Views

• Kingston Smith is a firm of Chartered Accountants and leading business advisors to entrepreneurial businesses, not-for-profit organisations and private clients as well as being one of our fantastic benefactors. In this piece, partner Jamie Sherman reflects on the variety of events he attended as part of LFA 2019.

London Festival of Architecture: it really did have it all!

I have to say hats off to the London Festival of Architecture team for yet another excellent demonstration of architecture in London. The festival highlighted the key challenges facing the industry in the short term, something a large number of practices have experienced. Many firms will need to be agile and willing to innovate in their approach to design and management in the future. Conversations during events we attended were largely centred around a few key themes; competition, innovation and diversity.

The theme of boundaries provided a great backdrop to the month of June, with the differing interpretations providing a diverse range of events, from talks about geographical boundaries of certain developments to panel discussions about diversity in the profession. It really did have it all!

The opening party at The Minister Building set the scene of events tackling the key issues in the sector. The first event we attended was a penal discussion hosted by David Morley Architects where David presented his passion for The Triangle Site at Kings Cross. With photographic evidence of the miraculous change on the brownfield site near the crossing railway lines, David told the story and recalled some of the many interesting quirks of working with two separate boroughs (the building covers the two boroughs of Islington and Camden). The panel went on to discuss the many challenges that they overcame with the geographical boundary and the compromises made. The prize for the best question came from the audience member who asked who was responsible for collecting the bins! It really was a great example of how architects are challenging boundaries and working together to achieve a common goal.

The Jestico+Whiles Virtual Reality experience gave a great perspective using the latest technology for the immersive viewing experience. It highlighted the need to embrace technology, an aspect many practices are struggling to accept given the capex required. Such financial boundaries may result in a competitive advantage, although the cost is reducing each year. From our experience, this will be essential in the short term as clients’ expectations shift and pricing becomes crucial when tendering for new projects.

The crossing boundaries pitch event hosted by Archiboo and HOK was definitely worth attending. It had a host of innovative architecture ideas on show. From flat-pack box-building solutions courtesy of Studio Bark to architecture in Africa, the pitches demonstrated some creative building methods, really challenging the status quo of conventional design and build.

The team at Kingston Smith attended a number of other events, including debates, Negroni talks and lectures, all of which were hugely insightful. A special mention goes to practices Fraser Brown Mackenna, Make Architects, Fletcher Priest, Glenn Howells, and Allies and Morrison for the excellent exhibitions of their work.

More than ever before practices must articulate their value proposition and why clients should use them. Achieving this will not only improve conversion rates when tendering for new projects, but also improve office morale while improving employee’s engagement. This will result in a stable workforce, reduced overheads and time spent on recruitment in a highly competitive market.

For all architects, the design remains the key focus but, in an increasingly regulated market (not to mention Professional Indemnity insurance becoming very expensive), to succeed they must have one eye on the firm’s performance and strategy moving forward. Succession remains a key issue. Firms must have a strategy to deal with this, perhaps by breaking down the employee ownership barrier or moving away from an LLP to take advantage of the increasing R&D tax credits.

• Fliss Childs is the Head of Communications at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. In this piece Fliss with the FCBStudios team explore the theme of boundaries in relation to their exhibition The Places Between, which ran as part of the LFA 2019.

‘More important than buildings are the public spaces in between them’

Amanda Burden noted this when she was director of the New York City Department of City Planning. Indeed, much of civil society is created in ‘The Places Between’ – where the boundaries of entry are removed and we can interact with all communities.

FCBStudios’ latest exhibition, part of the LFA 2019, looked at how we can design these spaces within our environment to help to establish communities in new neighbourhoods and become the places where people, young and old and from all walks of life shape communities, make connections, define character, enjoy comfort, share commodities and take part in celebration.

Recognising these places, both internal and external as an essential part of social infrastructure can help us to address challenges of isolation, education, crime, social inequality and polarisation. Investment in spaces such as libraries, parks and public space can benefit everyone, as a forum for increased interaction with friends, family, colleagues and neighbours.

We have identified six key traits of the places between and the measured benefits and intangible qualities which illustrate their many positive attributes.

Community is at the heart of all cities. Social, interactive, supportive society thrives through social equity, street life and community groups. Successful communities become attractive to outsiders and drive growth. The Britannia Project expands a thriving London community with the facilities and amenities it will need to accommodate and support Hackney’s expanding population. Our masterplan puts a park and car-free public realm at the centre of the expanded community, providing a meeting space for organised and impromptu activities.

Connection: Walkable, accessible neighbourhoods are easy and convenient to get around, have lower air pollution, better street life and more successful shops and businesses. Masterplans, like Battersea Exchange, make the most of existing and new transport hubs – train stations, major bus routes, the underground or tram stops – to create an active economic and social hub for an area. These are places that people use, at first out of the necessity of travel, but soon develop a life and personality of their own.

The character of an area is often determined by its history, heritage, beauty and inhabitants. By working within existing communities and contexts, new developments can enhance or adapt the character of the places around them. Cultural regeneration can be a powerful tool, using existing buildings that have fallen out of use to reignite an area. The regeneration of the East Wing of Alexandra Palace – the ‘people’s palace’ – has breathed new life into a much-loved cultural icon, integrating a new technical infrastructure while retaining the unique character of its historic spaces and inviting a new generation to experience the building and its broad programme of events.

Safe, clean, inclusive neighbourhoods are a comfort and give residents and visitors confidence in their environment. Through good design of public space and thoroughfares, including lighting and microclimates neighbourhoods can be designed to be pleasant and welcoming. The South Kilburn Estate Regeneration project has put an urban park and improved public realm at the heart of the new community, creating a green network of places that extend beyond the site boundary of people to come together to relax, play and socialise in a comfortable green and peaceful living environment.

Commodity: The economy of a successful neighbourhood thrives. Gradually property values, local ownership, community groups and land use patterns reflect growing civic pride. As part of the initial placemaking phase of Great Eastern Quays, Bow Arts are curating the entire commercial estate on behalf of Notting Hill Genesis to include a diverse range of interesting commercial uses, form artists studios, workspaces, retail, cafe and restaurant space to line the dockside and create a focal point for the community.

Celebration: A thriving community often expresses itself through seasonal, intergenerational or neighbourly celebration. Meanwhile uses, exhibitions and street parties are signs of successful, unified environments. Our masterplan and subsequent refurbishment of the Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery and Queen Elizabeth Hall buildings celebrate the existing buildings and social optimism of their Brutalist designers. The renewal of the buildings, which was completed last year enhances the experiences of visitors, performers and passers-by and celebrates the unique role of Southbank Centre in the capitals cultural life.

The places between are the pieces of a city that provide a flexible framework, and the space for people to connect, interact and make communities. Successful spaces create pride, creativity, and nurturing places for all to live, work and grow.

All photographs by Richard Battye for FCBStudios.

For our Views Section, LFA Patron Ft’work presents a series of three, hard-hitting short films, produced in collaboration with Sarah Wigglesworth Architects and community-based organisations. These videos each explore this year’s LFA theme of boundaries.  Each film explores boundaries from the point of view of a particular social group, whose experience reveals where social and physical boundaries collide.

In this third film, we follow a route, chosen by a group of five close friends, round the partly redeveloped estate where they have grown up – Woodberry Down at Manor House,  one of Europe’s largest single site regeneration projects. The young men, all members of the local football team, give a brutally honest first-hand account of gentrification and its destructive impact on the pre-existing community.

The film has been facilitated by Manor House Development Trust, which works in support of community development, and with the help of Redmond Community Centre, and The Edge, and in collaboration with Redmond Rovers.

• To celebrate the London Festival of Architecture 2019 and this year’s theme of ‘boundaries’, architectural practice BPTW, artist Chris Tipping and public art consultantsFrancisKnight are delving deeper into the creative and working processes involved in artists and architects’ practice, exploring how successful partnerships can transcend these disciplinary boundaries.
• Their joint work on Rochester Riverside, a major regeneration scheme in Kent for Countryside Properties and The Hyde Group, is a perfect example of this. The interview with Chris Tipping and Peter Sofoluke, Associate Architect at BPTW, takes a look at how developing a creative collaboration between artists and architects from the outset can result in fully integrated and embedded public art.

Rochester Riverside with Artist Draft designs reviewing scale and impact on the ground. Ink on paper. © Chris Tipping

How does detailed contextual research underpin your design process?

Chris: It is critically important for me to engage directly with the site. At Rochester Riverside, physical interaction by walking and exploring the site and the surrounding environment was balanced with local or regionally focused archive research. Disparate references, such as salt marsh plants, become mixed-up with an iron foundry, ormedieval illuminated manuscripts with the gasworks. Anecdotal evidence and overheard stories become mixed with fact. This can appear eclectic, disconnected and random, but isn’t this the nature of all places? My creative process, often intuitive in itself, is backed by long experience and enables me to weave rich and subtle stories about people and places, but also hopefully assist in the creation and interpretation of new spaces, which look forward to the future.

Have you worked with architects before on public art projects?

Chris: Many times. Being brought in early by creative exchange leads to a more satisfactory collaborative outcome for both parties, but this is by no means always an easy path to take. Success isn’t always measured in outcomes. Process is where true collaboration can be measured. Outcome is affected by many things not always in the control of the artist or the architect, but a creative and honest engagement with the process is where I am happy. I think I work even more creatively in response to working in multi-disciplinary design teams and can be inspired as much by the work of others as with my own process. I can sometimes respond defensively to critical comment, but this can lead to reappraisal, revision and a better creative outcome. Creativity can be hard-earned. 

Rochester Riverside, view overlooking landscape and new development © BPTW

Have you worked with artists before on public art projects?

BPTW: Yes, we have worked with artists on a number of regeneration projects. Sometimes within our industry the value of public art elements can be overlooked, but we feel it has the potential to add so much to the character of a place, whether through interventions that enhance a user’s experience of public space, art strategies that assist with wayfinding, or installations that help reinforce the identity of an area. It’s great that we are working with clients like Countryside and Hyde who value this and throughFrancisKnight we have been involved in the selection and appointment of artists too. We enjoy the creative process when working with artists and it is always interesting to see how their interpretations of key themes relating to a place develop into something tangible.

How does the collaborative process work on a practical level?  Are you able to elaborate on this in relation to the Rochester Riverside development? 

Chris: On a practical level, FrancisKnight and BPTW have been excellent at supporting my process. Marrying the client’s various needs and requirements while building in their own vision and practice aesthetic and concept, cannot be easy for an architect. As an experienced artist working in the public realm, I know this is a challenge, but I often don’t know where or when to stop. BPTW have been critical – as have FrancisKnight – in focusing my creative impulse to overproduce and discussions and continual review clearly framed these parameters by making clear where their vision met and mingledwith mine. This has freed me to focus on the detail and delivery of the work, as well as its function and place, and has hopefully produced a beautifully crafted suite of interpretive, rich artwork for the site.

BPTW: Over the course of the design process, we engaged with FrancisKnight and Chris in several workshop sessions. We were able to communicate key elements of the masterplan proposal which identified opportunity areas for public art. Chris’ subsequent research into the site revealed many forgotten crafts, trades and historical layers which could be subtly reimagined in the form of interventions to brick boundary walls, public realm paving and other elements of the scheme. Throughout the process, there was a continual exchange of ideas between ourselves and Chris to develop and refine the design into a proposal that really reflected Rochester Riverside as a place.

Our design of the scheme’s homes and buildings has been greatly influenced by an understanding of the history of the site and surroundings, and it was great to develop this sense of place further across the scheme with Chris. We look forward to seeing it all realised.

BRICKIES STACKIES STUMPIES, colloquial names for working barges of the Medway and Thames, transporting bricks, hay or mud. Unit size: 1200mm x 400mm x 75mm Cast Iron with low relief detailing. © Chris Tipping

MARSH COWS grazing, in medieval times Cattle and Sheep grazed the Marshes or Rochester Riverside. They continue to do so elsewhere on the Medway Estuary and Marshes and Hoo Peninsula. Unit size: 1200mm x 400mm x 75mm Flamed Granite with water jet cut inset and sandblasted detail. © Chris Tipping

PERENNIAL GLASSWORT, the Medway Estuary in one of the best places in Britain to study Glassworts, salt tolerant plants the ashes of which were formerly used in glassmaking. Unit size: 1200mm x 400mm x 75mm Flamed Granite with water jet cut inset and sandblasted detail. © Chris Tipping

• Matthew Morgan is a consultant for Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands and has been crafting stories in magazine journalism, book publishing, branding and communications for over 20 years, primarily for architects and designers. Matthew attended the Thames Connection debate hosted by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands at Body & Soul in Clerkenwell on 19 June, and in this piece he explores the boundaries of the Thames River explored during this debate.

Nothing unites and divides London like the Thames and, with London’s population ever-growing, there is a clear need for further connections with the river as well as crossings over it. In our second annual London Festival of Architecture debate, we celebrated, investigated and analysed our connections to the Thames and its crossings – past, present and future, unlocking London’s potential and celebrating the river. The discussion brought together experts and enthusiasts from the worlds of local government and public art, transport planning and marine engineering, all of whom we have collaborated with on projects as diverse as the residential-led Barking Riverside masterplan and the huge public art project, Illuminated River.

A new/old centre of London?

Councillor Darren Rodwell, Leader of Barking and Dagenham Council, is a passionate community champion whose message was clear: “Barking and Dagenham is the centre of London – you just don’t know it yet.”

Darren has a vision to create a “Barcelona on the Thames” at Barking Riverside, a huge regeneration project on London’s largest brownfield site for which we are masterplanners. But while his priorities are local (“it’s the local people who make the place”) his ambitions are global. “Let’s make sure the East of London is well-connected, because if not, we’re losing our connection with the rest of the world.”

The need to increase connections within and beyond the borough was developed by Chris Naylor, Barking and Dagenham’s Chief Executive, who offered further insight into the inequalities that have arisen from longstanding failures in both housing provision and transport infrastructure. He explored the benefits of burying the A13 to create better connections, reduce pollution and unlock land for redevelopment, and of encouraging growth through the Council’s ‘Be First’ social enterprise, which is bringing together planning and developing expertise for Barking Riverside.

However, both Darren and Chris were clear that Barking and Dagenham’s original expansion in the 1920s depended on infrastructure investment by the UK government, which Ford motor cars consolidated and built upon. What is missing now is any long-term thinking or financial support from the UK national government, which has led to a burgeoning relationship with representatives of China’s belt and road initiative, who see Barking and Dagenham as a key gateway to London.

Lighting up the city at night

Sarah Gaventa, Director of the Illuminated River Foundation, gave a very different perspective on the potential the Thames has for London’s pre-eminence as a world city.

While acknowledging the need for more connections for the East End, her focus is on an ambitious scheme to light 15 central London bridges at night, brought together by our studio in collaboration with the artist Leo Villareal. But Sarah demonstrated how Illuminated River is much more than simply a huge public art project.

It is estimated the project will be seen by over 200,000 people per year, with the potential to increase wellbeing in the capital as they delight in Villareal’s beautiful artwork. One in ten London children has never seen the river Thames, and she sees the project as an opportunity to reconnect communities who live near the Thames but don’t have access to it. The project is also an opportunity to reduce light pollution for the wildlife that lives in and around the river. “There are 135 species of fish in the Thames, none of whom like to have sex with the lights on.”

Sarah talked of the challenges of creating such a project, which has involved 30 planning applications and 18 listed buildings in separate conversations with numerous, disconnected London boroughs. But she was also persuasive about the economic benefits to the capital, offering London an opportunity to gain pre-eminence over other major cities such as Paris, and the simple joy and calm to be had at an otherwise troubled time. “What else are we going to have to celebrate for the next few months?”

Macro and micro ideas for better transport

Three speakers then gave an insight into transport planning at both a macro and micro level.

Julie Bowerman, a Director at Steer, has experience in transport planning in the private and public sector, and has led numerous projects across London. But what started for her as a review of the impact of CAVs in how they may help us better connect our city and encourage pedestrians and cyclists expanded into a broader look at how transport priorities in the capital are changing. Population growth, lack of housing provision and a transport system under strain increase the need and demand for initiatives such as shared transport and increased cycle routes.

But while crossing the river is part of the journey, it cannot be divorced from the routes that lie either side. “Technology won’t change the way we use bridges, but they will change the way we think about the journeys we need to take.”

Crossing the river was of specific interest to Tim Beckett, Founding Director of Marine Consultancy Beckett Rankine, who has been responsible for the design of more than 200 projects on the tidal Thames.

His innovative scheme for state-of-the-art electric ferries – already a reality in Sweden and Finland – could revolutionise our approach to the water. The creation of new ferry crossings offer a nimble, relatively low-cost solution to increase connections at key locations in the east of London such as Canary Wharf, where there is neither the money nor the vision for the creation of a bridge. Perhaps where public funding is not forthcoming, private sector investment could plug some of the gaps as we move deeper into the coming century.

Alex Lifschutz, Founding Director of Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, rounded up the discussion with a description of the Thames Barrier Bridge, an idea for a new, low-level pedestrian and cycle bridge to connect the Royal Borough of Greenwich with the Royal Docks. The 530-metre long bridge is a multi-span bascule bridge that would be situated immediately upstream of the Thames Barrier, so impact on the flow of the river would be lessened. Most boats would be able to pass underneath, but when larger boats do wish to pass through, the multiple piers, each with their own bascules, create a series of small, moveable bridges with their own opening spans. This provides certainty that at least one section of the bridge will open when it is needed.

It’s an idea that is so simple, one wonders why it hasn’t happened already, but it does come with a caveat: “we have approached TfL but the door is closed because they don’t have a penny to spend,” Alex explained.

Towards a conclusion

Apart from the enthusiasm from each speaker for the new and exciting projects that could shape life along the Thames in the years ahead, the other major theme was the scarcity of funds for these new projects to become a reality. “So what,” Alex asked, “is the mechanism for celebrating and rewarding all these varied ideas?”

Everyone was united in agreement that London needs more bridges, tunnels and ferries, but how do we ensure the city’s continued success by getting such projects built?

The danger of failing to provide sufficient connections is stark. “Lack of infrastructure is the prime cause of social inequality in the East End,” said Chris Naylor. But there was consensus that the political vision and leadership required to deliver such connections through infrastructure is just not there at present.

Sarah Gaventa was positive about the potential for philanthropy to contribute to more projects (Illuminated River is being funded by the Arcadia Fund and the Rothschild Foundation), but the kind of funding necessary for a venture such as burying the A13 (approximately £9billion) is only going to come from central government – if not ours then someone else’s.

• In an exciting collaboration with the Design Museum, ‘Manifestos: Architecture for a New Generation’  highlights the work by 10 emerging voices in architecture, who have each been nominated by  established names in the profession, for their impact on shaping a new future for London. Responding to the defining challenges facing young people in London today, this new generation of architecture voices pushing the boundaries of what architecture can be, who London is for and what its future holds.
• In a series of visionary manifestos, the chosen 10 share alternative visions for the capital’s urban landscape, prioritising collaboration, dialogue, learning and action in response to the real material and social conditions of a city in flux. Check back every Wednesday and Saturday for more.

Part W (nominated by Peter Barber)

The Part W collective is impatient for equality. We call out gender discrimination in an industry that routinely excludes and are driven by a desire to see places designed and delivered in a manner that is open, tolerant and beneficial to all. We want to see change happening now – so that current and future generations benefit from intersectional thinking in architecture, engineering, policy, planning and education. Our manifesto calls for change in the conversation around what leadership and notions of success look like. We want to lay a pathway that enables future generations to benefit from built projects being instigated, planned and delivered by both women and men equally and fairly. Our current campaigns have been established by a London-based group, but we share aspirations with UK and European sister groups. Outwards looking and collaborative, we are working together to achieve a gender-equal future.

For our Views Section, LFA Patron Ft’work presents a series of three, hard-hitting short films, produced in collaboration with Sarah Wigglesworth Architects and community-based organisations. These videos each explore this year’s LFA theme of boundaries.  Each film explores boundaries from the point of view of a particular social group, whose experience reveals where social and physical boundaries collide.

In this second film, the single, unedited ’take’ follows a postcode boundary that runs past the Rockingham Estate to Elephant and Castle. Innocuous to you and me, it represents a constant threat to many local young people. In an emotive and sometimes chilling conversation, three 15 yr-old boys with personal experience of gang violence and the ongoing Street War between Kennington and Peckham discuss: its causes and effects, the fear it instils, the impact on their mental health, the restriction it has on their personal freedom, their relationship with the police

This film was produced in collaboration with Oasis Waterloo.

• In an exciting collaboration with the Design Museum, ‘Manifestos: Architecture for a New Generation’  highlights the work by 10 emerging voices in architecture, who have each been nominated by  established names in the profession, for their impact on shaping a new future for London. Responding to the defining challenges facing young people in London today, this new generation of architecture voices pushing the boundaries of what architecture can be, who London is for and what its future holds.
• In a series of visionary manifestos, the chosen 10 share alternative visions for the capital’s urban landscape, prioritising collaboration, dialogue, learning and action in response to the real material and social conditions of a city in flux. Check back every Wednesday and Saturday for more.

Patricia de Souza Leao Muller of Holy Fool Studio (nominated by Manijeh Verghese)

As the architectural profession in London becomes a mere tool for developers, it underestimates the profound wisdom of the foolish play. Like the idiot at the feast, if architecture would be used to not find solutions to problems, we could tear open the gaps within dominant structures with play and humour. Responding to conversations about queer spaces, I investigate ways to catalyse long-term change through foolishness and irreverence, disrupting norms and complacency through collective making.

Success is measured by how much a profession by experts, for experts, is made accessible through designs that are cheap, non-standard, participatory, expressive, handmade, and with easy instructions. Through collective engagements, institutional diplomacy, and scripted spectacles, big questions about the inclusion of vulnerable identities, and bottom up self-expression, can be answered with the architecture of what simply exists: loos, flowers and joy.

• In an exciting collaboration with the Design Museum, ‘Manifestos: Architecture for a New Generation’  highlights the work by 10 emerging voices in architecture, who have each been nominated by  established names in the profession, for their impact on shaping a new future for London. Responding to the defining challenges facing young people in London today, this new generation of architecture voices pushing the boundaries of what architecture can be, who London is for and what its future holds.
• In a series of visionary manifestos, the chosen 10 share alternative visions for the capital’s urban landscape, prioritising collaboration, dialogue, learning and action in response to the real material and social conditions of a city in flux. Check back every Wednesday and Saturday for more.

RESOLVE Collective (nominated by David Ogunmuyiwa)

Architecture’s capacity to change London’s extreme inequity is often articulated in the same language as its complicity; where productivity, labour, and disciplinary vogue existing synonymously with creativity, passion, and thoughtful design. Our manifesto builds on a re-thinking of architecture as an unbridled means to produce novelty in our city and looks instead toward a practice that reveals, questions, and deconstructs existing forms, spaces, and ideas. To build by deconstructionnecessitates an interdisciplinary approach that investigates common spatial motifs at a human scale, such as shelter, movement, division, in order to equip us with the appropriate tools to address citywide and global demands for alternative value systems, degrowth and decolonialisation. It asks: what if walls did not separate us, but instead brought us together? How distinct are our built environments – houses, neighbourhoods, and cities –  from our emotional ones? Can we use design not to change spaces, but systems, perspectives, and narratives?