news → HAT Projects

December 1, 2022

Civic Trust Awards

We are thrilled to have Ely Museum selected as a Regional Finalist for both the 2023 Civic Trust Awards and the Selwyn Goldsmith Awards for Universal Design.

Civic Trust Awards are given to projects that make an outstanding contribution to the quality and appearance of the built environment. Award level schemes demonstrate excellence in architecture or design, whilst being sustainable, accessible and providing a positive civic contribution.

The Selwyn Goldsmith Awards are selected by a specially convened panel of universal design experts, seeking to celebrate environments or buildings that are responsive, flexible, welcoming, easy to use and occupy; allowing all to use with dignity and equality, aiming to promote and applaud "those schemes which have gone beyond the building regulations, putting people at the heart of the project and showing exemplar design."

A thanks to all our collaborators on the project, and in particular Tom Lister at People Friendly Design who worked with us on the accessibility and universal design strategy.

The final national level awards will be announced on 9th January.

November 21, 2022

HAT commissioned for Great Yarmouth Design Code

We are excited to be working with Great Yarmouth Borough Council on the delivery of their new Design Code. The Design Code will provide a framework to improve design quality on all developments across the borough and encourage locally distinctive design and character.

Great Yarmouth has a huge range of character areas, from the remnants of the extraordinary 'rows' in the town centre, to large post-war estates, plotlands, historic villages, industry and holiday parks. We are involving a wide range of stakeholders and local groups to understand their perspectives on the borough's built and natural landscapes; and the common problems with development proposals that are brought forward in the area.

October 31, 2022

Architecture and the unexpected

Hana has been invited to deliver the first in a new season of lectures for Colchester Art Society, to be held at Firstsite on Tuesday 8th November at 6pm. Titled 'Architecture and the Unexpected' it will form a brief introduction to and survey of HAT Projects' work over the last 15 years.

Tickets can be booked by visiting Firstsite's booking page or calling 01206 713700. All welcome.

September 5, 2022

Jaywick Sands Place Plan Consultations

We have opened a major public consultation with the community in Jaywick Sands about the future of the village. We started working for Tendring District Council on the development of a new Place Plan for Jaywick Sands in late 2018. Work was interrupted by the pandemic, and we are now hoping to learn as much as we can about how residents view the future of their community, to help direct the development of a Place Plan.

Jaywick's community experiences the most severe deprivation in the UK, and it is also at risk from sea level rise, which will affect the most deprived residents the most. We have worked hard to distill these complex and difficult questions into clear and simple graphics, videos and words, and developed a series of research questions in plain English that we are inviting residents to answer. You can read more about how we approached the consultation, and view the consultation survey.

Alongside the Place Plan, we have developed a draft Design Guide SPD for Jaywick Sands, to clearly set out how development proposals should be designed to take account of both flood risk and the unique, tightly spaced plot pattern of the settlement. We have worked closely with the Environment Agency on this, and it is now also open for statutory consultation. Read the draft Jaywick Sands Design Guide SPD and answer the consultation survey.

August 10, 2022

How do you do 'the right thing'?

Hana's most recent article 'How do you do 'the right thing'?' for the RIBA Journal is available in the July/August edition, addressing the need to engage with communities in developing schemes to take to Planning, and how best to do it.

"Designing - and gaining support - for schemes that do represent what is best for 'the community' as a whole means using local engagement as a research tool (...) Build an evidence base for what local issues really are."

August 4, 2022

HAT appointed on Colchester Town Centre Masterplan team

We're delighted to be part of the team appointed to develop a new masterplan for Colchester city centre. Working to make our locality as great as it can be, is at the heart of why we exist as a practice and we've been advocating for joined-up planning for Colchester for a long time, so it's great to see this project come forward. We are part of a team led by We Made That, and involving leading transport consultants Steer, socio-economic consultants PRD and Authentic Futures giving heritage advice.

Over the next few months the team will be consulting widely across our community and developing a strategic plan for the city centre along with site-specific recommendations and development briefs. A big part of the commission is developing a new transport plan for how public transport, cycling and walking can become the easy and natural first choice for everyone using the city centre. This is imperative to tackle our climate impacts and lower carbon emissions, as well as improving air quality and creating a healthier city for everyone.

This builds on our work over a number of years on public realm, independent business, culture, community development and, of course, investing ourselves in the town centre - and is part of our commitment to helping Colchester make the most of its new city status.

July 5, 2022

Tom Grieve is now a certified Passive House Designer

Congratulations to director Tom Grieve, who has just passed the Certified Passive House Designer/Consultant exam. Tom embarked on this challenging course as a way to further develop his understanding of how to reduce carbon emissions, improve his understanding of construction physics, and develop the skill base of the practice. We are already benefitting from the knowledge and skills he has gained, and are excited about how we can continue to improve.

At HAT, we strive to be rigorous and responsible about reducing the environmental impacts of our buildings, in both operational and embodied carbon, material and resource consumption, and whole life impacts. There is always more for us to learn and this is just one of the steps we are taking.

June 29, 2022

Lowestoft Town Hall

We have recently been appointed to lead the design team bringing the amazing Lowestoft Town Hall back into action as the centre of community and civic life in the town. It's a fantastic Grade 2 listed building and the brief is for it to become the home for the newly created Lowestoft Town Council, a venue for all sorts of wonderful and creative activities and events, and more...

We are working with Richard Griffiths Architects as our conservation advisors, Max Fordham LLP, Momentum Engineering, and with Moss King as project managers.

June 27, 2022

Jaywick Sands workspace starts on site

We recently broke ground on the new affordable workspace, covered market and public realm project in Jaywick Sands. We've been working in Jaywick for a number of years, involved at both strategic and grassroots levels, so it's really exciting for us to see this moment arrive. The £4m project is on behalf of Tendring District Council, with additional funding from Essex County Council and the Getting Building Fund via SELEP.

The team includes Ingleton Wood LLP, Momentum Engineering and Potter Raper. TJ Evers are the contractor.

May 5, 2022

Ely Museum wins two RIBA East awards

We're thrilled that our project at Ely Museum has won two awards from the Royal Institute of British Architects this year. We won both a RIBA East award and were also the winner of the 2022 RIBA East Conservation Award, in recognition of the approach we took to restoring, conserving and enhancing the Grade 2 listed building.

The judges said "HAT Projects have taken on a badly degraded historic building and lovingly restored and extended it to give new life and purpose to Ely Museum, creating a great resource for the town...The project exemplifies the rejuvenation of a civic building in a way that provides great community value." We're delighted for our wonderful client at the Museum, and the whole project team who worked so hard through the Covid-19 pandemic to achieve real quality in the finished building.

Read the full judge's citation.