a full-length south facing terrace with far reaching views across London. A new residential building has also been provided comprising ten new residential homes organised around a central internal core, with two apartments at each floor.

The winners will be announced at a celebratory event in December.

Climate Change, All Change Exhibition 2024 19.09.24

In Partnership with Arup, AHMM has recently completed a six-week programme with 120 Year 5 students at Ashton Gate Primary School in Bristol, as part of Climate Change All Change, a national initiative that partners top designers from diverse fields with school children to co-create innovative solutions to the climate crisis.

The focus for this particular programme was flooding and how Bristol may look in 100 years’ time. Arup and AHMM created a series of workshops, covering site visits, impacts of climate change and flooding, modelling, drawing and design evolution. The students presented their completed designs to an expert panel from Arup, AHMM and Climate Change All Change. A CGI vision for Bristol 2120 was then created by the teams’ in-house visualisers from the students’ designs and unveiled at a celebration at the school. The visual is currently on display at the Tobacco Factory.

We’re proud to support Climate Change All Change and be part of an initiative empowering young people across the UK to tackle the climate crisis.

AT Regenerative Architecture Index 2024 17.09.24

Last Thursday, 12 September, the inaugural Regenerative Architecture Index (RAI) was launched at an event at The Bottle Factory in south east London.

Generated by Architecture Today and UK Architects Declare, the RAI sets out to benchmark practices’ progress in the move towards regenerative working and projects. It recognises the need for a built environment that isn’t merely reducing its negative impacts, but has positive impacts for today and the long term.

Sixty-eight organisations, mostly architectural practices but also engineers, charities and clients, including AHMM, participated in the Index, giving detailed information about their efforts to address the challenges posed by climate change and accelerate the transition to a regenerative, more equitable future.

The index is divided into three categories, which together offer a comprehensive overview of the way architects are redefining practice, the issues faced by the profession, and an unprecedented shift in values, priorities and ambitions:  

1) Being a good ancestor
This is about a shift in practice mindsets to consider truly long-term thinking. Our decisions today should consider seven generations ahead, ensuring adaptability and flexibility for the future. This requires innovative thought, as current models are rarely beneficial in the long term.

2) Co-evolving with nature
This is about recognising that we are part of nature, within integral living systems, not separate from it. Our work should actively regenerate ecosystems by learning from and working with natural systems. This requires designing for circularity and encouraging closed-loop energy, material and water cycles.

3) Creating a just space for people
This is about providing social connection, economic opportunity and wellbeing for all. Our design process should foster a shared sense of stewardship where neighbourhoods can self-organise and build their resilience. This requires ethical, inclusive and participative approaches.

For each question the assessors have picked out a ‘front-runner’, the practice deemed to have given the most interesting or insightful response, along with a ‘runner-up’ and a selection of ‘ones to watch’. AHMM were deemed runner up in a couple of the categories, including being ‘a good ancestor’ for our knowledge sharing, AT highlighted our ‘Delivering Net Zero In Use’ Toolkit which was published towards the end of 2023. We were also a runner up in the ‘co-evolving with nature’ category which highlighted AHMM’s Partnerships Group’s work providing capital, volunteers and ideas for local environmental groups in London and Bristol.

The responses have been published as a ‘Compendium of Best Practice’ in the September-October issue of Architecture Today.

Housing Design Awards 2024 13.09.24

London Square Bermondsey is the Homes England Housing Design Award Masterplan 2024 winner.

The masterplan for London Square Bermondsey sees the regeneration of a run-down and disjointed industrial estate in central London, bringing many vacant and under-used buildings with local historic value back into use.

The masterplan provides for more than 400 new homes, 35% of which is affordable and social housing, together with a new commercial hub of circa 20,000 sqm dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises. The development has allowed for the retention of two resident artist groups – The Drawing Room/Tannery Arts and Southwark Studios – who have been on site for the past 20 years and with whom the design team has collaborated on parts of the scheme to create a better sense of place.

A sequence of green spaces renews land previously contaminated by centuries of industrial use. The new landscape comprises of the planting of more than 100 trees across the site, and the creation of new public and private open planted spaces. Forming part of the Old Kent Road Opportunity Area, the development has created exemplar housing scheme upon which all other developments in the area will be based.

Following an invited competition, the masterplan and delivery of the project was supported by Coffey Architects. Phase 1 and 2 are now completed and phase 3 is due to start in 2025.

Open House Festival 2024 12.09.24

Open House Festival is a London-wide festival that opens up and celebrates the city’s architecture, special places and neighbourhoods. Run by Open City, an educational charity empowering communities to learn about, experience and have a role in shaping places where they live, the festival will take place from Saturday 14 September to Sunday 22 September with a number of free open days, events and guided tours taking place across all 33 London Boroughs.

This year the public can come and visit four AHMM projects as part of the festival.

One Great Cumberland Place, a late 1920s façade retention and regeneration scheme delivering high-end office and retail space within the enhanced envelope of a prominent heritage asset in the heart of Marylebone, will be open on Saturday 14 September for the public to drop in for architect led tours around the building from 11am to 3pm. Please see here for more information.

Norton Folgate, located within the City Fringe between the City of London and Shoreditch, will be open to the public on Saturday 21 September with a drop-in exhibition telling the story of the masterplan, from the rich history of the site to the design of the new masterplan which has been developed to respond to the mixed character of the context, bringing vacant or underused buildings back into use and reconnecting and enhancing the public realm. Please see here for more information.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall, the new headquarters for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Council within the transformed Grade II Listed former Royal London Hospital, will be open on Saturday 21 September for the public to drop in for architect led tours around the building from 10am to 4pm. Please see here for more information.

On Sunday 22 September we will be giving architect-led walking tours around Hawley Wharf exploring how AHMM transformed a neglected piece of the city in the heart of Camden Town into a vibrant new destination that enhances the existing identity of the area. The drop in tours last about 60 mins, with the first tour setting off at 10am. Please see here for more information.

Find out more about the Open House Festival and browse the full programme here.

Lake Hefner Golf Clubhouse breaks ground 10.09.24

On 29 August Lake Hefner Golf Clubhouse in Oklahoma City officially broke ground with The Mayor of Oklahoma City, City Council members, Golf commissions, Design team and interested citizens attending a ceremony held on site.

Publicly owned by The City of Oklahoma City and widely regarded as one of the premier municipal golf courses in a multistate region, the new clubhouse strives to be the Clubhouse for all Lake Hefner users and City residents by appealing to more than just golfers – diversifying and increasing revenue streams to guarantee long term success.

Construction officially started on Tuesday 03 September, with the project due for completion at the beginning of 2026.

Structural Steel Design Awards 2024 shortlist 22.08.24

One Great Cumberland Place has been shortlisted for the 2024 Structural Steel Design Awards.

A late 1920’s façade retention and regeneration scheme, One Great Cumberland Place delivers high-end office and retail space within in the enhanced envelope of a prominent heritage asset in the heart of Marylebone.

Located directly opposite London’s Hyde Park with Marble Arch as a prominent neighbour, this project was delivered as part of The Portman Estate’s ‘Sustainable Vision for Marble Arch’. Bringing high quality, flexible workplace fit for modern usage the scheme delivers seven floors of Cat A office space and three floors of high-quality retail area. A new internal steel structure with composite deck is tied into the façade which has been retained, carefully and respectfully enhanced and extended to accommodate an additional rooftop office floor using varying construction methods.

Matthew Poole, Managing Director for Galliford Try Building London and South East Commercial, commented: “This nomination is a significant acknowledgement following the successful redevelopment of this remarkable building. This project not only showcases the innovative use of steel in creating sustainable and flexible spaces but also represents our commitment to preserving architectural heritage while embracing modern design."

Sponsored by the British Constructional Steelwork Association, the Structural Steel Design Awards showcase projects that utilise steel-based systems in sustainable, flexible and versatile applications in buildings across the UK.

The winners will be announced at the annual awards ceremony in September.

New London Awards 2024 Shortlist 21.08.24

Three AHMM projects have been shortlisted for this year’s New London Awards.

Twyford Abbey masterplan, shortlisted in the Housing (built) category, saves and sympathetically restores a derelict Grade II listed manor house and walled garden on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register in Ealing, west London. The project will deliver 30 homes in the restored Twyford Abbey and 296 homes across seven new residential buildings, 50% of which will be affordable homes for local people. The new homes are arranged around courtyards, varying in height from five to six-storeys and two-storey cottages, inspired by workers cottages on historic estates which line the main drive. These are carefully placed within the grounds to respect the most significant existing trees and setting of listed buildings, whilst the architectural approach is inspired by the Gothic character of Twyford Abbey. The abbey’s historic grounds are to be opened to the public for the first time since the Alexian Brotherhood vacated the abbey in 1987.

1 Berkeley Street, shortlisted in the Mixed Use (built) category, creates a vibrant 210,000 square foot mixed-use development with offices, retail and the first 1 Hotel outside north America. Located opposite The Ritz Hotel on Piccadilly, the project involves reusing two 1970s buildings, retaining 81% of the existing frame and façade elements along the two main elevations whilst expanding with three new extensions: a two-storey rooftop extension, new pavilion at the corner of Dover Street, and an annex building within Dover Yard, a new publicly accessible garden courtyard for building users and incidental commuters alike. The development improves frontages along Berkeley Street and Piccadilly, contributing to the economic landscape with a curated retail offer. The creation of modern office and hotel spaces with flexible floorplates and sustainable cycle facilities provides improved spaces for guests and employees alike, designed to meet modern standards.

Shepherd’s Bush Market, shortlisted in the Masterplans and Area Strategies (unbuilt) category, has been the heart and soul of west London for many years, providing a vibrant mix of clashing cultures that produce unique fabrics, music and fashion. It is a place to experience, discover food and wares from all corners of the world, and most importantly build bonds that tie people to the space in which they eat, shop and live. The unique programme of the masterplan enhances the variety of the Market with workspace, life sciences, and affordable housing. The Market will be a platform for the existing Market traders and a retail incubator with trading spaces for local people to trial new ideas. The office building will house a life sciences incubator, operated by Imperial College London and co-working space for small businesses, with facilities that Market traders, people from the life sciences incubator and residents are able to use. A key concept is to merge the Market and workspace environments creating a clash of life and culture.

The winners will be announced at the annual NLA Awards lunch in November.

50 Baker Street Receives Planning 14.08.24

On Tuesday August 6th, AHMM’s proposals for the redevelopment of 50 Baker Street and the surrounding public realm received resolution to grant planning approval from Westminster City Council.

The site at 38-70 Baker Street forms the last remaining undeveloped strategic city block site within the Baker Street District and is a joint venture between Derwent London and Lazari Investments, working with the Portman Estate. The proposals deliver on a shared ambition to deliver highly sustainable, future proofed and adaptable buildings, and has been designed to achieve ambitious upfront carbon targets, have low in-use operational energy and maximise natural ventilation. An extensive carbon analysis was undertaken in order to ensure that the proposal has a lower overall carbon figure than a retrofit and refurbishment alternative.

The development will deliver best-in-class office space suitable for a range of tenants, addressing the substantial historic deficit in office space within Westminster. At ground floor, a rich and varied mix of uses provide active frontages to all elevations. Generously proportioned and flexible retail spaces allow for a range of subdivisions, suitable for a diverse mix of retail tenants. A new cultural and educational facility shall be operated by the Baker Street Quarter Partnership and will bring members of the community to the building and also provide a permanent home for an exhibition acknowledging the WWII activities of the Special Operations Executive. The proposals shall also include public realm improvements, including the redevelopment on Broadstone Place and relocation of the WCC green plaque.

Developed in response to stakeholder feedback, the proposed façade adopts a varied palette and diverse architectural treatment to reflect the varied context. Sculpted pre-cast concrete, projecting oriel bays and a language of facets and curves address the Baker Street frontage, whereas generous setbacks and terraces as well as shaped brick and stone detailing are used to mediate the building’s form and mass to Broadstone Place, Chiltern Street and beyond. Planted roof terraces, setback roofs and extensive urban greening provide a considered roof plane.

To the north of the site, a distinct but integrated building provides 17 bespoke residential properties, representing an increase on the homes on-site. The residential building has been located to the north-east of Broadstone Place, complimenting the quieter residential streets away from Baker Street as well as offering quieter privacy for future residents. With its private entry located on Dorset Street all residential properties will have private external amenity through integrated balconies forming an important part of the architectural design of the residential building.

Detailed design work continues, with site works anticipated to commence in early 2026.

AHMM 2024 Summer School 09.08.24

Last week AHMM held its annual summer school across our London and Bristol offices.

Aimed at young people aged 16-18 years old, the Summer School is an important part of our Partnerships work to support the future architecture profession and help to ensure it is diverse.

The topic of this year’s Summer School was ‘Children’s Right to the City’, with students exploring the role of children and young people in city-making and considering how young communities can reclaim space to play, learn and grow in the city.

Over the week 18 young people in London and six in Bristol participated in workshops introducing them to new ways to observe and explore the space surrounding them, including architectural drawing, understanding CDM, modelmaking, routes into architecture, site visits, sustainability, collaborative creativity, and daily mentoring.

Over the week, to support the development of their work and ideas, the young people engaged with charities and organisations who promote equality and support socially excluded young people, provide awareness and knowledge of city making to young people, and who enhance young people’s and children’s access to the built environment. These included members from Narrative Practice, the Royal College of Art MA Interior Design programme, and participants from Chickenshed.

Backhouse shortlisted for a 2024 National Property Award 08.08.24

The Boat House at Backhouses Boreham Mead development near Warminster has been shortlisted for a National Property Award for Best Design.

The Boremead development creates a mix of 34 three-, four- and five- bedroom family homes, designed by AHMM, arranged around a central village green ensuring each home benefits from the shared community space with many of the properties also backing onto the River Wylye.

Each home has been designed for modern-day living with ample storage space, plenty of flexible living space and a high specification on fixtures and fittings.

Ian Jones, Chief Executive Officer at Backhouse commented: “We are proud of Boreham Mead and look forward to continuing our mission of delivering exceptional developments across Wiltshire, Somerset, and Gloucestershire. We passionately believe in creating new communities that offer buyers new homes of outstanding design quality to meet the needs of their contemporary lifestyles and are also sympathetic to their location and existing environment.”

The winners will be announced in October.

AHMM’s Ella Smith shortlisted for the Inspiring Women in Property 2024 Awards 01.08.24

AHMM’s Ella Smith has been shortlisted for Property Week’s Inspiring Women in Property 2024 Awards in the Rising Star - Commercial category.

As part of AHMM’s Building and Performance team, Ella’s passion for driving the sustainability agenda has had an impact within AHMM and the wider commercial real estate industry. Her sector leading Fit Out // Rip Out research, for which she was lead researcher and co-author with AHMM’s Head of Sustainability, Dr Craig Robertson, has aimed to change how stakeholders think about the delivery of Cat A fit out.

In response to seeing Cat A fit out being ripped out of recently completed office buildings, only to be replaced by incoming tenants, Ella was prompted to investigate the carbon cost of this. Using AHMM’s Delivering Net Zero in Use Toolkit, her research produced new data that quantifies the carbon cost of the repeated cycle of Cat A installation and removal over a building’s life. Critically, the research has identified a gap in how the industry reports carbon emissions, and her alternative approach of calculating carbon emissions highlights the scale of a problem that has previously not been fully understood or quantified. The Fit Out // Rip Out report calls for the whole industry to come together to solve the Cat A challenge; Ella articulated this by introducing the concept of ‘At Risk versus Baked In’ elements of a building to show what would necessitate being ripped out and replaced across different models of commercial development. This provided all stakeholders with a lens through which to consider their role, showing how decisions made from the base build design, through occupation, to end of life, can collectively minimise the whole life carbon impact of Cat A.

The Inspiring Women in Property Awards in unison with the Property Week Inspiring Diversity in Property initiative serves as a pioneering programme setting a new benchmark for recognising the collective efforts and achievements in advancing quality, diversity and inclusion within the property sector.

Chobham Farm Receives Planning Approval 31.07.24

On Tuesday 23 July planning approval for Chobham Farm was granted unanimously by Newham Council and the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC).

Located in the London Borough of Newham within the administrative boundary of the LLDC, Chobham Farm offers the opportunity to deliver 106 new homes to the area, including the provision of London affordable rent and shared ownerships units, across two new buildings comprising three blocks of varying height.

The scheme is the first phase to be delivered of the Chobham Farm North site allocation, with an indicative masterplan undertaken as part of the planning submission. The residential led scheme provides much needed housing in the North East of Stratford bordering Leyton and Maryland

The ground floor features 196 square metres of commercial use, intended to activate the corner of the site, cycle storage and a level change which allows a series of duplex units with private outdoor amenity. Carefully considered landscape design by Exterior Architecture creates new spaces to support local interaction, including nooks for different age play spaces and community use.

Developed for Fairview New Homes, Chobham Farm aims to provide carefully designed, contextually responsive architecture and holistic landscape design which will actively bring life and animation to this current light industrial site.

Stratford M2 Receives Planning 30.07.24

On Tuesday 23 July planning approval for Stratford M2 was granted unanimously by Newham Council and the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC).

Occupying a prominent corner on the northern side of Westfield Stratford Shopping Centre, this ambitious and highly sustainable project extends the design life of an existing steel frame structure addressing the industry wide need to champion the re-use and extension of existing buildings where possible and practicable.

AHMM’s designs for Plot M2 at Westfield Shopping Centre propose a 14 storey extension above the carpark level of the existing shopping centre, to include 520 purpose-built student accommodation units across cluster and studio apartments. The development, which is being delivered by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, will also create an enhanced public realm as well as flexible community, sports, and leisure space on top of the existing car park designed by East Architects.

The health and wellbeing of students has been a key consideration in the design process. Bedrooms are arranged in small clusters of 4, 5 or 6 around a shared kitchen, living and dining area to promote students forming tight friendship groups. Shared communal areas offering varied types of space for private and group work, wellbeing and fitness and social activities are provided on each accommodation floor.

Stratford’s metropolitan centre is an established urban location that has seen numerous major developments. Stratford M2 provides an opportunity to further diversify the demographic of the area and enrich the public realm in a meaningful way that supports existing communities and businesses, providing much needed student accommodation to the various higher education institutions located in close proximity to the site and alleviating pressure on neighbouring residential accommodation.

AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards 2024 Shortlist 18.07.24

Two AHMM projects have been shortlisted in this year’s AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards. Arthur Stanley House has been shortlisted in the Adaptive Reuse category and Tower Hamlets Town Hall has been shortlisted in the Positive Addition category.

Sat within the Charlotte Street conservation area, Arthur Stanley House sees the reinvention of a decaying 1960s office block in Fitzrovia, central London. The design is a celebration of the original TP Bennett Architects’ building alongside its 21st century additions. New and old is left exposed and presented within the floor plates as a means to represent the building’s development over a 60-year period. The end result creates characterful floor plates with a uniqueness not normally found in commercial floor space.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall, the new headquarters for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, encompasses the restoration of the Grade II listed formal Royal London Hospital building and the addition of a new build extension. The existing building retains the Georgian formality of its southern façade which has been restored to create a backdrop to the council’s activities within the new extension. The internal finishes and double height volumes associated with the more ornate Arts and Crafts inspired operating theatre extensions have been revealed and reinstated to provide a vibrant mix of working environments that offer a broad range of public services to the borough’s residents.

The AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards celebrate architectural expertise and ingenuity in the physical and environmental adaption and upgrade of buildings, and the reuse of building materials and structure in response to the climate emergency and changing requirements of use. The winners will be announced at the AJ Retrofit Live conference in September.

The redevelopment of the former London Chest Hospital receives planning approval 17.07.24

Last night, Tuesday 16 July, The London Borough of Tower Hamlets unanimously approved proposals for the redevelopment of the former London Chest Hospital site in Bethnal Green which aim to transform the disused site into a successful community of 274 new homes.

AHMM’s approved plans for Latimer, the development arm of Clarion Housing Group, focus on both preserving and restoring the site’s historical elements. The refurbishment will include the Grade II listed main hospital building, the Sanitary Tower, and the South Wing which are currently on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register. In addition, five new buildings ranging from five to nine storeys will be constructed, providing high quality new housing while respecting the site’s rich heritage. Latimer has committed to delivering 50% affordable housing (by habitable room) within the development, with a significant proportion (70%) allocated for Social Rent. The project also includes 125 square metres of non-residential space for use by the local community.

The Hospital’s historic grounds will be opened up to the public for the first time in nearly a decade with 1,140 square metres of carefully designed open space, including the creation of a new public square next to St James’ Avenue, and the restoration of the formal lawn in front of the main hospital building.

Another key feature of the approved plans is the commitment to preserving the veteran Mulberry tree, ensuring the tree remains in its original location, aligning with community and environmental priorities.

Richard Cook, Group Director of Development at Clarion, said, “We are delighted to receive approval to our redevelopment plans for the London Chest Hospital site. This project represents a unique opportunity to blend the historical significance of the site with local housing needs. Our commitment to providing a high proportion of affordable homes and preserving the Mulberry tree reflects our dedication to creating sustainable and inclusive communities for local residents.”

Laura Stephenson, Director at AHMM, said, “We are very pleased that Tower Hamlet’s planning committee has voted to approve the proposals. AHMM’s design aims to sensitively restore the derelict Grade II listed former London Chest Hospital and secure its long-term future. Working with Clarion, our proposals will deliver much needed high quality affordable homes for Tower Hamlets and for London.”

76 Southbank wins a WAFX 2024 Award 15.07.24

76 Southbank has been awarded a WAFX Award in the reuse category. The WAFX Awards herald the world’s most forward-looking architectural concepts and are awarded to future projects that identify key challenges that architects will need to address in the coming years. This year the judges have selected the winners that they believe are all excellent examples of projects that address the big issues facing architecture, society, and the planet.

Originally designed by Sir Denys Lasdun and completed in 1983 as an office building and client marketing centre for IBM, 76 Southbank was considered Lasdun’s last major work, and sits adjacent to the National Theatre. Although the building was listed at Grade II in 2020, 18 months into AHMM’s appointment, it does not meet modern standards and presented an opportunity for sensitive, qualitative and quantitative improvements both to the building itself and its contribution to the public realm. Our plans sensitively refurbish and extend the building delivering a total of 300,000 square feet of flexible and highly sustainable office space with large outdoor terraces covering over 4,500 square metres. The plans will provide a long-term future for the building, greatly improving and enhancing its setting within the South Bank conservation area.

76 Southbank will be presented at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore on the Festival Hall Stage in November.

London Festival of Architecture 2024 11.07.24

On Thursday 27 June AHMM opened our Morelands office doors to the public as part of the London Festival of Architecture, with two separate two sessions on the same day.

In the afternoon young people aged 15-19 years old interested in finding out more about becoming an architect were invited to join our annual Open Studio for activities including virtual reality exploration; talks about architecture, AHMM and sustainability; drawing with our Sketch Club; and a modelshop demonstration.

The evening session was part of the Festival’s Clerkenwell and Shoreditch Studio Lates and was an opportunity for the public to meet some of our Partnerships collaborators including mentoring sessions led by Narrative Practice, which advocates for young architecture and built environment professionals from underrepresented backgrounds. There was also a performance by young people from Ministry of Stories, our Charity of the Year, from their ‘London Landmarks’ project. The evening included contributions from Shade the UK and Found Futures as well as sketching on our office rooftop and guided tours around our office and modelshop.

'Architecture in Time', a series of images by photographer Tim Soar telling the stories of how people and communities have changed and reimagined places and spaces AHMM has designed, was also exhibited in our Project Room space for everyone to explore, with a digital component that could be scanned to take visitors to more information about the projects displayed.

The Building Awards 2024 Shortlist 10.07.24

Four AHMM projects have been shortlisted for this year’s Building Awards.

1 Berkeley Street, shortlisted in the Retrofit of the Year category, sees the transformation of two 1970s buildings in Mayfair, London, into a mixed-use development showcasing an innovative approach to urban regeneration. Notable for its retention of 81% of the original structures, this project merges office spaces, retail, public realms, and a prestigious hotel for 1 Hotels, making their European debut. At the heart of the design was a commitment to sustainability, retaining many of the existing frames and facades to minimise carbon footprint. This approach not only preserved the architectural heritage but also aligned with contemporary environmental goals. The introduction of a new pavilion, an annex office and a public courtyard exemplifies the creative reuse of urban space.

Norton Folgate, shortlisted in the Retrofit of the Year category, comprises three urban blocks within the City Fringe between the City of London and Shoreditch. Developed to respond to the mixed character of its context, the scheme brings vacant and under used buildings back into use, employing a building-by-building approach, utilising restoration, refurbishment, extension, remodelling, and façade retention to breathe new life into the architecture. Through careful refurbishment of historic buildings, Norton Folgate respectfully unites the area’s special heritage with new modern, highly sustainable work and retail space. The listed cobbled streets were carefully lifted, preserved and labelled during the development works and then re-laid on completion – improving the finished surface and retaining the character of the streets. The project has also been shortlisted for the Net Zero award. 

One Great Cumberland Place, shortlisted in the Project of the Year category, is a late 1920s façade retention and regeneration scheme, delivering high-end office and retail space within the enhanced envelope. Located directly opposite London’s Hyde Park with Marble Arch as a prominent neighbour, this project was delivered as part of The Portman Estate’s ‘Sustainable Vision for Marble Arch’. Providing 8,000 square feet of open plan floorplates, the building brings a high quality, adaptable workplace fit for modern usage and maintains a heritage asset whilst remaining sensitive to the historic location. An array of tenants such as Corp B provider X+Why (who offer a diverse and collaborative office community to a range of SMEs and freelancers) and global financial firm Adam Street Partners now occupy the building along with The Portman Estate who took the decision to move from their Portman Square home after many of their staff commented so positively on the building following site visits.

2 Ruskin Square, shortlisted in the Project of the Year category, is a ten-storey office development in East Croydon, part of the Stanhope and Schroders masterplan which connects East Croydon station to the town centre. The project is the second office building to be delivered as part of the scheme and is to be the new HQ for the Home Office, bringing together three offices spread across Croydon to one location. The Sustainability and Wellbeing vision for the project is to design and deliver truly great places for work that support smarter working in a modern civil service. The project aspires to be a Better Buildings Partnership Pioneer Project which will involve auditing energy used over first two years of occupancy. It seeks to minimise embodied carbon and resource use, is designed for adaptability and re-use, and minimises operational energy use as a Design for Performance (NABERS UK) pioneer.

The winners will be announced at the annual awards ceremony in November.

Architecture Today Awards 2024 Shortlist 09.07.24

Three AHMM projects have been shortlisted for an Architecture Today 2024 Award. Designed to showcase, celebrate and share knowledge about buildings that have stood the test of time, the Architecture Today Awards only consider projects that have been in use from three or more years and that can demonstrate a strong track record for delivering on their environmental, functional, community and cultural ambitions.

Weston Street, shortlisted in the Residential category, is the product of a close collaboration between AHMM and developer Solidspace located in the heart of Bermondsey. The scheme provides eight interlocking, split level apartments and an open plan office space to the ground floor. Functionally, the building’s layout promotes a sense of community among residents while maintaining privacy. The double-height spaces at the heart of each apartment create a fluid central volume for social interaction, with bedrooms strategically placed for seclusion. Weston Street is an example of how architecture can foster social and economic regeneration, while also enhancing the quality and wellbeing of its users.

White Collar Factory, shortlisted in the Workplace category, is a campus of six buildings at Old Street Yard, which includes offices, studios, incubator space, restaurants set around a new public realm courtyard, with a sixteen-storey tower topped by a 150m long rooftop running track. Together, these 27,200 sqm buildings create a new, more permeable section of the city that references the alleys and passageways of the historic urban grain. The culmination of an eight-year research project led by AHMM and Derwent London, White Collar Factory has proven to be a success with 80% of the office spaces pre-let prior to completion and the remaining 20% leased within three months after completion. The originality and scale of the project had a positive impact on the neighbourhood and created a new community by attracting a mix of tenants from tech, creative, advertising, engineering and banking sectors.

The North London Hospice, shortlisted in the Healthcare category, provides an uplifting base for the North London Hospice charity that incorporates a range of new services and encourages patients to drop in for a chat, join in creative therapies, undergo treatments or give respite to their carers. At the heart of the building, daycare and dining spaces lead onto a south facing courtyard designed in collaboration with BBUK Landscape. Completed in May 2012, the building fulfils the aspiration to increase the provision of palliative care in Enfield in a contemporary, beautiful and non-clinical environment and will eventually allow the hospice to reach three times as many members of the community who have a life-limiting or terminal illness.

The winners will be announced at the annual awards ceremony in November.

World Architecture Festival Awards 2024 Shortlist 08.07.24

Nine AHMM projects have been shortlisted for a 2024 World Architecture Festival Award.

76 Southbank, designed by Sir Denys Lasdun and completed in 1983 for IBM as an office and client marketing building, was no longer meeting modern day occupier requirements. With a focus on occupant wellbeing, the project sensitively remodels, refurbishes and extends the Grade II listed building delivering 300,000 square feet of adaptable and highly sustainable office space.

Botanic Place, located in Cambridge, is a campus comprising two new office buildings which aim to be an exemplar of sustainable development optimising environmental, social and wellbeing aspects whilst ensuring that it remains a building of long life that is fit for and adaptable to the future.

Edge Shoreditch, located in the London Borough of Hackney, is an office-led mixed-use building that offers the opportunity to set a new standard for offices in London and beyond, to achieve the highest sustainability levels, improve the health and wellbeing of the building users, and create and foster a new diverse and inclusive community.

The masterplan for London Square Bermondsey sees the regeneration of a run-down and disjointed industrial estate in south central London, bringing many vacant and under-used buildings with historic value back into use.

Norton Folgate, located within the City Fringe between the City of London and Shoreditch, employs a building-by-building approach to sensitively designed new and retained existing buildings, utilising restoration, refurbishment, extension, remodelling and façade retention to breathe new life into the architecture.

Shepherd’s Bush Market sees the combination of an upgraded shopping environment with increased retail space for existing and future traders to grow, new public realm and landscaping, co-working spaces, a life science incubator, and affordable homes.

The Happiness Centre, a new building adjacent to Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre, will epitomise the late Sir Ken Dodd’s belief that comedy and humour are essential ingredients for life, providing opportunities for all to take part in a wide range of programmes, workshops and sessions with comedy, humour, health and wellbeing at the heart.

Squirrel Park, located in Oklahoma City, USA, makes innovative use of modified shipping containers to create single-family homes offering around 1,400 square foot of living space all placed in a park-like environment, enhanced through the retention of existing mature trees and the provision of outdoor spaces with new planting shared between neighbours.

The Citizen is an office-led scheme also located in Oklahoma City providing a diverse blend of uses including co-working space, a members’ club, a hotel and tech start-up incubator. Situated on a sensitive site overlooking the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the generous ground floor volume is set back to extend the urban realm deep into the building, and a banking hall and restaurant engage with the building foyer to further activate and enliven the entrance.

The projects will be presented at the World Architecture Festival in November in Singapore.

BD Architect of the Year 2024 Shortlist 05.07.24

AHMM has been shortlisted for Office Architect of the Year and Refurbishment Architect of the Year in this year’s BD Architect of the Year Awards.

AHMM has over 30 years of experience in designing office buildings. Applying architectural principles developed across our practice, we embark on commercial projects with a key question: what determines the success of an office building? We believe that whether we are transforming an existing building or developing a new one, variety and identity are vital. The provision of varied spaces that are contextually appropriate and possess inherent architectural qualities drives our design development, helping us create distinctive buildings of economy, elegance and delight. Our office experience ranges from city scale masterplans and urban inventions to bespoke office fit outs and furniture design. Our submission for the 2024 BD Office Architect of the Year includes 1 New Park Square, Soho Place, One Portwall Square and Edge Shoreditch.

Since the practice’s founding, AHMM has been committed to reinventing and refurbishing existing architecture, transforming buildings into attractive, efficient, and future-proofed places through smart adaptations and intelligent additions. We have a wide-ranging approach to historical and contextual sensitivity, approaching each project with the individual consideration required to make existing buildings work for current and future needs: this is where conservation and innovation meet. Our refurbishment work spans a range of sectors which allows us to continue to push boundaries in retrofit and renewal using a pragmatic, analytical and collaborative approach. Our submission for the 2024 BD Refurbishment Architect of the Year includes Tower Hamlets Town Hall, 1 Berkeley Street, The Rowe and 76 Southbank.

The Architect of the Year winners will be announced in October at the annual awards ceremony.

Norton Folgate shortlisted for a 2024 Brick Award 02.07.24

Norton Folgate has been shortlisted for a 2024 Brick Award in two categories, Urban Regeneration and Refurbishment.

Norton Folgate sits within the Elder Street Conservation Area and occupies a prominent position within The City Fringe between the City of London and Shoreditch. The masterplan employs a building-by-building approach to the retained existing buildings, utilising restoration, refurbishment, extension, remodelling and façade retention to breathe new life into the architecture. Sensitively designed new buildings have been introduced in a palette of materials, including brick which was selected for its robustness, quality and appropriateness to the Conservation Area’s character.

A comprehensive study of the local context undertaken at the planning application stage to understand and develop the material palettes for the buildings showed that there was a wide variety of brick tones in the locality. The respective bricks have all been selected to respond to their context, both retained and new, and also to work together across the development to form a coherent yet diverse new neighbourhood. Whilst some of the buildings have brick faced precast and some traditional brickwork, all share the principle of careful detailing to celebrate the brick used.

The proportion and scale of the brick facades has been carefully considered to reflect the warehouse heritage of the site but also to display the brick in the best possible way. The result of using the clay bricks is to instantly anchor the masterplan into the urban context, linking the City to Shoreditch, to provide a new frame of reference that encourages people to use and re-adopt the area.

Four architectural practices were brought together to diversify the architectural approach and style of Norton Folgate. AHMM was appointed as masterplanner and designed three buildings, Blossom Yard & Studios, Nicholls and Clarke, and Loom Court. Stanton Williams, Morris + Company, and DSDHA designed Edler Yard and Studios, 15 Norton Folgate, and 16 Blossom Street respectively, with East leading the public realm strategy.

The winners will be announced at the annual Brick Awards Ceremony in November.

Schüco Excellence Awards 2024 01.07.24

Last Thursday, 27 June, One Great Cumberland Place received a Schüco Excellence Award in the Steel Building category at their annual awards ceremony.

One Great Cumberland Place is a late 1920s façade retention and regeneration scheme, delivering high-end office and retail space within the enhanced envelope of a prominent heritage asset in the heart of Marylebone. Designed by AHMM, the internal structure and fabric have been replaced, while a new internal steel structure is tied into the façade which has been retained, enhanced and rebuilt using various construction methods.

Specialist contractor Propak Architectural Glazing provided comprehensive design, specification, manufacturing and project management services. They also developed innovative techniques for replicating the building’s original curved windows. By manufacturing from the same profile system, the company was able to seamlessly integrate the glazing elements throughout the building by fixating them to the buildings internal steel-frame with bespoke brackets accommodating deflection and wind loading between the retained façade and new structure.

The judges commended the project for its clear-sighted vision, attention to detail, masterful use of Jansen steel systems, and high-quality execution.

Morland Community Hub submitted for planning 01.07.24

A planning application for a new community building and associated landscape located in Highbridge for Sedgemoor Community Partnerships (SCP), has been submitted to Burnham-On-Sea & Highbridge Town Council.

The Morland Community Hub comprises a community hall which is used by several community groups including the Food Bank, Luncheon Club, Brownies, Youth clubs, wellbeing clubs and many more for club meetings, events, workshops and various community projects. A separate workshop accommodates the wood working activities of SHED, based on the successful national Men’s Shed model where members come together to socialise and do practical work. The buildings that accommodate these various activities have become in constant need of repair and are no longer fit for purpose. Replacing these decaying structures with a new building will secure for the community, the long-term benefit that Moreland Community Hub provides.

The SCP Trustees have a mission to create an accessible community focal point that provides a comfortable and welcoming venue for all with a much-needed programme of use. The new community building will meet the needs of the current users but will be flexible enough to accommodate a myriad of future user groups.

The building design places emphasis on sustainable design and construction, renewable energy and being contextually responsive. The external appearance of the building is presented as three (connected) buildings, expressed by their pitched roofs, clad in charred timber. Colour and natural timber will be used to accent particular features on the elevations, around window frame and entrance door reveals. To animate the elevations facing the street and approach, spaces for artwork will take the place of window openings.

In support of the Sedgemoor Community Partnership’s vision for the Morland Community Hub, AHMM along with Avalon, Arup, HT Ecology, Advanced Arboriculture and SLR have developed and prepared the planning application pro bono.

40-46 Albert Road receives planning approval 28.06.24

Full planning approval for 40-46 Albert Road has been granted by Bristol City Council.  

Located in the centre of Bristol, the project will comprehensively redevelop an industrial site on the banks of the River Avon to provide much needed accommodation for the adjacent University of Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, while protecting and enhancing the ecology, biodiversity, connectivity and public realm of the surrounding River Avon and Albert Road area.  

In addition to providing 454 bed purpose built student accommodation in a carefully designed 17 storey landmark building in a cruciform design, the scheme will provide 1,067sqm of affordable commercial space which will create significantly more jobs and, where suitable, re-provide space for existing tenants.

The scheme has been designed to maximise active frontage and provide legible entrances from the street and river that connect to the adjoining cycleway and footbridge leading directly into the heart of the new campus. Two new public squares facing Albert Road provide generous external amenity and enhance the existing green river corridor, capitalising on the available views.

“The team has designed a fantastic scheme, in an excellent location overlooking the River Avon and just a short walk to the heart of the Temple Quarter Campus. We look forward to making it a reality in 2027,” said Archie Lord on behalf of the client Avon Capital Estates.

“We have designed a scheme we believe will set the bar for all the developments to follow in this area. As one of the very first proposals in this part of the wider Temple Quarter area, we want the development to be a catalyst for high quality regeneration,” said AHMM’s director Cormac Farrelly.

The project team includes Avon Capital Estates (client), AHMM (Architect), Churchman Thornhill Finch (Landscape Architect), Deeley Freed (Development Manager), Rapleys (Planning Consultant), and Hydrock (Multi-disciplinary consultant)

British Construction Industry Awards Shortlist 2024 27.06.24

One Great Cumberland Place and Norton Folgate have both been shortlisted in this year’s British Construction Industry Awards.

Norton Folgate, shortlisted in the Retrofit Project of the Year, Commercial Property Project of the Year and Community Impact Initiative of the Year categories, occupies a prominent position within the City Fringe between the City of London and Shoreditch. Rather than applying a blanket strategy, the masterplan employs a building-by-building approach to the retained buildings, utilising restoration, refurbishment, extension, remodelling, and façade retention to breathe new life into the architecture. Sensitively designed new buildings have been introduced in a palette of materials, including brick which was selected for its robustness, quality, and appropriateness to the Conservation Area’s character. Given the variegated character of Norton Folgate, four different architectural practices were brought together to diversify the architectural approach and style. AHMM was appointed as masterplanner, designing three buildings – Blossom Yard and Studios, Nicholls and Clarke, and Loom Court. Stanton Williams, Morris+Company, and DSDHA designed Elder Yard and Studios, 15 Norton Folgate, and 16 Blossom Street respectively, with East leading the public realm strategy.

One Great Cumberland Place, shortlisted in the Commercial Property Project of the Year category, is a late 1920s façade retention and regeneration scheme, delivering high-end office and retail space within the enhanced envelope. Located directly opposite London’s Hyde Park with Marble Arch as a prominent neighbour, this project was delivered as part of The Portman Estate’s ‘Sustainable Vision for Marble Arch’. Bringing a high quality, flexible workplace fit for modern usage and maintaining a heritage asset whilst remaining sensitive to this historic location. A ten-year project from commission to practical completion, this project shows what can be achieved with a highly collaborative design team which remained consistent throughout. This was achieved through the core members, AKT II, Norman Disney Young, Buro Four and Gardiner & Theobald, being novated to the contractor Galliford Try and allowed consistency and efficient solutions to be found throughout design and build. The team took on the challenges that this historic building revealed as the construction process progressed, at points much like keyhole surgery but at scale, to bring a resilient, quality building to this prominent end of Oxford Street.

Winners will be announced at the annual awards ceremony in October.

Victor Kite Prize 2024 27.06.24

This year the Victor Kite Award for Design Technology has been awarded to Isabelle Borrow and William Li. The award for students at The Bartlett School of Architecture recognises the best work in Design Technology (year 2) and is awarded at the school’s annual summer show opening ceremony.

The award was established in 2013 by former AHMM staff member and Bartlett tutor, Scott Batty, in memory of architect Victor Kite. Victor was a mentor to Simon, Jonathan, Paul and Peter as Part III students, and later to many others at AHMM, playing a significant role in the practice and its work.

The Summer Show is The Bartlett’s flagship exhibition, and one of the largest student architecture shows in the world. This years exciting show celebrates dynamic, radical and innovative design by more than 900 undergraduate and postgraduate students. Alongside the physical exhibition at Bartletts Bloomsbury home, the show is available to explore online in their virtual exhibition space.

2024 Refugee Week 24.06.24

Last week AHMM took part in Refugee Week, the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.

On Monday 17 June a group of artists from New Art Studio visited AHMM’s White Collar Factory for a tour of the building including seeing inside AKT II workspace. They then went on to our Morelands office for a tour of the modelshop followed by lunch, provided by The Syrian Sunflower, with sketching and painting on the rooftop.

The New Art Studio is a unique therapeutic art studio for asylum seekers and refugees based at the Islington Arts Factory. It is a place where individuals can escape from the stress and difficulties of what they are going through and immerse themselves into their artwork, which are not just beautiful pieces to look at, but are statements impassioned by a collective hardship shared by the trauma they have experienced.

AHMM’s Partnerships group has supported the studio for more than seven years through workshops, knowledge sharing and donations.

Estates Gazette Awards 2024 shortlist 21.06.24

AHMM’s Fit Out // Rip Out Cat A report has been shortlisted for the Estates Gazette 2024 Awards in the Campaign of the Year Category.

The campaign for AHMM’s Fit Out // Rip Out report utilises a light-hearted approach to engage commercial real estate audiences on the serious issue of the carbon cost of office fit out, presenting data that highlights the scale of a problem that urgently needs addressing. The research report explores the carbon impacts of the construction industry’s standard approach to the design, construction, and marketing of Cat A fit out in commercial office buildings.

The communications campaign started with a strategy for presenting and disseminating this new piece of research. A storyboard was developed for a short, impactful report articulating the research methodology, data, and analysis in a clear and legible way. Information about the context and drivers of the research results was included alongside potential solutions with the aim of positioning the research as part of a journey of change. The team identified a call to action, inviting readers to collaboratively find solutions to the issues outlined in the report. The marketing plan was then developed for the launch of the report, targeting specific audience segments within the commercial real estate sector: property developers, agents, and designers.

The objectives of the campaign were to publicise the report findings in an engaging and humorous way to all audience segments including the use of well known cat related puns and idioms to quickly capture complex concepts in a simple and light-hearted manner; position AHMM as an expert voice in the commercial office market; and drive traffic to AHMM’s website.

The winners will be announced in November at the annual awards ceremony, now in its 20th year.

Download the Fit Out // Rip Out Cat A report here. 

Pedelle 2024 20.06.24

Last week, AHMM’s Esther Worthington and Ella Smith completed pedelle 2024, a charity cycle ride for women in the real estate industry. Over three days, the route covered 455km (280 miles) of hilly terrain and involved nearly 6,000 metres of climbing around the beautiful Pieniny Mountains of Poland.

Organised by Club Peloton, the event raises money which supports the vital work of a range of charities, including the main beneficiary Coram, which helps hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children and young people each year by providing services to children in need. The money raised will also help support the charitable work of Cyclists Fighting Cancer, who help children and young people living with cancer regain physical fitness, strength, mental wellness and confidence through sport; and Tom’s Trust, which provides support for children with brain tumours and their families.

A big thank you to NDY, Dolphine Solutions, FMDC, Atelier Ten, B&CO and MRG Studio for generously supporting the AHMM team this year.

Bristol Civic Society Design Awards 2024 19.06.24

Last night, 18 June, One Portwall Square and Elderberry Walk both received a Bristol Civic Society Design Award. Held annually for over 25 years these prestigious awards are Bristol’s premiere celebration of good design and celebrate projects that make a positive contribution to the city of Bristol.

One Portwall Square is a new-build office for independent developer Nord on a site close to Bristol Temple Meads railway station. The site was originally part of 100 Temple Street, a large office with a raised squash court and parking below, designed by John Wells-Thorpe. The scheme replaces a disused building with a six storey freestanding office, set back from Portwall Lane to create a lively pocket square at ground floor level. Reacting to the latest Grade A office standards and the need to maximise occupant comfort and amenity for staff attraction and retention, the building delivers new levels of innovation, sustainability and office design, combining modern and flexible floorplates with generous light and space.

Elderberry Walk is an exemplar housing development for suburban Bristol, demonstrating how high social, environmental and ecological aspirations can be achieved at low cost. It has been driven by doing simple things well – making streets where front doors face front doors, with a logical easily understood layout, where car parking is integrated and not dominant. At its heart is the Green Lane, a landscaped street with wildlife swales and incidental play which encourages micro-habitats to enrich the existing biodiversity. The design offers generously spaced homes set within private gardens, tree-lined avenues and footpaths.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall Receives a RICS 2024 London Regional Award 18.06.24

Last night, 17 June, Tower Hamlets Town Hall won a RICS London Regional Award in the Refurbishment Revitalisation category.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall, the new headquarters for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, encompasses the restoration of the Grade II listed former Royal London Hospital building, and the addition of a new extension. The move to the site consolidates a number of the council’s offices into one location, and offers a broad range of public services to the borough’s residents, in a more accessible location in Whitechapel. The project embodies the council’s vision to create a healthy, sustainable, and flexible work environment for their staff combined with front facing facilities and services for their residents in an open and welcoming environment.

The new build extension provides six upper levels of open plan office accommodation providing a contemporary working environment for 2,470 council staff plus partner organisations. At ground level a new council chamber forms the Borough’s democratic focus together with a significant ‘local presence’ space. The existing former hospital building retains the Georgian formality of its external facades which have been restored and, being cellular in nature, contains a range of meeting facilities for council staff, and public engagement space for customer services departments.

The RICS Awards showcase the most inspirational initiatives and developments in land, real estate, construction and infrastructure. They recognise global outstanding achievement, teamwork and companies. Tower Hamlets Town Hall will now be considered for a UK National RICS Award.

AIA UK Excellence in Design Awards 2024 13.06.24

Last night, Wednesday 12 June, Tower Hamlets Town Hall received two awards, Professional Large Project and Sustainability, at the annual American Institute of Architects UK Chapter Excellence in Design Awards ceremony.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall, the new headquarters for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, encompasses the restoration of the Grade II listed former Royal London Hospital building, and the addition of a new build extension. The move to the former hospital site consolidates the council’s offices into one location, and offers a broad range of public services to the borough’s residents in a more accessible location in Whitechapel.

The design responds to key eras of the existing building’s development spanning between 1757 and 1906, utilising the architectural character inherent in each extension of the original building to enrich the new internal environment. The existing building retains the Georgian formality of its external facades which have been restored to create a backdrop to the council’s activities within the new extension.

St Luke’s Community Centre Women’s Multicultural Group Visits White Collar Factory 11.06.24

Last Friday, 07 June, members of the St Luke’s Community Centre Women's Multicultural Group visited AHMM’s White Collar Factory with Associate Tom Wells for a tour of the building. The group also had the chance to see inside the offices of AKT II who are based within the building and were the structural engineers working on the building.

The Women’s Multicultural club is a friendly group within St Luke's that welcomes women of all ages and backgrounds to come together to de-stress and connect with like-minded women from the area.

AHMM’s Partnership group has been a corporate supporter of St Luke's for more than nine years providing financial support as well as workshops, food bank donations and supporting their Job Club programme, providing one-to-one support to people in the local community who are searching for work.

LFA Studio Late 10.06.24

AHMM is open for everyone to visit as part of London Festival of Architecture’s Clerkenwell and Shoreditch Studio Lates on Thursday 27 June 2024, 18:00-20:30.

There will be a chance to see 'Architecture in Time', a series of images by photographer Tim Soar telling the stories of how people and communities have changed and reimagined places and spaces AHMM has designed. You can also meet some of our collaborators including young people from Ministry of Stories, our Charity of the Year, performing work from London Landmarks; sign up for a thirty minute mentoring session from Narrative Practice for young architecture and built environment professionals from underrepresented backgrounds; hear about Shade Islington, a competition challenging young people to imagine how Islington can adapt to climate change; and watch videos from Found Futures demystifying the architecture industry for young people. There will also be sketching on the rooftop and tours of the office and modelshop.

During Clerkenwell and Shoreditch Studio Lates, you can also see inside more than twenty architectural and design practices close to AHMM on the same evening.

This event is fully booked. 

AHMM features in Vivid Sydney’s A New Normal Exhibition 04.06.24

Vivid Sydney’s A New Normal Exhibition brings together more than fifty of Sydney’s most ambitious designers, architects, developers, technologists, brands and architects to actualise new solutions to solve some of the city’s most persistent challenges, with real solutions that will provide a blueprint for our cities in how to save water, lower emissions and minimise climate impact.

Andrew O’Donnell at AHMM has collaborated with Solotel, one of Sydney’s leading hospitality groups, for the exhibition, creating a concept for ‘The Carbon Free Kitchen’, a cleaner, safer, healthier place for people to cook meals in a commercial kitchen environment. The proposal explores how to replace traditionally used gas appliances with fossil fuel free alternatives, addressing the wider shift in the catering industry that embraces local and best practice in sustainability.

The exhibition runs from 24 May to 15 June as part of the Vivid Ideas event. To read more about the event please visit here.

The Alder Centre receives an RIBA North West Regional Award 2024 31.05.24

The Alder Centre has won an RIBA North West Regional Award for 2024, and its client, the Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, has won the RIBA North West Client of the Year Award.

Located on the campus of the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, The Alder Centre was designed to support bereaved families who have experienced the loss of a child. The whole approach to the design was one of creating a nurturing place of safety, warmth, and support, viewed as a community of spaces that come together to provide a place of immediate and long-term refuge and resource for those affected by bereavement. In the middle of the building is the ‘heart space’ which has a lounge and kitchen where the counsellors and families come together. A series of counselling rooms, sized like bedrooms, unfold from the heart. The external space has been conceived as a ‘Secret Garden’, derived from the children’s book; the building is contained by a walled garden which gives privacy, security and allows outdoor therapy, and the different garden spaces have been designed so that some areas are communal and others are private. Feedback from families and staff has been that the building is beautiful, warm and uplifting, and the RIBA judges commented that ‘it fulfils the most fundamental need – to acknowledge and share grief while finding ways to celebrate life’.

The Alder Centre will now be considered for an RIBA National Award.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall shortlisted for the 2024 AJ100 Community Impact of the Year Award 29.05.24

Tower Hamlets Town Hall, the new headquarters for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, has been shortlisted for an AJ100 Community Impact of the Year Award.

Encompassing the restoration of the Grade II listed former Royal London Hospital building, and the addition of a new build extension, the new town hall consolidates a number of the council’s offices into one location, and offers a broad range of public services to the borough’s residents, in a more accessible location in Whitechapel.

The design and construction of the new Tower Hamlets Town Hall gave the project team the opportunity to engage extensively with the local community. 19 local apprenticeships were created and 403 people were engaged in the design and construction of the project from Tower Hamlets and other growth boroughs.

AHMM aims to create innovative, responsive and specific community impact, and was committed to engaging young people’s interest in the design and construction of the building throughout the design process. As part of this, we “Adopted a School”, supporting Swanlea secondary school in Whitechapel since 2016. We estimate that we have supported 200+ students and have continued our relationship with the school post-completion.

The resources and knowledge we have shared with the school adapted in response to teacher requirements, student feedback and curriculum changes. The school initially requested support for Super Learning Days for high-achieving Year 8 girls, addressing the challenge that this group don’t often consider DT as a GCSE option; and from 2018, they requested GCSE DT coursework mentoring. Other delivered activity includes work experience; careers fairs; architectural drawing and modelmaking workshops; portfolio reviews; design challenges; visits to site and other AHMM buildings; and attendance at our annual Summer School and Open Studio.

AHMM’s social impact work in Tower Hamlets was recognised by the Thornton Education Trust with its Inspiring Future Generations Award for Social Value in 2023.

The AJ100 Community Impact of the Year Award is part of the AJ100 Survey and is awarded to the project that demonstrates both a deep engagement with the local community and an exceptional outcome for all stakeholders.

HD5K 2024 28.05.24

On Thursday 16 May six runners from AHMM took part in the HD5K in Hyde Park.

HD5K is a 5k run organised by the Alan Davidson Foundation to raise funds for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, and in memory of Alan Davidson of Hayes Davidson. Since the event started in 2018 they have raised over £250,000 to support the work of the MND Association.

The practice funded the entry donation (minimum £150) on behalf of each runner as part of our Partnerships work which builds upon the practice’s thirty years of charitable giving and philanthropic support.

Each runner also raised funds themselves.

Building London Planning Awards 2024 shortlist 28.05.24

1 Berkeley Street, 2 Ruskin Square, Brentford Masterplan and Palmerston Court have been shortlisted in this year’s Building London Planning Awards. These prestigious awards, which are in partnership with the Mayor of London, celebrate innovative projects that are leaders in design and sustainability across the capital.

1 Berkeley Street, shortlisted for Best Mixed Use Scheme, transforms two 1970s buildings into a 210,000 square foot mixed-use hub blending offices, retail and the inaugural 1 Hotel outside North America. Situated opposite The Ritz Hotel on Piccadilly, the development champions sustainability, retaining 81% of the existing structures while integrating modern extensions that respect the historical building lines. New additions, including a two-storey rooftop hotel extension, a flagship office and retail corner pavilion, and a new-build annex office building in Dover Yard occupied by Crosstree, contribute to a multifaceted urban design. The transformation of Dover Yard from a loading bay into a publicly accessible courtyard that includes hotel and retail spaces at ground, activated by the integration of one of the largest green walls in London, marks the project’s commitment to environmental design and the social wellbeing of the local community.

2 Ruskin Square, shortlisted for Best New Place to Work, is an environmentally ambitious ten-storey office development in east Croydon, part of the Stanhope and Schroders masterplan which connects East Croydon station to the town centre. The building is to be the new HQ for the Home Office, bringing together three offices spread across Croydon to one location. The sustainability and wellbeing vision for the project was to design and deliver truly great places for work that support smarter working in a modern civil service. The office achieves BREEAM Outstanding and incorporates design features aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of building occupiers – including a focus on air quality and industry-leading energy efficiency in operation.  The project seeks to minimise embodied carbon and resource use, is designed for adaptability and re-use, and minimises operational energy use as a Design for Performance (NABERS UK) pioneer.

Brentford Masterplan, shortlisted for Best New Place to Live, is a collaboration between AHMM, Howells Architects, Maccreanor Lavington and Grant Associates for Ballymore to establish a high-density, low-rise mix of uses that will revitalise Brentford High Street and create direct links to the River Brent, Grand Union Canal and related waterways. North-south yards, echoing the historic urban grain, combine with a major east-west route and an accessible waterfront towpath to maximise permeability through the site. In addition to leading the masterplan, AHMM has designed a key plot within the completed first phase of the development and a further two plots within the second phase of development. 

Palmerston Court, shortlisted for Best Mixed Use Scheme and Sustainable Planning, is a new highly sustainable development led by private student accommodation provider Urbanest opposite the new Battersea Power Station. Comprised of three student buildings and a dedicated commercial building, the development will provide modern accommodation for over 850 students and will be the first major PassivHaus student housing development in London. With its bold colours and glazed terracotta facades, the development aims to draw on the industrial heritage of the site and become a gateway building at the northern edge of the wider masterplan for Battersea’s new Design and Tech quarter.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in mid-October.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall wins a 2024 Pineapple Award 17.05.24

Tower Hamlets Town Hall has won a 2024 Pineapple Award in the creative retrofit category. Organised by The Developer magazine, the Pineapple Awards celebrate the best in placemaking and place-led initiatives, and recognise projects that make a positive social, environmental and economic impact.

The new Town Hall for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets is located within the Grade II listed former Royal London Hospital, in the heart of Whitechapel. The move to the site consolidates a number of the council’s offices into one location, and offers a broad range of public services to the borough’s residents. The project embodies the council’s vision to create a healthy, sustainable, and flexible work environment for their staff combined with front facing facilities and services for their residents in an open and welcoming environment.

Through the careful renovation and reinvention of the building, its life has been extended to serve the residents of Tower Hamlets for the next 50-100 years. Reusing and adapting a historic existing structure has created a series of unique spaces which celebrate the building’s history. The new public entrance at the base of the Grocers Wing creates a dynamic glazed shop front onto Whitechapel Road. The top lit atrium separates new and old with dramatic bridges linking the new open plan office spaces to the listed 1906 staircases. Former operating theatres are re-purposed as quirky breakout and workspaces.

The new build extension was designed with a long-life loose fit mandate, ensuring flexibility in the design of the layouts and servicing to accommodate the changing needs of the council in the future. Future flexibility has also been built in at ground floor with the local presence space able to accommodate a variety of different rolling activities for the community including exhibitions, summer schools and seminars. Equally the new council chamber can be reconfigured to host a range of events from full-council meetings to seminars and training sessions.

Structural transformation completes at 76 Southbank 15.05.24

The structural remodelling works at 76 Southbank have been successfully completed, marking a significant achievement in the journey towards creating a transformative space adjacent to the National Theatre.

Designed by Sir Denys Lasdun and completed in 1983 as an office and client marketing building for IBM, the existing building was no longer meeting modern-day occupier requirements. With a focus on occupant wellbeing, AHMM’s proposals sensitively remodel, refurbish, and extend the Grade II listed building delivering 300,000 square feet of adaptable and highly sustainable office space. 50,000 square feet of outdoor riverside terraces will be brought to life through a sensitive and considered landscape design, a new double height 10,000 sqft entrance lobby at street level will create a new colonnade activating the public realm and a new circulation core will provide future tenant flexibility and an animated focus to the generous office floorplates.

Delivered with developer Stanhope, the scheme will create a new pedestrian focused entry sequence in place of the first floor car drop off, retain the existing iconic building’s structure and façade and provide a long-term future for the building. With exceptional sustainability targets, the building will become a noteworthy example of low carbon office design, with a commitment to achieving Net Zero Carbon in both construction and day-to-day operation. Targeting BREEAM Outstanding certification and a NABERS Design Reviewed Target Rating of 5 Stars, the proposals maximise off-site fabrication of key building elements such as façade and MEP systems to minimise waste on-site and incorporates reused steel in its construction.

This milestone illustrates the significant progress achieved over the last 18 months towards creating a future-proofed, sustainable office environment that embodies innovation and prioritises wellbeing. The scheme, which has been overseen by Multiplex who are serving as the main contractors, has now reached its highest point and the complex structural works have come to a conclusion. Completion is set for Q4 2024.

10-16 Bevis Marks receives planning 13.05.24

Full planning approval for 10-16 Bevis Marks has been granted by the City of London.

The proposed development for our clients Sterling Real Estate and SG Rocks will retain and adapt the existing building at 10-16 Bevis Marks, converting an unlet office-building and repurposing it as boutique, serviced apartments for visitors and workers to stay in the City of London on leisure and business travel.

In addition to retaining the existing building’s super structure and façade a new rooftop extension will be created, with the overall proposal improving the existing architectural appearance, enhancing the street experience and celebrating key heritage assets whilst offering new accommodation within the heart of the City of London.

The existing ground floor frontage will be re-engaged with the street and reconceived as curated space for cultural and retail use creating an active ground floor frontage which will add vibrancy and vitality to the area.

The proposal will develop the site and adapt the existing building in a low-carbon, future-proof manner to deliver a series of public and social value benefits by implementing an adaptive re-use approach. 

Construction works are due to commence later this year.

Paul Monaghan presenting at 2024 Australian Architecture Conference 02.05.24

During his visit to our office in Sydney, AHMM’s Paul Monaghan will be presenting at the 2024 Australian Architecture Conference in Melbourne on Friday 10TH May.

In his talk, Radical reinvention, adaptive reuse, and advocacy for better cities, Paul will be discussing the significant challenges we collectively face within our cities and communities, and how reinvention of existing buildings and places, using under-utilised structures to create modern, more efficient and future-proofed spaces through reuse and intelligent additions extends the useful life of buildings and reasserts their place in the city. He will examine recent AHMM works in reuse including Tower Hamlets Town Hall, the adaptive reuse of the Royal London Hospital to create a new HQ for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets as well as the radical reinvention of the BBC Television Centre in west London.

As a member of the UK government’s Office for Place Advisory Board and the Department for Leveling Up, Housing and Communities steering group, Paul will also discuss his advocacy and engagement with government working to improve the quality of the UK’s cities and towns.

Please read more about the conference and book tickets here.

BCO Awards 2024, London 01.05.24

This lunchtime (01 May) Tower Hamlets Town Hall received a BCO Award in the refurbished/recycled workplace category at the BCO Awards annual London awards ceremony. Soho Place was also highly commended in the commercial workplace category.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall, the new headquarters for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, encompasses the restoration of the Grade II listed former Royal London Hospital building and the addition of a new build extension. The design responds to key eras of the existing building’s development, between 1757 and 1906, utilising the architectural character inherent in each to enrich the new internal environment. The Georgian formality of the external facades has been retained, the restored brickwork creating a backdrop to the council’s activities within the new extension. The new build extension accommodates six levels of contemporary open place office accommodation. At ground level a new council chamber and associated meeting facilities form the borough’s democratic focus approached from a significant ‘local presence’ space.

Built on the arrival of Crossrail, now known as the Elizabeth line, to bolster the large-scale regeneration of Oxford Street’s eastern end, Soho Place offers a mix of uses including premium office space, retail and the first new-build West End theatre to open in 50 years. The latest iteration of a long-term research initiative between AHMM and Derwent London into the city and the workplace, the scheme seeks to be a robust, long-lasting and well-used part of the city that frames a new public space in the West End – a new place to work, visit, experience and dwell.

Urbanest Battersea nears completion 30.04.24

Urbanest Battersea, a new PassivHaus student accommodation project in Battersea, nears completion.

AHMM is working with urbanest and Mace to deliver three new buildings which will provide over 850 student residential units adjacent to Battersea Power Station in South West London. The design includes significant improvements to the surrounding public realm and an improved connection and accessibility to Battersea Park Road, to draw people into the site and act as a gateway at the northern edge of Battersea’s new Design and Tech Quarter masterplan.

This drone image, taken by Rot8 UAVs Ltd, shows the project at its final stages on site.

BCO Awards 2024, Scotland 29.04.24

1 New Park Square has won a BCO Award in the Commercial Category in Scotland.

Begun in the early 1990s with a masterplan by Richard Meier, Edinburgh Park is a linear development, running north/south along the western edge of the city of Edinburgh. As part of the Dixon Jones masterplan to redevelop the site, AHMM has designed several office-led mixed use building providing over half a million square feet of workspace, and related amenity facilities. 1 New Park Square is the first of these buildings and forms an important landmark signalling the end of the existing park and creating a backdrop to a new civic square designed by Gross Max.

At ground floor, a café and restaurant / music venue opens out onto the new public square. The building also houses a conference centre with four storeys of flexible office space above. The office floors are designed to allow for multiple configurations, allowing the space to be let as a single office space or split for up to three tenants.

1 New Park Square is an exemplar at Edinburgh Park and a catalyst for the future office typology. It aligns with the demands of the modern-day tenant and a world where carbon and energy consumption is to be significantly reduced. It is an office building that offers more than just workspace: it provides a landscaped backdrop to public life, and the integration of culture and collaborative spaces help create a building whose ethos is one centred on its people.

1 Broadgate Tops Out 26.04.24

The 1 Broadgate team celebrated the topping out of the building at a ceremony on site, on the 25th April, with client British Land and GIC, contractor Sir Robert McAlpine and the wider project team.

This mixed-use scheme within the Broadgate Campus near Liverpool Street station will create 50,000 square feet of retail space arranged around a new arcade over two levels with 500,000 square feet of new office space above.

In plan, the building form maintains the principles and geometry of the original masterplan by framing the public space around Broadgate circle and formally addressing the southern edge of Finsbury Avenue Square. Lower-level volumes pull apart to create entrances and retail arcades through the building establishing a form of retail podium on which the office uses are stacked. Generous terraces and balconies provide a total of 45,000 square feet of amenity and green space for users of the building.

1 Broadgate is AHMM’s second project as part of British Land’s revitalisation of the Broadgate campus, following the award winning 1 Finsbury Avenue.

Belgrove House Building Study Tour 26.04.24

On Tuesday, April 23, Simon Allford and Steve Smith from AHMM led a building tour of the Belgrove House construction site, marking the beginning of the Builds Bio+ Life Sciences Study Tour. This immersive journey spanned the historic streets of Oxford and Cambridge to the core of London's life science clusters, celebrated for their vibrant communities, state-of-the-art research facilities, and dynamic incubation spaces.

Located opposite King’s Cross and St Pancras Stations, Belgrove House is a new-build specialised laboratory and office building for the life-sciences sector to be occupied by MSD as their UK Discovery Research Centre and HQ. Designed to be innovative and highly sustainable, operational energy is reduced through a ‘biophilic’ double skin façade allowing natural ventilation and providing a zone for planting.

Life sciences research laboratories are located on the largest floorplates at floors 1-3, providing animation to the facades and a public window into the research activity within. Offices will be located on floors 5-9 with the fourth floor serving as a dedicated ‘collaboration hub’. A generous ground floor provides an education and event space, along with a café. A new step-free entrance to the Underground will link the building into King’s Cross and St Pancras stations via the pedestrian tunnel beneath Euston Road.

The project offers an excellent opportunity to dramatically enhance the surrounding area, bringing active facades where there were previously blank walls, by removing street clutter, and bringing greenery to all four sides of a building which mediates between Euston Road and Argyle Square.

AIA Central Oklahoma Architecture Awards 2024 23.04.24

Wheeler Condos received a Merit Award in the Large Architecture category in this year's AIA Central Oklahoma Architecture Awards. Flamingo Tiki and The Icehouse District also received a People’s Choice Award in their respective categories.

Wheeler Condos, Architecture
One of three AHMM projects in the Wheeler District of Oklahoma located on the south bank of the Oklahoma River; this three-storey new build condominium scheme joins the nearby Western Gateway Elementary School and Wheeler Office. The building form maximises density while providing ground floor retail and office space and four two- to three-bedroom homes on the upper floors. Large balconies provide protected amenity space and downtown views for each residence.

Flamingo Tiki, Interior ArchitectureAHMM’s second project for client Humankind Hospitality, Flamingo Tiki joins the Oso on Paseo bar in the thriving arts community of the Paseo District of Oklahoma City. Previously a small restaurant, the space was stripped back to create a new spacious and open central bar with curved banquette seating and additional seats on the improved terrace outside. The new interior teams mid-century styling and materials with a tropical colour palette that extends to its bright pink exterior.

The Icehouse District, Urban Placemaking
Located in Edmond, Oklahoma The Icehouse District takes its name from the former Edmond Ice Company that once stood on the site. The original Icehouse building, which no longer stands, was constructed in 1909, followed by the Creamery building in 1921. The new Icehouse District stitches together the renovated Creamery and other still standing buildings, with a series of walkways and landscaped courtyards; creating a new cohesive piece of city that houses a mix of food and beverage concepts, including an ice cream parlor.

AIA Central Oklahoma’s Architecture Awards program is held every other year and celebrates the best in architecture and urban design. 

Claire Pollock awarded RIBA Honorary Fellowship 18.04.24

AHMM’s Partnerships Lead, Claire Pollock, has been made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. RIBA Honorary Fellowships are awarded every year to people who have made a significant contribution to architecture but are not architects. This includes people who have helped improve the quality of design and influence the delivery of the built environment in a more sustainable way, those involved in its promotion and management, and those who nurture the interests of future generations.

Claire is a cultural producer with three decades of experience specialising in innovative collaboration and participation within architecture. In that time, she has been committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in the built environment. She is a former Lead Officer for Architecture at Arts Council England, including developing and delivering National Architecture Week, a joint initiative with RIBA, which successfully extended public critical debate around contemporary architecture. She was also Head of Development of the Architecture Centre Network and a Senior Advisor at CABE for Sea Change, a culture-led regeneration programme.

In her role as Partnerships Lead at AHMM, Claire has transferred knowledge and experience from her work in national cultural organisations to deliver a high impact programme to a diverse range of communities. She co-chairs the practice’s Partnerships Group, which she set up in 2018 to bring together people from across the practice to direct resources, skills, fundraising and volunteering, and leads the development and delivery of AHMM’s partnerships work
with charities, cultural organisations and community initiatives. Collaborations she has developed and led include architectural workshops with Accumulate - The Art School for the Homeless; an exploration of RIBA HQ with young people from inclusive theatre Chickenshed; Migrateful Kitchen, a pro bono project for a charity delivering cookery classes led by refugees; and an annual Summer School for young people. Claire also leads on social value, and AHMM’s work on Tower Hamlets Town Hall was recently awarded a Thornton Education Trust Inspiring Future Generations Award for Social Value.

The 2024 Honorary Fellowships will be celebrated at the RIBA in June. Read more about them here.

Construction commences on Phase 2 of the Television Centre 15.04.24

Construction has started on two new residential buildings at the Television Centre in White City, London for developers Mitsui Fudosan UK and Stanhope.

The nine-storey ‘Scenery House’ designed by dRMM, and the 25-storey ‘The Ariel’ by AHMM form part of the second phase of the Television Centre masterplan and together provide 347 apartments and townhouses.

The accommodation will range from studios to four-bed townhouses with a complementary range of amenities including residents’ lounges, a screening room, co-working spaces and meeting rooms, as well as a private dining room and roof terrace.

Particular attention has been paid to greening the areas in and around the buildings. Landscape architect, Gillespies, has designed a courtyard garden, rooftop terrace and pocket park between the two built elements of the scheme.

The cluster of buildings comprising phase 2 of the Television Centre masterplan, are designed to have a distinctive character of their own, complementing each other as well as those buildings already established across the wider estate. The development of phase 2 will complete the masterplan and further open up the site to local residents by the creation of a second entrance on Wood Lane and a pedestrian connection through to Hammersmith Park via interlinking streets.

Multiplex has been appointed as the construction manager and completion is scheduled for mid-2027.

The Chartered Institute of Building Award 2024 12.04.24

Barry Kingscote, Galliford Try, has been named Construction Manager of the Year for 2024 by The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) for his work leading the team at One Great Cumberland Place on behalf of The Portman Estate.

The hugely successful scheme, designed by AHMM, saw the complex reconstruction of a 1920s office building, where only the façade was retained, carefully and respectfully enhanced and extended to accommodate an additional rooftop floor. The internal structure was removed floor by floor before being replaced by a new structural steel frame, rising from the sub-basement to the roof containing 11,500 sqm of space over 11 storeys, including three floors for retail and seven floors of high spec commercial office space.

One of the contributing factors behind the success of the scheme was the partnership with Marble Arch Bid (Business Improvement District) to support their community programme – working with their street team to combat anti-social behaviour and supporting local charitable and educational initiatives.

Commenting on his award, Barry said: “I can’t put the feeling into words. To go against all these fantastic managers in so many fields and to come out on top is just so surprising. It is an honour and I would like to congratulate everyone who has been recognised. This award is not just for me, but it is also a celebration of all the team’s hard work on such a challenging project.”

Taxi House Tops Out 02.04.24

Last Thursday, 27 March, the Taxi House team celebrated the topping out of the building at a ceremony on site in Westminster, with the client Cheyne Capital, the main contractor McAleer and Rushe and the project team.

This collection of buildings, designed around a new public space which opens out to the Grand Union Canal, will accommodate a hotel and extensive amenity space including a spa with swimming pool, waterside restaurant, a boutique cinema room, games space and various co-working zones and maker spaces.

The new split level public space, spanning from the entrance of the site to the waterfront, will be activated by retail and lobby space at the upper street level, and a café and performance space at canal level, where a new piazza adjacent to the canal enables public access to this part of the waterside for the first time.

The project is due to complete in spring 2025.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall wins Civic Trust Award 25.03.24

Tower Hamlets Town Hall has won a Civic Trust Award and a Special Award for Reuse and Adaptation.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall, the new headquarters for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, encompasses the restoration of the Grade II listed former Royal London Hospital building, and the addition of a new extension. The move to the site consolidates a number of the council’s offices into one location, and offers a broad range of public services to the borough’s residents, in a more accessible location in Whitechapel. The project embodies the Council’s vision to create a healthy, sustainable, and flexible work environment for their staff combined with front facing facilities and services for their residents in an open and welcoming environment.

Bringing the centre of local government back to the heart of the borough has had a significant impact on Tower Hamlets’ 320,000 residents. Through a strategic programme of community engagement during the projects early design stages, the community’s sense of involvement has been strengthened with residents and local traders invested in the outcome of the building. The project has been universally welcomed since its completion as something being given back to the community. The ground floor reinforces this feeling through providing accessible council services and a rolling programme of exhibitions, summer schools and community workshops served by a community café. Residents are encouraged to take an interest in local government with clear views into the council chamber and generous public seating provision within.

Pineapple Awards 2024 Shortlist 21.03.24

Tower Hamlets Town Hall, Soho Place and Magna Square have been shortlisted for a 2024 Pineapple Award. The Pineapples celebrate places that thrive, that contribute to urban life, and encourage people to dwell, live, work, connect, learn or play.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall, shortlisted for The Pineapple for Creative Retrofit Award, encompasses the restoration of the Grade II listed former Royal London Hospital building, and the addition of a new build extension as the new headquarters for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The move to the former hospital site consolidates a number of the council’s offices into one location, and offers a broad range of public services to the borough’s residents, in a more accessible location in Whitechapel.

Soho Place, shortlisted for The Pineapple for Building Award, is an enormous urban jigsaw that builds on the arrival of the Elizabeth line to bolster the large-scale regeneration of Oxford Street and includes two new mixed-use buildings that frame a new civic plaza: Soho Place. No.1 Soho Place houses 33,000 square feet of retail space across three storeys and 191,000 square feet of office accommodation across nine storeys. No 2/4 Soho Place contains the first new-build West End theatre to open in 50 years with 18,000 square feet of office space above.

Magna Square, shortlisted for The Pineapple for Place of the Year Award, comprises four mixed use buildings (Liberty Hall, Gem House, Corn Merchant House and Parish Hall) providing retail, cinema, 101 new homes and student accommodation within the Egham Conservation Area. A new town square and wider pedestrianised public realm bring the buildings together and stitch the development into the local context. The development’s design language closely references the local vernacular, incorporating a diversity of brick colours, patterns and bonds.

Presentations from each shortlisted project will be given to judges during the Festival of Pineapples, a digital live event taking place in front of a live audience across a week.

Winners will be announced at the annual awards ceremony on the 16 May 2024.

The Professional NBA Arena Locker Room officially open 18.03.24

The new Professional NBA Arena Locker Room is officially open and in use by elite athletes, helping them to prepare mentally and physically for their games. The new space is equally mindful of the team of coaches, trainers, and assistants that support the players, to ensure that they are on top form and contributing to the collective success of the team. 

Breaking with the traditional logic of locker room design, where one catch-all room attempts to suit multiple uses, here the functions are separated to provide the highest quality provision of specialised use: team changing, training, briefing, dining and relaxing all have their own place, and cater to the changing energy before, during and after the game. The physical fitness of the players is assisted with sports medicine, hydrotherapy and strength and conditioning suites; officers, conference, screening rooms and separate changing rooms are provided for the coaching and management staff. 

New Study quantifies the carbon impact of Cat A fit out 12.03.24

AHMM has published a new study, titled ‘Fit Out – Rip Out’, which aims to quantify the potential carbon impact of Cat A fit out in commercial office buildings. The report challenges an industry standard approach to the design, construction, and marketing of speculative office space, and examines whole life carbon impact of Cat A fit out related to tenant lease cycles.

Dr Craig Robertson, Head of Sustainability at AHMM said: “AHMM’s Building Performance Team carries out analysis on all aspects of the buildings we design, and central to our role is sharing knowledge across the different project teams. Internal discussions and images of brand new Cat A materials being ripped out and discarded prompted us to start investigating the carbon impact of Cat A fit out.

This report outlines the drivers of the process and, for the first time, quantifies the potential impacts in both upfront and life cycle carbon terms. The data from our study illustrates the scale of the problem, and by sharing these findings beyond AHMM we hope to provoke conversations across our industry that lead to meaningful change in the way that we develop, market, and occupy our office buildings that responds to the climate emergency.”

To read more about the research and download the report please visit here.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall Shortlisted for a 2024 RICS Award 11.03.24

Tower Hamlets Town Hall has been shortlisted in three categories, Heritage, Refurbishment/Revitalisation and Public Sector, in the 2024 Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Awards.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall, the new headquarters for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, encompasses the restoration of the Grade II listed former Royal London Hospital building, and the addition of a new build extension. The move to the former hospital site consolidates a number of the council’s offices into one location, and offers a broad range of public services to the borough’s residents, in a more accessible location in Whitechapel.

The new build extension provides six upper levels of open plan office accommodation providing a contemporary working environment for 2,470 council staff plus partner organisations. At ground level a new council chamber and associated meeting facilities form the borough’s democratic focus together with a significant ‘local presence’ space. The existing former hospital building, being cellular in nature, contains a range of meeting facilities for council staff, and public engagement space for Housing Options and customer services departments.

Assessment will take place over the next few weeks, with judges visiting each shortlisted project before the announcement of all regional winners in June.

The Arc officially opens 08.03.24

On the evening of the 06 March The Arc on 225 City Road officially opened. 

Located on the prominent corner of City Road and Shepherdess Walk, The Arc is a new mixed-use building providing 145,000 square feet of flexible office floor space on levels one to six, with 100 new homes above, retail at ground level and extensive public realm.

The building form is broken into two distinct volumes which respond to the wider context including the adjacent conservation areas. The podium sensitively links into the urban massing of the adjacent streets whilst the stepped tower provides a clear marker on City Road. The transition from podium to tower at level seven is celebrated with a shared roof terrace and provides residents with areas to play, work, and relax.

A combination of active and passive measures delivers a highly flexible and sustainable building, achieving BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and the first German sustainability certified building in the UK under DGNB.

Constructed by Ghelamco, a European family run development company, work started in the 2020 lockdown. The wider team includes Whitby Wood, DSA Engineering, Grant Associates, Bower James Brindley, Claridge Architects, Massive Design (Poland), and DP9.

Elderberry Walk Officially Opens 06.03.24

Elderberry Walk has been officially opened by the Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, in a ceremony attended by key partners and project team members.

An exemplar housing development for suburban Bristol, Elderberry Walk demonstrates how high social, environmental and ecological aspirations can be achieved at low cost. Creating 161 new homes on the long-vacant site of Dunmail Primary School in the Southmead area of the city, the scheme provides a mix of much-needed affordable, shared ownership, key worker, ethically rented and private sale homes. The design focuses on fundamental principles such as making streets where front doors face front doors, with a logical easily understood layout where parking is carefully integrated. At its heart is the Green Lane, a landscaped street with wildlife swales and incidental play which follows an established dog-walking route to a nearby park.

The development is the result of a unique partnership between Brighter Places, Bristol and Bath Regional Capital and Cheyne Capital, bringing together funding and interests of a housing association, a community investment company and private sector capital to provide affordable homes for modern living that are set in an open and thoughtfully landscaped environment.

photograph © Brighter Places 

Cycle to MIPIM 2024 01.03.24

Two AHMM cyclists are in the midst of training for this year’s cycle to MIPIM. This year, Cormac Farrelly and Michael Smith are taking part in a 4-day iteration of Cycle to MIPIM, riding up to 847km from Auxerre to Cannes 09 – 12 March. The pair have been ramping up their training over the past couple of weeks putting in long hours on the bike in preparation for the challenge ahead.

Started in 2006, Cycle to MIPIM is organised by charity and cycling network Club Peloton. As a team challenge, endurance event and networking opportunity, the ride also crucially raises money for charities including Coram, Tom AP Rhys Pryce Memorial Trust and Cyclists Fighting Cancer.

Find out more about Cycle to MIPIM here and support Cormac and Michael via JustGiving.

Angel Square Site Progress 28.02.24

Construction works at Angel Square are progressing, with the limited demolition work of parts of the existing structure now almost completed and the new core and structure being constructed.

Angel Square reinvents a prominent corner site in Islington, North London. The development provides over 290,000 square feet of mixed-use space including significant best-in-class employment space and affordable workspace providing exemplary, flexible working environments with low operational energy demands as well as enhanced public realm and a new public connection between Islington High Street and Torrens Street.

The new significantly redeveloped building retains 80% of the existing concrete structure, saving a significant amount of embodied carbon. The existing building’s internal structure grid has also informed a façade design of articulated solid columns and ledges, supplemented by profiled metal spandrel panels and the use of glazed terracotta and pre-cast concrete elements at ground floor.

The project is due to complete in 2025.

45 Beech Street submitted for planning 27.02.24

A planning application for a co-living development at 45 Beech Street for developer HUB and Bridges Fund Management, a sustainable impact investor, has been submitted to the City of London.

AHMM’s proposals transform a 1950s office building into a community-focused residential scheme that responds sensitively and creatively to the context of the iconic Barbican Estate, delivering 174 co-living homes as well as new public realm, a ground-floor commercial space and on-site resident amenities.

The development would set a new standard in this part of London for co-living, a rapidly evolving typology that can deliver numerous benefits both to residents and to people who live and work nearby, thanks to public realm improvements and a range of shared amenities that connect the scheme to its community.

In line with HUB and Bridges’ shared focus on minimising carbon emissions, the proposed scheme would take a retrofit-first approach. The total embodied carbon saving of retrofitting the existing building is 34%, relative to comparable new build schemes of the same scale. The scheme would also target market-leading sustainability credentials: BREEAM Excellent, EPC A, Fitwel 3* and net zero operational carbon.

The scheme was developed in close collaboration with the local community and key neighbourhood stakeholders. The consultation process involved a series of stakeholder workshops, consultation events and outreach to Barbican residents as well as local businesses.

Narrative Practice Sessions x AHMM 27.02.24

AHMM will be hosting the Sessions Mentoring Initiative by Narrative Practice this month on Thursday 29 February from 6:30 – 8:30pm.

Narrative Practice is an architectural research and mentoring platform improving representation in the built environment. Running for the past four years, their initiative, Sessions, achieves this through complimentary short- and long-term mentoring for young creative individuals from under represented backgrounds. Notably, Sessions is recent Winner of the Diversity in Action category at the Thornton Education Trust 2023 Inspire Future Generations Awards as well as being Finalists in the Mentoring category.

Please book your Session in Advance using this link.

RIBA North West Region Award Shortlist 22.02.24

The Alder Centre has been shortlisted for an RIBA North West Region Award.

Established in 1986 by Mr John Ashton following the death of his own son, The Alder Centre is a unique health service both in the UK and globally. Mr Ashton found that conversations with other bereaved parents provide the most support and understanding during the grieving process. Thirty years after the first counselling sessions at the Alder Hey – held in a laundry cupboard in the old children’s hospital – AHMM designed a new dedicated building and gardens that promote companionship and offer a place of sanctuary. The architecture is simple with a series of seven counselling rooms, each with their own private garden, configured around a large communal space with a lounge and kitchen. There is a flexible training room, office and dedicated room for the ‘Child Deathline’ where volunteers answer phone calls from parents to a national helpline.

Assessment will take place over the next few weeks, with judges visiting each shortlisted project before the announcement of all regional award winners in May.

RIBA South East Award Shortlist 20.02.24

Magna Square has been shortlisted for an RIBA South East Region Award.

Located within the Egham Conservation Area, Magna Square comprises four mixed used buildings (Liberty Hall, Gem House, Corn Merchant House and Parish Hall) providing retail, cinema, 101 new homes and student accommodation. A new town square and wider pedestrianised public realm brings the buildings together and stitches the development into the local context. The development’s design language closely references the local vernacular, incorporating a diversity of brick colours, patterns, and bonds. A highly articulated and varied roofscape incorporates mansards and dormers, reflecting the character of the conservation area, while chamfered corners facilitate pedestrian movement and special features such as glazed entrances, bespoke windows and brick coining and diapering create variety and visual interest within the facades.

Assessment will take place over the next few weeks, with judges visiting each shortlisted project before the announcement of all regional winners in May.

Lansdowne House breaks ground 15.02.24

On Wednesday 14 February contractors McGee officially broke ground at the landmark Lansdowne House site in Mayfair, London. A ceremony was held, attended by the development manager CO-RE, future tenants Blackstone including CEO Stephen Schwarzman, Prime Minster Rishi Sunak, US ambassador Jane Hartley, key partners, and project team members.

Located at the southern end of Berkeley Square in Mayfair, the Lansdowne House site will be transformed into a new commercial building which has been carefully designed to last for generations to come, and to achieve the highest possible standards for sustainability and wellbeing, targeting BREEAM Outstanding and WELL Platinum.

The redevelopment will provide 225,000 square feet of premium modern office space across 10 storeys to be occupied by Blackstone for their European Headquarters, and 14,000 square feet of ground floor retail and restaurants. New amenities for modern occupiers will be provided throughout the building, including an outdoor rooftop terrace that incorporates greening and biodiversity, balconies on every floor overlooking Berkeley Square and 470 cycle spaces located in the basement with showers, lockers and changing facilities.

Significant improvements to the public realm will reconnect the building to the historic square with pedestrianised areas revitalised and more public space provided.

RIBA London region Award shortlist 15.02.24

10 Lewis Cubitt Square, Montacute Yards and The Rowe have been shortlisted for RIBA London Region Awards.

10 Lewis Cubitt Square is a mixed-use building, completing an area of the developing King’s Cross Central neighbourhood and complementing an established public realm. The new building incorporates 195,000 square feet (NIA) of flexible office space over nine floors, and a penthouse mezzanine. To the south, a large flexible retail unit continues the retail journey from Coal Drops Yard and to the north is a flexible cultural space, now home to the immersive art experience ‘Lightroom’ which can become a 600-seat theatre with an auditorium capable of a variety of staging configurations, all within the universal building frame.

Montacute Yards, an innovative collaboration between AHMM and Ben Adams Architects, creates tailored workspace that balances contemporary working styles with a strong sense of community on Shoreditch High Street. A project of urban reconnection that turns a closed ‘back yard’ site into a permeable piece of the city, Montacute Yards explores different construction techniques, from its steel exoskeleton that draws inspiration from the warehouses of Shoreditch and gives depth and legibility of making to the façade, to its smaller CLT buildings to the north.

The Rowe provides 150,000 square feet of office space with retail and public space at ground floor within the retained and extended former Central House building that previously housed the London Metropolitan School of Art, Architecture and Design close to the Whitechapel Gallery in east London. An equal volume is added to the existing six storey building with the tension between to old and new highlighted by a playful piece of public art by Yinka IIori.

Assessment will take place over the next few weeks, with judges visiting each shortlisted project before the announcement of all regional award winners in May.

National Apprenticeships Week 2024 14.02.24

Last week, 5 to 9 February, was National Apprenticeships Week.

The Architecture Apprenticeship provides an alternative route to qualifying as an Architect. The apprenticeship route was created with the aim of widening access to the profession, with apprentices working in practice throughout their studies.

AHMM is proud to be one of the trailblazer practices who helped to create the Apprenticeship Standard. We currently employ 10 Architecture Apprentices across our London and Bristol offices.

This National Apprenticeships Week we particularly want to celebrate the first AHMM Apprentices who graduated from their respective courses: Bethan Dix and Emily Foster. Bethan completed the Level 7 Architecture Apprenticeship at Oxford Brookes in 2023. The Level 7 Apprenticeship covers RIBA Parts 2 and 3, and Bethan is now a fully qualified architect. Emily graduated from the Level 6 Architecture Apprenticeship at London South Bank University and is now a Part 1 Architectural Assistant. Both deserve huge congratulations for the immense hard work they have put in over the last four years.

RIBA South West + Wessex region Award shortlist 12.02.24

One Portwall Square has been shortlisted for an RIBA South West and Wessex Region Award.

One Portwall Square is a new office building for independent developer Nord on a site close to Bristol Temple Meads railway station. The site was originally part of 100 Temple Street, a large office with a raised squash court and parking below, designed by John Wells-Thorpe. The scheme replaces a disused building with a six-storey freestanding office, set back from Portwall Lane to create a lively pocket square at ground floor level. In response to the latest Grade A office standards, the Covid-19 pandemic and the need to maximise occupant comfort and amenity for staff attraction and retention, the building delivers new levels of innovation, sustainability and office design, combining modern and flexible floorplates with generous light and space. These qualities were recently recognised with the British Council for Offices’ National Commercial Workplace Award.

Assessment will take place over the next few weeks, with judges visiting each shortlisted project before the announcement of all regional award winners in May.

1 Riva Row, The Woodlands, Site Progress 31.01.24

Since breaking ground in November 2023, construction at 1 Riva Row has progressed at a steady pace. Area ‘A’ basement and concrete shear walls have been completed, as well as initial slabs on grade. Over the next months, structural groundworks will continue across Area ‘B’ to complete this portion of the project.

Developed for Howard Hughes, this new build multifamily development will create 268 new homes in the heart of The Woodlands.

The massing consists of two distinct elements – a podium and tower. The four story residential podium responds to the scale of Riva Row and the adjacent Waterway. The fourteen-story residential tower addresses the prominent corner and strategic views across The Woodlands.

A gradual gradation of brick colours across the buildings provides a rich and diverse façade, reflecting the historic craft of Texas masonry.

The project is due to complete in December 2025.

AHMM shortlisted for LSE’s Bankside House redevelopment design competition 29.01.24

AHMM has been named as one of the six finalists competing to redevelop Bankside House in Southwark London for leading university London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), alongside their development partners, a consortium of Bouygues UK and Equitix. The other finalists include Allies and Morrison, Carmody Groarke and Sheppard Robson, COBE and TP Bennett, RSHP with Tigg Coll, and SOM (Skidmore, Owings and Merrill).

Plans for the new Bankside House include a significant increase in accommodation of up to 2,000 beds, making the site LSE’s largest student residence. The redevelopment will support the institution in its aim to offer bed space to every first-year student from 2030. The brief stipulates not only adding more rooms in the scheme, which neighbours the Tate Modern, but delivering an exemplary piece of civic architecture. It prioritises being affordable for all LSE students, alongside a focus on environmental sustainability, health and wellbeing and the offer of an outstanding student experience.

Equitix and Bouygues UK undertook a prequalifying exercise with a mutually agreed longlist of architects in later 2023 during their successful tender, and will work with LSE to maximise the potential of the site and prepare a planning application for submission to the London Borough of Southwark in 2025.

The competition is due to commence in late January 2024, with a core team in place by April 2024 and construction expected to start on site in 2026. Completion is earmarked for 2030, ready for the students to move into at the start of the academic year.

Julian Robinson, Director of Estates, LSE commented “This location will require a piece of world class architecture which will meet the ambitions of both LSE and Southwark. The calibre of this shortlist is a testament to each studio’s exceptional design and delivery standards – each in their own design language.”

Illumanate Competition 17.01.24

AHMM was named the runners-up for the Illumanate Living Building Challenge (LBC) Design Competition run by the Living Future Institute of Australia (LFIA) in partnership with Development Victoria.

Set within the suburb of Sunshine North, Victoria, the former City West Water administrative bloc Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works Western Regional Complex is a heritage building in need of a new life. The building is a fine example of the influence of brutalism on the work of architectural firm A.K. Lines, MacFarlane and Marshall and representative of an important phase of growth of Melbourne in the 1970s and 1980s.

This ideas competition for a real building on a real site asked designers to imagine what socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative adaptive reuse looks like within the new mixed-use community of Sunshine North LUMA. AHMM developed a set of clear strategies to achieve each of the LBC performance categories of Place, Water, Health + Happiness, Materials, Equity and Beauty and in the view of the judges:

'The project showcases a considered approach to achieving net-zero carbon impact throughout its lifecycle. It adeptly retains the essence of brutalist architecture through low-impact interventions that not only respect the original design but also provide flexibility for future adaptability and reconfiguration.'

Riga Competition 12.01.24

AHMM were finalists in a two-stage open international competition which sought proposals to convert the 1981 Riga Congress Centre into a new concert hall.

Designers were asked to draw up a masterplan and concept design for the site which is located within the historic Boulevard Circle area of the Latvian capital’s UNESCO World Heritage Zone. The main aims of the design competition were to provide a modern concert hall with high quality acoustics, specially designed for professional music; design a building which is strongly connected to its setting in Kronvalda Park; and preserve and enhance the value of the existing Riga Concert hall.

Our concept was straightforward and simple. Our design proposals sensitively enlarged and extended the Riga Congress Centre in an architectural style which is complementary to the Centre, whilst preserving as much of the existing building as possible without compromising the quality and acoustic performance of the Main Hall. We modified the existing main hall to meet the levels of the existing foyer spaces, ensuring that the generous circulation and break out spaces of the existing Congress Centre will be fully utilised, safeguarding the important spaces of the existing architecture and effectively integrating them into the functional design of the new building.

We designed a scheme which was compact and economical both in budget and carbon cost but without compromising the quality or generosity of the spaces or the architecture.

Review of 2023 08.01.24

In the context of a challenging year in construction, and even more importantly in the wider world, our talented teams continue to design and support the delivery of excellent architecture in the UK, Europe, the United States, and beyond. We look to the future from a place of greater resilience at the end of our 34th year, while celebrating many achievements over the past 12 months. We have completed 11 buildings and places that are diverse in type and scale, won 15 national and international awards, and continued to work on more than 150 live projects, including more than 15 which have achieved planning permission. 

Indeed, being resilient is a feature of our Review of 2023. Three of our long-completed projects, White Collar Factory, Burntwood School, and the University of Amsterdam, received 'Test of Time' awards this year, a sign of the enduring impact of carefully considered, well-made architecture. Equally, it's been a great pleasure to see the rebirth of a much older yet robust building with the opening of Tower Hamlets Town Hall, the complex, painstaking remaking of one kind of public building - a former hospital - to create a new one fit for the future of one of London's most diverse boroughs. Our work on this project included a significant social value programme that recently won the Thornton Education Trust Inspiring Future Generations Award for Social Value. 

We're also looking forward to working on a broad range of new projects beyond London including in Sheffield, Manchester, and Newcastle, while enjoying acclaim for One New Park Square, our first project to be completed in Scotland. 

Read our Review of 2023 here.