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March 18, 2014

Gasworks gets planning!

We're delighted that our overhaul of the wonderful Gasworks gallery and artists' studios complex, near the Oval in south London, has sailed through getting planning permission earlier this month. Continuing our record of never having an application turned down (sorry for the brag!), it's an important milestone for this project, which will finally give Gasworks a building that befits the amazing artistic and community programme that they run.

Hosting artists from all over the world via its international residency programme, which creates links to Bangladesh, Bolivia, China, Cuba, India, Jordan, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa and many other countries, as well as a fantastic exhibition programme, the news came a couple of days after a very special dinner in the gallery to thank all those who have contributed to the capital campaign so far and to wish the recently submitted Stage 2 Arts Council application a positive outcome. There's still a way to go to raise all the funds required so if you feel like donating, please visit their website. It's been fantastic to work with such a wonderful team there and fingers crossed for a start on site later this year.

February 24, 2014

Tom is cycling to Cannes for charity...!

In less than 2 weeks, Tom Grieve will be part of an 80-strong cycling cohort setting off on a 1500km sponsored cycle ride from London to Cannes. Thank you to everyone who has already committed to sponsoring him...we're now doing a last push to reach his target, to support his last push in training for a quite terrifyingly demanding ride.

Cycling the equivalent of London-Birmingham every day for 6 days, including some rather large hills for which our Essex valleys are not an adequate training, the ride raises money for five charities - the UK's oldest children's charity, Coram; Article 25, a fantastic disaster relief charity; Emthonjeni Trust, the MSA Trust and the Tom ap Rhys Pryce Memorial Trust which works with diasdvantaged young people to tackle gang crime.

Please, please sponsor Tom online through his dedicated page here - he's been putting in the hours on the bike and in the gym, is fairly terrified about the state his backside will be in by the end of the ride, and the rest of us have been hearing far too much about punctures, energy drinks and the joys of lycra...! It's a massive physical challenge, and a big fundraising target to reach, so we hope that you will feel able to support Tom in some way.

Thank you!!

January 8, 2014

It's awards season!

It seems that winter is the time for various industry awards. We were delighted - and completely taken by surprise - to be shortlisted and eventual runner-up in the Young Architect of the Year category at the Architect of the Year awards in December. Against a European-wide field, we were one of only three British practices to make it onto the shortlist. Well-deserved congratulations to Spanish practice Olga Felip/Josef Camps Arquitecturia who took the top spot having produced an amazing quality and quantity of built work, all the more worthy of praise given it was achieved against the backdrop of truly dire economic conditions. We were honoured and delighted to be on a list with them! Hana has also been shortlisted for Emerging Woman in Architecture 2014, part of the Women in Architecture awards run by the Architects' Journal. Again an incredible shortlist of people of whom we are in awe and admiration, as well as some good friends. Fingers crossed for the 7th February!

October 7, 2013

Young Architect of the Year shortlist!

We were excited - and very surprised - to be shortlisted last week for Young Architect of the Year 2013. This year the competition was opened up to practices from across Europe, and from over 70 entries we are one of three British practices on the shortlist so needless to say, we're delighted.

We're also really happy to have some great friends of ours on the shortlist too. Studio Weave were classmates, students of Hana's (briefly, and not that they needed much guidance), and now good friends. So congratulations to them too.

July 24, 2013

Studio in the Woods

We were really happy to be invited by Studio Weave to visit Studio in the Woods earlier this month and give a short talk. Studio in the Woods takes a bunch of students into the woods (no, really) to build experimental timber structures hands-on over a long weekend in teams working with a range of fantastic practising architects, and is the kind of thing that we would love to see more of in formal architectural education.

What more can you ask from a summer's weekend than to saw, joint and bend wood, eat together at long tables in a farmyard, and sit around a campfire sharing ideas. We rushed down from a site visit to talk about our projects from the perspective of construction and pragmatics, for a change, and it was really fun to talk about all the stuff that we don't normally get to air, as journalists rarely relay all the stuff we tell them about how interesting our deflection head details are.

Tom's time as a sandwich course placement and then a Part 1 employee at Paxton Locher, going from the drawing office to polishing concrete floors on site, and my time building at the Rural Studio in Alabama, were completely formative experiences in terms of how we understand building and architecture. We love making, prototyping in our own workshop, working with companies and suppliers to develop new ways of doing things, so being able to go to Studio in the Woods was a real pleasure. Thanks for having us!

June 15, 2013

Jerwood Gallery wins RIBA award

We're really surprised and honoured that the Jerwood Gallery has won a 2013 RIBA Award at national level. Thanks to the jury and to all our team - our engineers Momentum, our building services consultants Skelly & Couch, and our QS Pierce Hill in particular - for all their hard work too.

You can read a bit more about it on the Guardian here, though keen readers of our website will realise it wasn't actually our first built project - but certainly the first major one, so we're really thrilled.

June 12, 2013

New project: Gasworks

We're very excited to be working with the Gasworks - a unique visual arts organisation that combines a gallery, affordable studios and an international network and residency programme under one (currently leaky) roof in South London - on the redevelopment of their home. Gasworks are a wonderful organisation doing fantastic work and it's great to be working with them to make their building fit-for-purpose - and more - for the first time in their history.

We'll be working with them to create better gallery and education space, upgrade the studios and overhaul the roof, windows and heating systems to create a more sustainable and energy efficient building for the long term. You can read more about the project here.

March 10, 2013

Jerwood Gallery wins Civic Trust Award

We were really delighted that the Jerwood Gallery was honoured with a Civic Trust Award on Saturday evening. From 263 entries, only 32 projects were given the Award this year, so it's a great tribute to the whole team, the client and to Hastings Borough Council who stuck to their ambition for this project. We're particularly happy as the Civic Trust give awards to "projects of the highest quality design, but only if they are judged to have made a positive cultural, social or economic contribution to the local community." The citation was very generous and said: ?The new gallery is situated on the seafront, set amongst the black painted clinker net shops that are unique to Hastings. Employing hand glazed tiles, the colour and consistency is meticulously copied from the mathematical tiles which are a part of the local vernacular, their surface being slightly irregular, rippling the reflections of the scenery that surround the building. This is a gallery capable of displaying large pieces of contemporary art which, remarkably, sits comfortably with traditional buildings whose scale is often more modest. Internally, windows are positioned to remind the visitor of the gallery’s unique location and the palette of interior finishes and colours enables the visitor to enjoy the gallery and its surroundings as a single harmonious entity. Extensive community involvement throughout the development of the project illustrates how a sensitive design process can deliver a sensitive design solution. "The contribution that this building makes to the locality is profound."

January 17, 2013

Civic Trust awards

We're excited to find out that the Jerwood Gallery is going to get some form of award at this year's Civic Trust awards. The Civic Trust are really scrupulous at not only assessing the 'looks' of a building, but also how it contributes to the wider context of its setting, how it contributes to the life of the community, and its sustainability credentials. So we're very happy, and we'll be excited to see what form of award we get at the ceremony in March!

October 11, 2012

Recent publishings

We've had a few bits and pieces in various journals recently.

We were asked by Building Design to write about a building that inspired us. It was hard to choose within the constraints of being reachable in a day trip, and not already picked by someone else, and we couldn't get to our first choice (Aalto's wonderful self-built, experimental house in Muuratsalo in the time limit, so we've used this as an excuse to post a photo of it's utter wonderfulness above. Instead, we went very local (and cheap on the travel expenses!) and chose Alison & Peter Smithson's Economist Plaza in London. Perhaps it's a predictable choice - we learnt later that several people had thought of choosing it before - but it's no less brilliant and inspiring for that. The article we wrote (including photos of us, reluctantly!) is here.

Hana was sent by Architecture Today to review the new pier pavilion at Southend. Unfortunately she didn't think much of it, and now feels very bad for the extremely nice project architect. You can read her thoughts here.

Hana was also asked by Icon magazine to write about Juan Herreros' Casa Garoza, which she liked very much. Read her thoughts here if you are interested.

We're always interested to write about other buildings and miscellaneous topics of interest, so get in touch if you feel like it.

Finally, the Jerwood Gallery was featured in the Brick Bulletin which is always a good read if you're interested in the subject. The main feature in the magazine was on the Swedish architect Johan Celsing, who has done some quite wonderful work, so it's worth downloading the whole issue - but if you don't want to, you can read our bit here.