Great news that – after 60 years of operation for freight only – the Cowley Branch Line in Oxford will be reopened for passengers! The government has pledged £120m in funding, unlocking critical space for research and jobs, and also finally connecting places on the margins of the city with high quality public transport. 5th Studio have been working with a dynamic team at Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council and Network Rail to help build the case for reopening the line and realise better, comprehensive spatial outcomes for Oxford. Our commission - alongside rail specialists SLC, Transition by Design Oxford and Maddison Graphics - has developed designs for the areas around the two new stations at Cowley and Littlemore, comprising the stations themselves and the immediate environs, plus a series of wider walking and cycling connections, designed to ensure that the stations connect well with both new and emerging neighbourhoods and an important knowledge quarter emerging across the south of Oxford. We have established the broad framework for the how development, regeneration and connectivity could be coordinated across the wider area, and across multiple landowners and stakeholders, linked to Network Rail’s development of the overall line reopening proposals, costings and business case. Oxford City Council leader Susan Brown said: "The Cowley Branch Line is the single most important piece of infrastructure for connecting local communities and businesses in south and east Oxford. It will give access to more amenities and jobs, help to cut congestion, meet our climate targets, and unlock new homes and jobs." The rail minister, Lord Hendy, and Chief Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, formally announced the funding in Oxford.  The project is part of a growing portfolio of projects in the practice, optimising infrastructure investment and ensuring that it is well-integrated into urban fabric, including East West Rail, Stratford Station, Waterloo Station, and the station quarters at Derby and Chester.

(Photo credit: National Rail)

Derby City Council has formally adopted new Interim Planning Guidance (IPG) for a new urban quarter around Derby’s main railway station. The project has been led by London & Continental Railways (LCR), as part of a public sector partnership that includes Derby City Council, Homes England, East Midlands Combined County Authority and Network Rail.

5th Studio has developed the spatial masterplan for the revitalisation of the station area – once one of the most important stations in the country, still the heart of the UK’s rail industry and soon to be the HQ of Great British Railways. The proposed Station Quarter aims to transform surface car parking and a collection of historic buildings into a new mixed urban quarter for Derby, with a transport hub fit for the 21st Century and 1,500 new city centre homes.

Adopting the guidance paves the way for the council to bid for funding to deliver this major scheme at the threshold of the city.

5th Studio have been working with Lichfields (town planning, heritage) and WSP (transport planning).

At the heart of the proposals is the restoration of historic buildings and the urban fabric, allowing the delivery of well-connected homes in the heart of the city, together with new and improved spaces for hospitality and cultural uses.

The Leader of Derby City Council, Councillor Nadine Peatfield, said:

“As one of the main gateways to our city for millions every year, it’s crucial that the area around Derby Railway Station offers an attractive and welcoming environment. These plans will create a vibrant and thriving hub for living, working and leisure that can serve as a catalyst for wider growth in the city. Adopting this IPG document is a significant step in the Station Quarter project. With this guidance, we will now be able to begin seeking funding to develop the plans further.”

Public consultation won strong support for the project, with an emphasis on sustainable transport and heritage.

The Interim Planning Guidance document can be found on the Derby City Council website here.

This project is one of a growing suite of work by 5th Studio shaping good growth and integration around railway infrastructure, including East West Rail, Waterloo and Stratford stations, Cowley Branch line, West London Orbital and many others. LCR and Network RailProperty are in the process of merging into a new rail property company called Platform4.

We’re proud to announce that Newham Council has been shortlisted for the prestigious Landscape Institute Awards 2025 for the Royal Docks Corridor project. The project is shortlisted in the ‘Excellence in Public Health and Wellbeing’ category

5th Studio led design work for a partnership of Newham Council and the GLA’s Royal Docks Team to transform the street environment along Silvertown Way and North Woolwich Road. These works have now been successfully delivered by Newham’s highways team, and represent an exemplary new public realm, drawing on the Mayor of London’s Healthy Streets principles.

The work follows on from our overall connective strategy: the Royal Docks Public Realm Framework (2020) and Design Guides, establishing a golden thread between large scale strategy and delivery on the ground.

The design work was developed in close collaboration with Newham Council’s highways team and the Mayor’s Royal Docks team, Our design team included Alan Baxter (public realm and highways advice), Jonathan Cook Landscape Architects and Studio Dekka (lighting).

More on the project here.

The LI Awards celebrate people, place and nature – showcasing the very best in landscape planning, design, management and research across the UK and internationally.

Winners will be announced on 14 November 2025. https://awards.landscapeinstitute.org/

Established in lock step with the excellent team at Brent Council, the Staples Corner Growth Area Masterplan and Design Code SPD provides a detailed vision and planning policy framework for the regeneration and growth of the Staples Corner area over the next twenty years. Brent’s Local Plan designates Staples Corner for industrial and housing growth. The ambition is to transform the area into a new mixed-use community, protecting critical industrial uses and providing a range of new business premises fit for modern-day occupiers and at least 2,200 new homes with an improved environment and supporting infrastructure.

The Masterplan SPD sets out a compelling narrative to achieve buy-in and consensus and guide coordinated positive change to support growth in this area, intensify industrial uses, and establish an urban framework that can accommodate a mix of new uses, including new homes.

The design team assembled by 5th Studio to deliver the Masterplan included PRD as the commercial lead, RCKa as the community engagement lead, Alan Baxter Ltd for transport and movement design, and XCO2 covering environmental inputs.

More on the project here.

Darwin College, Cambridge, has received unanimous support from Cambridge City Council’s planning committee for a programme of building and development to support the College’s goals of achieving carbon neutrality over the next decade. The plans bring together two separate but connected bodies of design work developed by 5th Studio Architects and Caruso St John Architects, to take advantage of the College’s riverside location to harness innovative river-source heat pump technology, and to create much-needed new social spaces for the College community. 

The Pump House

5th Studio have designed a Pump House, next to the River Cam, which will house the technology required to harvest heat from the river to provide low-carbon heating and hot water for the  College’s central Cambridge estate. A network of pipes will distribute heat to individual buildings, in the first river-source heat pump network at this scale planned for central Cambridge.

The Pump House will accommodate the necessary equipment, including heat pumps, circulation pumps, filtration equipment, thermal stores, expansion equipment and ancillaries to form a fully operational central heating system. 5th Studio’s design promises to create a sympathetic addition to the College site, which celebrates its innovation, raises the profile of sustainable solutions

The Pump House joins a family of idiosyncratic historic industrial buildings, including water mills and granaries, in what was once a busy working environment powered by the river. Its form and material quality are shaped by its relationship to the river and the space it needs to draw energy from it. The Pump House foregrounds its sustainable technology and being visible from the Mill Pond, a public space in the heart of the city, offers opportunity for engagement with the public as well as Darwin College’s community.

Building refurbishment

A switch to sustainable energy sources is only feasible if the existing building fabric is first improved to limit heat loss as much as possible. 5th Studio and Caruso St John between them will therefore oversee refurbishment measures across the site, to support its decarbonisation. These measures principally comprise improved glazing and insulation, sensitively incorporated into the historic fabric. Simultaneously Caruso St John have designed a new social space beneath Howell Killick, Partridge and Amis’ 1966Dining Hall – the Garden Room – which also forms part of the planning application.

The UK’s housing stock includes some of the oldest and least efficient and least healthy in Europe. Reducing the carbon emissions that arise from heating our homes is critically important to how the UK achieves its Net Zero target by 2050. No less important is to ensure that homeowners can enjoy warmer, healthier, and more comfortable homes, while benefitting from lower energy bills.

The pilot Retrofit Pattern Book sets out effective approaches for retrofitting a flat-fronted Victorian terraced house – one of the most prevalent housing typologies in the UK. It is the first of a series of pattern books which it is hoped will eventually cover most UK housing stock.

The creation of this document has been supported by Barclays, who are keen to support homeowners to improve their properties by providing effective advice.

The Pattern Book has been developed in close collaboration with Joel Gustafsson Consulting (JGC), and the concept and content has been refined iteratively with Barclays to ensure complex topics were communicated as clearly as possible. The draft final document was peer-reviewed by the team at Etude.

Uniquely in the world of retrofit advice, the modelling and analysis are based on kWh/m2a – rather than EPC – more accurately represents the energy expenditure, carbon emissions and potential energy savings involved in retrofit.

5th Studio and JGC constructed detailed 3D and energy models of a typical terraced house and tested both the existing energy losses and the potential reductions to these arising from a wide range of fabric improvement and technological measures. These measures have been characterised by cost and need for external advice but also by timescale and the level of disruption involved – from those DIY tasks that might be completed over a weekend, to whole house retrofit works that might take a year to plan and implemented with a professional team.

Eventually it is hoped that this could be developed into an interactive web-resource, allowing users to gain immediate access to whichever advice was most relevant to their needs. A web-based version would also allow users to input data which would affect the outcomes of the model: including for example, forms of heating, desired set temperatures, geographical location, etc.

Oliver Smith, 5th Studio Director said 

“The retrofit of existing homes is one of the greatest opportunities to reduce energy demand and national carbon emissions. We decided that we’d create the greatest impact and support for realisable and fundable solutions if we worked directly with banks and mortgage lenders. Barclays embraced the idea of a Pattern Book for Retrofit and supported the creation of this Pilot Book both financially and by setting up a working group to rigorously test the concepts and content.

It is fantastic that the first Pattern Book is now being published and that its quality has been recognised by both the National Retrofit Hub and by consumer champions, Which?

We look forward to completing the set and providing accessible, meaningful advice to every kind of homeowner across the UK on how to reduce heating bills and make their homes more comfortable.”

The Retrofit Pattern Book for flat-fronted Victorian terraces is available here.

5th Studio are excited to be appointed as lead consultant to develop proposals for restoring the riverine landscapes of Dagenham Brook.

The Dagenham Brook is a 1.5km watercourse which runs from north of Low Hall Sports Ground in Walthamstow to the culvert beneath the railway south of Orient Way, on the edge of Hackney Marshes. It links a series of public landscapes, allotments gardens and wilder spaces.

We will be supporting the London Borough of Waltham Forest in the development of proposals in line with the Lea Bridge Area Framework’s ambitions for improved access to blue and green spaces. The client team will be supported by Project Board members Thames 21 and the Environment Agency.

5th Studio are leading a team including Jonathan Cook Landscape Architecture, Civic Engineering and Accertum. Our team will support the design and integration of a suite of projects and interventions to foreground public access and awareness of Dagenham Brook and establish measures to improve the water quality and biodiversity of this hidden historic watercourse.

5th Studio is delighted to have been selected for the London Legacy Development Corporation’s new £2 million landscape and public realm design services framework.

Designed to complement the GLA-wide Architecture and Urbanism framework, the framework is also open to the wider GLA group, including Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) and GLA Land and Property (GLAP) – as well as London boroughs working in partnership with them.

5th Studio is one of five design practices on Lot 1 of the framework, covering strategy, research and studies focusing on existing public spaces, parkland and streets within Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park estate.

The framework role complements 20 years of work by the practice in many varied roles on and around the Olympic Park, including ongoing work to re-invent Stratford station area, and masterplans covering an urban railfreight interchange & cement works, a total of 6,000 homes, c.100,000m2 industrial & commercial space, street improvements, public realm and bridge connections, schools, health & community spaces, meanwhile uses, parklands and strategic walking and cycling connections.

Read more on the LLDC’s website here.

As part of a programme that has assigned ten architects from the Mayor’s Design Advocate panel to locations experiencing rapid change across London, the Mayor of London has appointed 5th Studio Director Tom Holbrook to the role of Town Architect for the London Borough of Hounslow.

Funded by the Greater London Authority, The Mayor of London's two-year pilot scheme is part of the £1.25m Local Growth Capacity Support Programme, to embed expert design support in ten locations to deliver Good Growth for Londoners.

The new role of the Town Architect is intended to provide a ‘constructive and critical view across multiple projects’ within their identified area, offering ‘oversight and coherence across schemes’. The 10 Town Architects will build capacity in local boroughs, promote knowledge-sharing and bolster skills in existing teams, and help authorities to utilise the skills of planners and architects to help shape better places in their local areas.

Tom will be working with the borough to join up the significant transformation anticipated and underway in Brentford, and to optimise the benefit of the West London Orbital – a planned expansion of the Overground network, running from Hounslow to Hendon, Brent Cross & West Hampstead, delivering a missing orbital link between North and West London.

Tom said “it is really exciting to be appointed as a Town Architect, and I look forward to working with Hounslow’s excellent planning and regeneration teams. The work builds on 5th Studio’s significant work on optimising the spatial integration of rail infrastructure, including at Stratford Station, on the Cowley Branch Line in Oxford, and on East West Rail.”

London deputy mayor Jules Pipe, said: ‘By drawing on the expertise of the Mayor’s design advocates, local boroughs will have the expertise and support they need to boost design quality to improve their high streets and public spaces and promote positive neighbourhood placemaking, helping to build a better and more sustainable London for everyone.’

The GLA pilot includes nine other Town Architects in strategic locations across the capital: Holly Lewis, Jas Bhalla, Adam Khan, Ken Okonkwo, Hilary Satchwell, Farshid Moussavi Architecture, Paul Monaghan, Julian Lewis and Alice Fung.

Read more in the Architects’ Journal.

5th Studio is a friendly and exciting B-Corp architecture and design practice with studios in London and Cambridge. We work with a broad range of clients and commissioners to design and deliver innovative proposals for the built environment. We work on projects ranging in scale from small buildings to large urban strategies.

We are currently working in some of the most challenging parts of the UK, with a focus on masterplanning, and the realisation of buildings and infrastructure within those larger plans.

5th Studio is seeking talented and enthusiastic designers to join our London and Cambridge studios. We are currently seeking applications for positions starting as soon as possible.

We are currently recruiting for a series of positions:

• Part 2 architectural assistants; and
• Part 1 architectural assistants.

Applicants should be:

• Ambitious and engaged with a strong interest in public projects;
• Skilled designers with excellent drawing and model making skills;
• Enthusiastic with a positive attitude and strong communication skills;
• Proficient across a range of software including Adobe Creative Suite, Microstation & Revit; and
• Proficient in written and spoken English and eligible to work in the UK.

Please send applications to recruitment@5thstudio.co.uk, to include the following:

• A brief cover letter including details of when you are available to start work, and any notice periods or university term dates;
• A CV; and
• A short portfolio (maximum 10MB)

No hard copy applications. Please note that due to the volume of applications we can only respond to shortlisted applicants.

We actively encourage qualified applicants from underrepresented backgrounds to apply.

A film introducing our collaboration with Bloqs, made by filmmaker and photographer Jim Stephenson, has been shortlisted for the 2024 Archiboo Awards for Best Use of Video. The winner will be announced on May 22nd at Shoreditch Arts Club. You can watch it here.

Tom Holbrook will be speaking at the OxProp Summit in Oxford on Wednesday 17 April, entitled ‘Inclusive Growth – Can Oxfordshire grasp this golden opportunity?’.

Tom will be presenting 5th Studio’s work in progress on the Infrastructure Place Study for the reopening of the Cowley Branch Line, and its two new stations, asking ‘How will the investment in the Cowley Branch Line enable social and economic change for the City of Oxford?’

A panel discussion will follow, including Tom Bridgman (Oxford City Council), Bill Cotton (Oxfordshire County Council), Helen Horne (OxPlace - delivering affordable housing) and Rory Maw (CEO of the Oxford Science Park).

5th Studio is now a Certified B Corporation: we’re counted among businesses that are leading a global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy.

This certification is a significant milestone on the journey of the practice, and part of our continuous improvement as an ethically-driven and environmentally sensitive business. Since our establishment in 1997, we have always instinctively worked with what already exists, and from our earliest projects we have approached design as a regenerative practice: from the retrofit of a room to a one-hundred mile landscape.

The certification process depends on our amazing team, our clients and the people with whom we collaborate – thank you!

5th Studio are delighted to begin 2024 with news of a significant new commission from Oxford City Council – the production of a Infrastructure Place Study around the re-opening of Oxford’s Cowley Branch Line. The Infrastructure Place Study will “ensure the rail scheme contributes to the creation and improvement of the neighbourhoods around the two new stations”.

The contract will be led by SLC Rail and 5th Studio will be developing a spatial framework for the project.

The Infrastructure Place Study will help to identify any additional infrastructure place needs to ensure that the rail scheme is fully integrated with existing communities, maximising options to improve local movement and connectivity. This work will happen in parallel with the development of the finance and funding strategy that will support the project’s Full Business Case.

The commission is part of a wider £4.5million package of work aiming to reopen the Cowley Branch Line to passengers, supported by Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council and major local landowners.

The line is currently only used for freight services to BMW’s Cowley manufacturing plant. If funding is secured for the implementation phase, the rail track would be upgraded for reinstated passenger rail services, with two new stations at “Oxford Littlemore” (near Oxford Science Park) and “Oxford Cowley” (near ARC Oxford).

The Infrastructure Place Study multi-disciplinary team includes 5th Studio (spatial framework), SLC Property (property and planning), Anthony Collins Solicitors (legal planning policy), Transition by Design (stakeholder engagement), and Maddison Graphic (engagement material).

The team will work closely with Network Rail who are currently developing the engineering design for the rail infrastructure and core station solutions, and producing the Full Business Case, drawing upon previous development work. The two workstreams will work closely together to create the most compelling funding requests to Government and other potential funders and deliver well-integrated station designs that meet the requirements of local stakeholders to promote modal shift to sustainable transport. 

Tom Holbrook, Director of 5th Studio, said: “The Infrastructure Place Study for the Cowley Branch line will build on our thinking for the National Infrastructure Commission on good growth in the Oxford to Cambridge Arc. It joins a suite of projects at different scales in the practice that aim for better integrated rail infrastructure and urban planning.”

Councillor Louise Upton, Cabinet Member for Planning, said: "I am delighted that we’ve reached this exciting stage in our proposals to facilitate reopening the Cowley Branch Line to passengers. A passenger service on this line would allow people to get from Blackbird Leys to the city centre in just over 10 minutes. This would really improve the city’s public transport options, increasing overall capacity locally, reducing congestion on our roads and contributing to a better rail network regionally. While Network Rail is already working on the designs for the two proposed stations, this new commission will specifically look at bridges and paths to ensure that the new stations are accessible to the surrounding residential and commercial areas and provide new links across the existing line. We’re looking forward to working with SLC Rail, 5th Studio, Transition by Design, Anthony Collins, and all stakeholders so that the train line can deliver maximum benefits for local communities and businesses.”

Sam Uren, Director of SLC Rail, said: “This is the type of exciting project we like to get involved with, and we’re keen to contribute to its progression so that the new stations are thoughtfully integrated and fully accessible to maximise the positive impact to the communities within southeast Oxford.”

This government is focussed on a ‘big project’ for Cambridge. What is less evident is the objective of such a project and how to measure its success. What would a Development Corporation ‘mission’ look like for the development of Cambridge? What public good could it try to achieve by 2050?

In an opinion piece published in The Developer Director Tom Holbrookidentifies the need for any Development Corporation for Cambridge to have a clear ‘mission’ to create a fairer city that lives within its planetary boundaries, extends its contribution to human knowledge and has the highest quality of life for its citizens.

Read the article here.

The Greater London Authority London Plan team are running a series of events to allow people to share their views about London, how to tackle its challenges and to help shape a future London Plan.

Tom Holbrook will be giving the keynote at an event focussed on the capital’s Infrastructure and utilities challenges and opportunities on Monday 18 December, 2pm to 4pm at City Hall.

The session will explore perspectives on the London Plan’s success in promoting best use of energy, waste, water & transport infrastructure, including:

• Infrastructure planning - where and how could it go further or be dialled back – waste/water/ energy/ digital/ social infrastructure;
• Infrastructure and sub-regional relationships;
• Infrastructure and the London Plan spatial strategy; and
• Emerging and future trends and change.

More on this and other Planning for London stakeholder events here.

To request to attend and participate, please email: planningforlondonprogramme@london.gov.uk

5th Studio is delighted to announce that it has been selected for the University of Cambridge Estates Division’s new Consultant Framework as architects on two Lots: Minor works (up to £1.8m) and Major Projects (£1.2m - £7.2m).

We look forward to working with Estates Division to deliver future design and construction projects, which will draw on our experience in creating spaces for innovation, decarbonisation & retrofit and urban renewal.

Bloqs is the UK's first open-access factory providing flexible and affordable access to industrial machinery, workshops and training with cafe / exhibition space and events venue. Winner of three architectural awards in 2023 from RIBA and AJ.

Come and join for a tour by 5th Studio Director Tom Holbrook on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th at 2pm and 4pm. Find out more information here.

Our collaboration with Bloqs for Enfield Council to deliver the UK's largest open-access factory has been given a RIBA National Award, one of the UK’s highest accolades for architecture.

RIBA National Awards are given to buildings across the UK in recognition of their significant contributions to architecture. This welcome news follows the project winning both a RIBA London Award and the RIBA London Sustainability Award in May. In April, the project won an Architects’ Journal’s Retrofit Award.

Tom Holbrook will be speaking at the 2023 Academy of Urbanism Congress 'Designing for the Future', which is hosted in Cambridge. 21 - 23 June

Full programme and tickets here.

We are delighted that our collaboration with Bloqs and Enfield Council to deliver the UK's largest open-access factory has been awarded both a RIBA London Award 2023 and RIBA London Sustainability Award 2023.

"The jury was impressed by the obvious collaborative approach between client, architect and users, who all engaged positively and proactively with the environmental design of the building. Bloqs has a circular approach to heating – a new biomass boiler is fed by waste timber produced from makers in the building, while new solar photovoltaics on the roof provide electricity. There was also a waste-not approach to its fit-out: materials for the refurbishment were sourced from across London. cross-laminated timber partitions that were being removed from an architect’s office were repurposed, windows destined for scrap were reappropriated for the café shopfront, and many of the landscaping components are from industrial waste products. The site takes a high-value, low-maintenance approach to drainage, collecting rainwater run-off in rain-gardens to feed biodiverse planters on site.

This clever and very practical initiative cries out to be the first of many other similar facilities to be repeated across the UK, encouraging more like-minded people to develop an interest in design and manufacturing, and to hone useful skills that are greatly lacking across the country."

Read more about the project here.

5th Studio will be supporting GCRE with the Global Centre of Rail Excellence Community Roadshow. These events will showcase the work we have been progressing to develop the wider plans surrounding the construction of the UK’s largest rail testing facility.

We want to talk to local residents and stakeholders about our wider plans for the site and to provide a forum for you to ask questions of the GCRE team at the upcoming roadshow events.

Wednesday 3rd May 2023: 3pm to 7pm – Onllwyn Miners’ Welfare Hall Wembley Avenue, Onllwyn, Neath Port Talbot, SA10 9HL

Friday 12th May 2023: 3pm to 7pm – Ystradgynlais Community Centre, Hendre Ladus, Ystradgynlais, Powys, SA9 1SE

Saturday 13th May 2023: 11am to 3pm – Abercrave Welfare Hall, Tan Yr Allt, Abercrave, Powys, SA9 1XA

These roadshow events will be the start of further engagement with the local community. We will publicise the dates of further events and engagement on our website and locally.

For more information about GCRE please visit www.gcre.wales or to contact the team email enquiries@gcre.wales

Bloqs open-access factory in Enfield, North London, has won the Architects’ Journal’s Retrofit Award 2023 in the 'Workspace under £5m' category.

The judges commented:

“Bloqs, which provides makers with low-cost workspace and equipment as part of north London’s Meridian Water regeneration programme, won after impressing judges with its social and collaborative design approach and its contextual and ‘Continental’ flavour.

This hangar-like building – designed in close collaboration with client Bloqs – provides a huge array of facilities within 3,000m2 of workspace, a combination of new build and the adaptive re-use of a former vehicle-testing facility. One judge said: ‘It’s rather international in its approach. When we have to solve a lot of questions regarding how to make a denser, more urban environment out of brownfield land or leftover areas, it’s important not to disregard what’s already there."

5th Studio has been appointed by Brent Council in North West London to lead the production of a Masterplan Vision & Urban Design Framework for Staples Corner.

The project will be delivered in collaboration with RCKa, who lead on public engagement, and supported by PRD, Alan Baxter and XCO2.

Located at the intersection of the North Circular (A406), the M1 and the Midland Main line, Staples Corner is an important strategic industrial location, serving London’s need for logistics and manufacturing. The opening of Brent Cross West station – the first major new mainline station in London in over a decade – brings this site to within 12 minutes of St Pancras via Thameslink and the emergence of a new town centre at nearby Brent Cross will further transform the area.

This project aims to establish a viable industrial-led masterplan for the intensification of Staples Corner. The Masterplan will allow businesses to grow through intensification of existing sites and define opportunities for co-location with new residential uses where appropriate. It will set out a shared vision, established through community and stakeholder engagement.

The main aims of the project are to:

• Intensify industrial uses within the Strategic Industrial Land area to support business and employment growth
• Establish an Urban Framework that can accommodate a mix of new uses including 2,200 new homes, a proportion of which will beaffordable.

Our work to retrofit New Court, Trinity College, Cambridge has been awarded the Editor's Prize in the inaugural Architecture Today Awards for building that have stood the test of time. The Architecture Today Awards have only considered projects that have been in use for at least three years and which can demonstrate a strong track record for delivering on their environmental, functional, community and cultural ambitions.

The winners were drawn from a shortlist of 32 finalists selected by a panel of technical experts. Finalists were then invited to make the case for their project at a day of live crits in front of a jury.

Judges commented:

The opportunity for design research that draws in micro scientific approaches is rare – this team identified an opportunity to take this on and created a rigorous approach to challenging conventions around conservation. The application of the research, and the impact on the project, should and will be replicated. We should be grateful for the team’s willingness to share this work.

Hanif Kara, of AKT2 engineers

William Wilkins’ New Court has already lasted over two centuries. It has even had the difficult Grade 1 Listed accolade bestowed upon it. This project addresses a vital design question: when the outside and inside are both listed, where does the wiring, plumbing and insulation go? This team has delivered a sympathetic yet critically intelligent model for creating Banham’s well-tempered environment in a way that met with Historic England’s approval. This is a 21st century reinvention of what Cedric Price termed a ‘medieval castle with 13amp plugs’.

Simon Allford, Director of AHMM and President of the RIBA

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has appointed a panel of innovative and diverse built environment specialists to his new Architecture + Urbanism (A+U) Framework, to support his mission to build a better London for everyone.

The new A+U Framework provides a diverse, pre-approved panel of built environment consultants, making it quicker and easier for organisations like councils and housing associations to commission high quality expertise for certain types of public sector projects in London.

The A+U Framework can be used by the Greater London Authority Group and other public sector commissioning authorities to appoint high-quality architectural, place making and urban planning design services for a range of built environment projects. It is organised into 10 different categories of work to ensure high standards at every stage of the design process.

5th Studio has won a spot on Lot 10: Transport Design: Specialist Infrastructure, bringing our strong track record of integrating infrastructure into the wider urban environment.

We are delighted to announce that Bloqs – the UK’s first open access factory –has been shortlisted for the 2023 RIBA London Regional Awards!

“With 5th Studio on board, we have achieved a home that is not only fit for purpose – light, bright, with decent clearance and smooth floors – but that celebrates and supports our makers by giving them a space with the function of a factory yet the aesthetics of a gallery. We are here to empower makers and manufacturing as a necessary and intrinsic part of any vital city.”

Al Parra, co-founder, Bloqs

We are thrilled that our collaboration with Bloqs and Enfield Council to create the UK’s first open access factory at Meridian Water has been named number one in Oliver Wainwright’s best architecture of 2022 in the Guardian.

A big shed in Edmonton in London might make an unlikely contender for one of the best buildings of 2022. But the arrival of Bloqs to this unloved corner of the Lower Lea valley is quietly revolutionary. Standing next to a cash and carry warehouse and a ready-mix concrete supplier, this new temple to fabrication provides affordable shared machinery and studios in an “open-access factory”, as the capital rapidly loses industrial workspace elsewhere. As a nimble retrofit and extension of a dilapidated warehouse, by 5th Studio, it is a model for a new kind of productive local economy that could be readily replicated across the country.

Read more about the project here.

Image: Claudia Agati

We are proud to announce that 5th Studio has received accreditation as a Good Work Standard employer.

This reflects our commitment to a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace through supporting training, career progression, good recruitment practices, positive work-life balance and fair pay.

We are happy to have achieved this recognition from the Mayor’s Good Work Standard initiative alongside our status as an accredited Living Wage Employer.

5th Studio co-founder Oliver Smith shares his radical approach to upgrading listed buildings. In this episode of the Architects Journal Climate Champions launches a mini-series on how to make heritage buildings more climate-ready.

Oliver Smith discusses the practice’s radical retrofit of New Court at Trinity College, Cambridge. Completed in 2016, New Court remains a trailblazing project, because it pioneered an ambitious sustainability agenda in a Grade I-listed building using a nuanced approach that balanced heritage concerns with upgrading thermal and energy performance and internal comfort. The conservation methodology developed at New Court was subsequently adopted by Cambridge City Council.

Oliver explains how to intervene in heritage buildings in a way that respects their character and also meets 21st-century expectations for comfort, amenity and sustainability. He challenges accepted wisdom on cold bridges at cornices and party walls, promoting the concept of ‘cool’ bridges. He advocates making a building ‘as good as it can be’ without aiming for a particular environmental certification, which can result in more insulation (and hence more cost) than necessary.

In this episode, Oliver explains how much to model and how much to monitor on a given project and why this is best done over the winter. He sees the monitoring at New Court as proof of concept that subsequent buildings can emulate.

To catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here.

The London Legacy Development Corporation’s (LLDC) Planning Decisions Committee has voted unanimously to give the green light to an outline planning application that will transform Pudding Mill Lane on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park into a new residential and commercial neighbourhood.

Forming a new neighbourhood centre and supporting Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s growing innovation district, the Pudding Mill Lane masterplan – 5th Studio contruibuted to its development as part of the multidisciplinary team assembled and led by Gort Scott, along with JCLA and ZCD – sets out LLDC’s commitment to delivering a rich mix of social infrastructure, complementary uses, and high-quality public amenities to create a vibrant place to live, work and visit. As well as providing new homes and workspaces, the masterplan provides over 0.63ha of publicly accessible open space, with two new riverside parks and a new urban square at Pudding Mill DLR station, seeking to unlock connectivity improvements and support a series of wider social and economic opportunities.

Around 948 homes will be delivered with a minimum of 45% affordable homes by habitable room, of which a minimum of 30% will be low-cost rent housing by dwelling. A diverse range of housing needs have been carefully considered, with at least 51% of homes family-sized with two or more bedrooms including apartments, townhouses and maisonettes, and provision for 40 dedicated later living homes. Families will be supported with a nursery, health centre, community pavilion, inclusive play areas and local courtyards with biodiverse planting, as well as the new neighbourhood centre with shops, cafes and restaurants around Pudding Mill DLR station.

In addition, the development will include up to 52,000sq.m of floor space which will accommodate a rich mix of workspace, retail, community and leisure uses. Delivering ‘good growth’ with employment and skills opportunities for young people, and space for businesses to seed, grown and scale up – complementing clusters of cutting-edge businesses at Here East, Hackney Wick and Fish Island Creative Enterprise Zone, East Bank and International Quarter London – Pudding Mill Lane will generate around 2,000 jobs.

Now is the right time to drive forward thinking about the Stratford Station area to ensure that it is ready for the next 100 years: establishing a vision that matches the scale of ambition and quality of public space that residents, businesses, visitors and commuters deserve.

We need to hear from you! Following an initial consultation event last autumn, 5th Studio are excited to be part of the next stage in this process, through the launch of a new consultation on the emerging design proposals. We have developed design ideas for new connections, an improved interchange, new and improved public spaces and new building uses – all of which we heard were important to local people and those who use the Stratford Station area.

Consultation is now open, with the first of four in-person events. Details of these are as follows:

• Saturday 8th October: 8am-6pm at Westfield Stratford City
• Tuesday 11th October: 12pm-4pm at Stratford Shopping Centre
• Wednesday 12th October: 8am-1pm at Stratford Station
• Wednesday 12th October: 2pm-6pm at Stratford Station

Alongside this, a digital consultation will run until Friday 18 November here.

New Court, Trinity College has been selected as a finalist in the Architecture Today Awards Education category.

The refurbishment of New Court – completed in 2016 – has proven a continuing success, improving both the quality of spaces and amenities for undergraduate residents, but also cutting the operational carbon footprint by 80%.

The Architecture Today Awards represent a cultural shift away from celebrating newness and towards a focus on longevity. In stark contrast to most awards programmes, the Architecture Today Awards has only considered projects that have been in use for at least three years and which can demonstrate a strong track record for delivering on their environmental, functional, community and cultural ambitions.

Read more about the project here.

5th Studio's work creating the Royal Docks Public Realm Framework and Design Guides has been shortlisted for a New London Award in the Masterplans and Area Strategies category.

5th Studio worked with the Royal Docks Team to develop a comprehensive Public Realm Framework, produce a series of Design Guides, and deliver a series of phase one projects — to steer and catalyse the creation of new public realm across London’s Royal Docks. With renewed focus and investment, the Mayor’s approval of a £314m Delivery Plan and the arrival of Crossrail, the time has come for major change. The vision for the Royal Docks is of a productive place with the potential to generate 35,000 jobs & 4,000 homes, supported by its status as the capital’s only Enterprise Zone.

5th Studio are part of the project team developing proposals for the Global Centre of Rail Excellence on the site of the Nant Helen open cast mine and Onllwyn Washeries. These proposals have recently been showcased in a series of conferences and articles as the projects continues to gather momentum.

5th Studio are leading a multidisciplinary team to produce an overarching masterplan for the transformation of the site. Our team including Expedition Engineering, Jonathan Cook Landscape Architects, Faithful & Gould, Fairhurst, PRD, Wildwood Ecology and Thirty 4/7 are in the process of developing a holistic spatial plan that will incorporate the track testing facility including proposals for the future landscape of the whole site, together with an innovation campus incorporating visitor accommodation. This integrated design process will include public consultation to engage and integrate the views of local residents.

The Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) was established by the Welsh Government as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in 2021. It is a major infrastructure project that will provide state-of-the-art rolling stock testing, infrastructure testing and storage and maintenance for the UK and international rail industry.

GCRE will:

• Deliver a modern and comprehensive rail testing and innovation facility; providing the capacity and capabilities for rigorous testing of rolling stock, infrastructure, and integrated systems from prototype to implementation;
• Be a catalyst for the creation of a rail technology hub in Wales; providing a flexible, open-market platform for leading R&D activity that drives and accelerates innovation on the journey to net-zero;
• Help to reduce regional inequality and promote regeneration in Wales; working with industry to support skills development through high-quality employment in fair, secure and sustainable jobs that contribute to reducing regional inequality and promoting regeneration in Wales, and
• Support the development and testing of rail sector principles, standards and specifications; improving the UK's competitive strengths as a world leader in achieving carbon neutrality, contributing to an overall decrease in carbon emissions across the rail industry, boosting exports, enabling greater efficiency in a lower cost reliable railway, key tool in major project risk mitigation.

We are delighted that our collaboration with Bloqs and Enfield Council to create the UK’s first open access factory at Meridian Water has been shortlisted for the 2022 AJ Architecture Awards. Read more about the project here.

Shortlisted in the Workplace under £10m category the Winner will be announced on the 23rd November.

Image: Claudia Agati

Following seven years of post-occupancy monitoring of this landmark project, the deep retrofit of the Grade 1 buildings of New Court at Trinity College, the college are reporting an 80% reduction in energy usage, the building fabric conditions are exceeding the model predictions, and the students and other users are very happy occupants.

It is time to start talking with confidence about the relevance of this project to the wider heritage sector and the challenge of retrofitting our listed buildings in the context of a climate emergency.

Oliver Smith will be discussing New Court in the Architecture Today Webinar on Retrofitting Heritage on Wednesday 8th June.

Link here for registration here.

5th Studio have been appointed by Ealing Council and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation to define a set of delivery-focused public realm projects for North Acton embedded within a wider spatial framework focused on improving the streets and spaces in and around North Acton.

As North Acton changes, its streets and spaces need to be improved to make them enjoyable, connected, accessible and welcoming. With funding from developers, the project aims to deliver up to six projects within the next few years as well as setting out a list of longer-term projects to improve public spaces and the street environment.

This first round of public consultation will help shape the projects from the beginning and welcome ideas from all residents, workers, businesses, landowners, community groups and visitors of the North Acton area including local people who are seldom heard and those who regularly use the space.

Friday 4th March - 10.00-11.00am

5th Studio director Tom Holbrook will be taking part in this weeks NLA's webinar on Makers spaces. Tom will be presenting the practice's recently completed work at Merdian Water – one of London's key regeneration projects – where Bloqs the largest open-access factory in the UK launched last month.

In this webinar experts across the sector will describe how they are currently tackling the challenge of affordability for makers spaces in London.

London inherently has been city which has creativity at its core. Artists and makers spaces have been driving factors for Londons regeneration for decades and is now imbedded within our city’s cultural heritage. However, recent years have highlighted how Londons makers spaces are under threat. Increasing rent prices within the capital and a change in work trends to more laptop-based approaches have meant that large workspace is becoming widely unfeasible.

However, where does that leave the makers sector that still heavily relies on larger floor capacity for its creative outputs? As cities move towards resilience and sustainability across its industries how do we ensure makers spaces are not left behind and pushed to London’s periphery cities? How do we maintain creative activation within London’s neighbourhoods and safeguard our makers spaces for the future?

This webinar will hear from core stakeholders aiming to combat the challenges that makers spaces face within the capital. The speakers will debate the affects affordability is having on London’s makers spaces and provide much needed thought leadership in protecting our creative industries for the future.

Speakers:

• Chair: First Sukpaiboon, Head of Programme, New London Architecture

• Rumi Bose, Principal Project Officer, Greater London Authority

• Alex Jeremy, Head of Partnerships, Poplar HARCA

• Tom Holbrook, Director, 5th Studio

• Patrick McKeogh, Managing Director, Pipers Model Makers

• Gemma Dean, Head of Development, Creative Land Trust

More information on the event can be found here.

5th Studio's proposals in support of Goldsmiths College's PLAN25 to decarbonise its estate have been granted planning permission.

As part of the government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, this proposal radically overhauls Goldsmiths College’s existing energy centre, replacing its inefficient, and carbon intensive, gas boilers with a state of the art 1MW air-source heat pump array. The electrically powered heat pumps will provide over 6,500 MWh of low- carbon heat to the campus every year, reducing site gas consumption by 77% with associated annual CO2 savings of 1,375 tonnes.

The proposal’s form and material articulation draws from local heritage structures, including the sectional water tanks of the nearby Laurie Grove Baths. The reinterpretation of these utile structures is expressed through offset massing and equally sized ETFE cushions, alluding to the building’s function as a facilitator of airflow, rather than the storage of water.

Rather than an anonymous plant enclosure, the proposal maximises the potential of the site and programme to create an intriguiging structure that acts a beacon within the campus.

Tom Holbrook will be speaking at the 9th ECTP Conference, Madrid, on 2 December.

The ECTP (European Construction, built environment and energy efficient building Technology Platform) is exploring ways to shift the European construction industry to the heart of green transition in the built environment.

Following a welcome from the Mayor of Madrid, José-Luis Martinez-Almeida, Tom will address the role of the built environment in promoting health and wellbeing, speaking about our experience in the transformation of East London. The session will be chaired by Marta Fernandez (RMIT Europe, ECTP Vice-President on Built4Life) and Helianthe Kort (TU Eindhoven).

Booking in-person and online attendance here.

Portrait by Tim Soar

5th Studio are an industry research partner as part of the EU-funded REDI PhD training program. We are pleased to announce that the application process for the first round of the REDI program is now open. REDI is a unique offering industry-supported positions with excellent salaries, enviable international experiences including a residential year in Melbourne, Australia and annual workshop weeks in Barcelona, Spain, top-class training as well as networking with academic and industry leaders across 60+ supporting partners.

5th Studio will host a doctoral researcher, able to draw on 5th Studio's networks and portfolio of past and current projects. Researchers will be supported by the practice and supervisors Prof. Tom Holbrook (5th Studio) and Prof. Martyn Hook (RMIT) to research by design within three broad themes, falling under the heading of Making Cities: Centres & Edges:

Ecological Urbanism

Project: Research through design at the very large scale, addressing the challenges of climate change in the city. Deep contexts, ecologies – methodologies for documenting evolution of land uses and existing conditions. Estate retrofit. Conceptions of the 15-minute city, circular economy, social equity. Approaches to adaptive re-use, retrofit, co-production + community empowerment.

A New Hansa

Project: Exploring intra-national interplays between contemporary resonances of the old Hanseatic League of countries / city states around the North Sea. Exploring energy production, common conditions and environments, climate change adaptation and resilience, post-Brexit conditions and sociologies. Drawing on and building networks of city governance and practitioners: Amsterdam, Hamburg, Malmo, Copenhagen, Oslo. Rural/urban relationships – landscape re-wilding and repair.

Urban Logistics

Project: Exploring emerging thinking on logistics within the city, including food /just-in-time relationships, new markets, distribution of building materials, waste and the circular economy. Exploration of different modes including water, rail, new transport, Consolidation within cities; future of work. Emerging architectural hybrids that draw on co-location and intensification; new typologies and urban Impacts; social aspects. Economic and historical survey of precedents.

For more information visit the REDI program website here.

We are delighted that two of our projects have been shortlisted for NLA’s New London Awards.

Our Meridian Water Meanwhile Masterplan is the result of 3 years of work for the London Borough of Enfield on their flagship regeneration project. Our role has been to lead on the creation of a meanwhile and interim masterplan, and to deliver key building projects and public realm components. This includes a new home for Building Bloqs, which is set to be the largest open access workshops in Europe when it opens this autumn.

The Pudding Mill Lane masterplan is a collaboration between Gort Scott and 5th Studio, with support from JCLA, ZCD and Stantec. Pudding Mill Lane will be a new mixed-use local centre with over 900 homes, offices and retail around the DLR station. Pudding Mill Lane is shortlisted along with the proposed development at Bridgewater, which is being designed by Mikhail Richies with RCKa, BBUK, Expedition and Momentum. Together these two sites together will deliver around 1,500 new homes, public open space and workspace for around 2,000 people.

The New London Awards 2021 celebrates all scales of projects, from community-led to large-scale mixed-use developments, both built and unbuilt, that contribute to and enhance this vision of the city. Head to New London Architecture's website to check out the full shortlist here.

The winners will be announced Friday 26 November.

5th Studio are working with the GLA's Royal Docks Team to produce a Walking and Cycling Action Plan for the Royal Docks area. The Action Plan will identify where to improve existing walking and cycling routes and where to create new infrastructure to create key connections. It is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The Action Plan will also include guidance for walking and cycling routes and will identify tactics to increase footfall and encourage sustainable travel modes.

We are about to hold two consultation tours: Walking tour: 22nd September, meeting at 12 noon at Pontoon Dock DLR station. Cycling tour: 27th September, meeting at 5.30 pm at Cyprus DLR station. More information and survey here.

5th Studio has completed its first Oxford project: the refurbishment of the 17th century grade 1 listed Dining Hall for Oriel College. This project realises the first phase of the College’s masterplan for redeveloping their social spaces.

The project was an opportunity to review and enhance the Hall’s heritage character whilst upgrading to modern comfort standards with new underfloor heating and lighting systems. Exemplar conservation techniques synthesised old historic fabric with new joinery insertions. Taking up the original oak floor boards revealed a patchwork of primary beams and joists reflecting the fascinating changing patterns of use of the over its 400 year history. Oak joinery wall panelling by early 20th century architect Ninian Comper was given a new lease of life with a bold new decorative plan to highlight the carved joinery frieze of grotesques interspersed with heraldic devices.

Image credit: Tim Soar

As the lead on the Stratford Station Urban Design Framework, 5th Studio has been working with GS Solutions and Thomas Matthews on behalf of the LLDC, Network Rail, LB Newham and TfL to develop consultation material. The team want to hear what local residents, visitors, passengers and businesses think about the station now and how it could be improved in the future, in order to shape the developing Urban Design Framework we are developing.

We would like to invite you to attend one of the consultation events on site to discuss the project. The consultation events will be happening on:

• Saturday 11 September: 10am-5pm at Westfield Shopping Centre (top floor, outside M&S entrance)
• Monday 13 September: 8am-1pm at Stratford Station (next to Jubilee Line platforms)
• Monday 13 September: 2pm-6pm at Stratford Station (outside station entrance, next to National Rail ticket office)
• Tuesday 14 September: 8am-12pm, now at Stratford Shopping Centre (South Mall Location Point opposite Costa) due to inclement weather
• Tuesday 14 September: 1pm-5pm at Stratford Shopping Centre

More details about the consultation events and how to get involved can be seen at: https://stratfordstation.commonplace.is

After more than 5 years at the practice Raluca has relocated from London to Lausanne, Switzerland.

Raluca has worked on a variety of projects at 5th Studio, from masterplanning, strategy to delivering built work. More recently she has been leading the Meanwhile Masterplan for Meridian Water, one of the biggest regeneration sites in Europe. Raluca is now embarking on a new adventure in academia, joining the the School of Architecture at the prestigious École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne as a Studio Director teaching first year undergraduate students.

We wish her the best of luck!

5th Studio are proud to have our recent Trinity College retrofit scheme featured as a key case study in a recent paper, written by Grosvenor with Donald Insall Associates.

Historic buildings are central to Britain's culture and economy, and can also play a leading role in reducing carbon emissions nationwide. Retrofitting existing building can help to reduce energy demands, but also reduce the emboddied carbon associated with demolition and new-build developments. But policy change must play a part to incentivise the retention and retrofit of heritage assests.

The argument behind this call for policy change is captured in a new paper published by Grosvenor Britain & Ireland. This has been developed over the last six months in discussion with a group of consultative partners including the National Trust, Historic England, Peabody, Southern Housing Group and The Crown Estate, and written with Donald Insall Associates.

This summer, one part of that jigsaw could be tackled immediately. We think the Government should use the impetus of planning reform and COP26 to commit to aligning heritage protection and environmental sustainability much more closely in the NPPF and include policies for carbon reduction in relation to all designated heritage assets, excluding scheduled ancient monuments.

If this happened, it could cut operational carbon emissions nationwide by up to 7.7 MtC02 per year, equivalent to 5% of the UK’s carbon emissions associated with buildings in 2019.

It would also act as a powerful stimulus to the green economy and help protect a crucial part of our common heritage which gives so many people a sense of civic pride and identity across the UK.

TAKING CARE

8:30pm-9.30pm, 30.06.21

Sometimes, the best way to support biodiversity in the city is to step back. Neglect can be intentional, and it can be positive: either through allowing nature a foothold to reassert itself in the city, or in supporting self-sustaining ecosystems and habitats to establish. Wilding or letting go can be a crucial part of being a good steward. Spaces outside of human circulation and human access can also contribute just as much to urban wilding as those spaces we encounter and can touch.

In this event we’ll dig into the tension between productive land & the gaps in-between, and the opportunities of a hands off approach. We’ll look around to see how expanding our understanding of nature in the city can uncover a network of wild-ness above and beneath us, and how a steward approach might also have community benefits.

Speakers:

• Chair: Cristina Monteiro with Edward Powe

• David Knight - Radical Nature, Wastelands of the Lea Valley

• Tom Holbrook - East London Green Grid

• Madeleine Kessler - Garden of Privatised Delights

More information on the event can be found on eventbrite here.

5th Studio – appointed through a competitive tender via the GLA’s ADUP II Framework – is leading a multidisciplinary design team to produce a concept masterplan for Harrow Road and its environs. Following on from the masterplan, the team will develop detailed design for three strategic sites, working closely with residents and stakeholders, to be delivered via the GLA’s Good Growth Fund.

The project seeks to transform and revitalising the high street and canal to bring forward much needed improvements to the area. Public realm projects at Maida Hill Market – the heart of the high street – and Westbourne Green and Canal Terrace (Queen’s Park) – the intersections of the high street and canal – are due to be implemented in 2022.

5th Studio is leading a consultant team that includes regular collaborators Jonathan Cook Landscape Architects (JCLA), Studio Dekka, Expedition Engineering, Accertum, Daisy Froud (leading the consultation work) and Waterway Projects. The team has recently worked with the Council on ‘Paddington Places’, the public realm and connectivity strategy for neighbouring North Paddington.

Harrow Road has a diverse and close-knit community but suffers from severances caused by the Westway and the railway corridor. Its inclusion in the North Westminster Economic Development Area recognises that regeneration and growth is required to improve employment and social opportunities. The Council and the community have established four objectives for the Harrow Road Place Plan: create a 21st century high street; improve access to public open space; ensure a socially sustainable future; benefit from future development. This next phase, particularly the delivery of the three key public realm projects, aims to be a catalyst for wider regeneration and investment to meet these objectives.

Cllr Matthew Green, Cabinet Member for Business, Licensing and Planning, said:

"Local high streets have been lifelines for our communities during the Coronavirus pandemic and none more so than the iconic Harrow Road. As retail and hospitality emerges from the Covid crisis, the Council is providing unprecedented levels of support to shopping areas across our City. On Harrow Road, we will ensure that the street responds to the needs of its communities while sustaining commercially successful businesses that are sources of jobs and revenue for local residents.

Improving access in the Harrow Road area while delivering better public spaces and more greenery will help to create a 21st century high street. Working alongside the local community, we will co-design a scheme that will increase opportunities for both businesses and residents alike."

Image credit: Oliver Goodrich

5th Studio – appointed through a competitive tender via the GLA’s ADUP II Framework – is leading a multidisciplinary design and planning team to produce a planning and development framework. Their work is focused on Stratford Station, how it can be improved as an interchange and how it links to the nearby International Station. A key part of this study will also assess how better connectivity could be formed between Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and Stratford Town Centre. The team will also identify strategies to enable the station to be more accessible and passenger friendly.

In 2019, The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) identified Stratford Station as the seventh busiest Network Rail station in the UK and it is estimated that there are 128 million passenger movements a year across all lines. The passenger demand is expected to continue to increase in the future, even post-Covid.

5th Studio is working with Expedition Engineering, Momentum Transport, Turner & Townsend and Giorgia Sharpe with Thomas Matthews to develop a vision and urban design framework. This work will inform the strategic business case for the long-term redevelopment of Stratford Regional Station that is being progressed by LLDC, Network Rail, LB Newham and TfL.

The scale of transformation needed is similar to what has been seen at Kings Cross and London Bridge.

LLDC, the regeneration agency responsible for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, is leading on the procurement of this project as part of its work alongside Network Rail, LB Newham and TfL.

Rosanna Lawes, Executive Director of Development at LLDC, said:

“The scale of regeneration on and around the Park has meant that passenger usage at Stratford Station has trebled over the past ten years.

“This essential work will not only help us make a case to government which secures Stratford as an appealing place to work, live and visit, but it will also help us identify ways in which we can improve local connectivity and job opportunities for nearby residents.”

Tom Holbrook, Director of 5th Studio, said:

“Stratford has been shaped by the railway, but the railway has set up some challenging obstacles to movement and connectivity that have baked in inequality. We are delighted to win this important commission, which builds on previous work over the last decade to ‘improve connectivity on and around the Olympic park and Legacy Boroughs.

The project presents an opportunity to ensure strong, well-designed connections between Stratford Town Centre and the growing social, cultural and economic assets of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and its neighbouring communities across East London.

In doing so we hope to unlock a much better interchange around Stratford Regional Station and bring the International station more into play.”

5th Studio was invited by the Internationale Bauaustellung 2027 to participate in the urban planning competition based in the Stuttgart Region of Germany.

Our collaboration with ARUP and Taktyk landscape architects, Brussels has been awarded a Special Prize.

The aim of the competition was to develop radical ideas for a sustainable urban quarter on a former industrial site in the town of Backnang in Baden-Württemberg. The 30-year project will transform the district into an environmentally friendly light industrial and residential neighbourhood featuring educational and cultural facilities. The development will be part of Germany’s International Building Exhibition which has been held since 1901 (including the Weissenhof Siedlung, 1927) and will focus on Stuttgart in 2027.

5th Studio was one of six teams pre-invited to participate in the competition, joining White Arkitekter, KCAP, Rotterdam and Denmark’s Cobe. Invited teams were joined by 18 teams of global architects and urban designers who qualified through an international ideas competition.

We warmly congratulate Teleinternetcafe Architektur und Urbanismus, Berlin, working with Treibhaus Landschaftsarchitektur, Hamburg on winning this competition and look forward to seeing the exhibition of the shortlisted schemes and the built results at the Internationale Bauaustellung in 2027.

You can read more about our submission here, or download the full boards.

5th Studio is a core industry partner in RMIT University’s €9 million European Doctoral Innovators (REDI) COFUND doctoral training program, funded through the European Union’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) COFUND grants scheme.

The programme will be led by RMIT Europe and support 41 new PhD positions across a network of 24 academic partners in 11 countries, including the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris, Politecnico di Milano, and the Max Plank Institute, Dusseldorf.

5th Studio will host a doctoral researcher placement, who will work with the academic network and also complete a year's secondment at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. Details will follow on researcher recruitment.

More information here.

5th Studio has been invited by the IBA Internationale Bauaustellung 2027 to participate in the urban planning competition based in the Stuttgart Region of Germany.

The aim of the competition is to develop radical ideas for a sustainable urban quarter on a former industrial site in the town of Backnang in Baden-Württemberg.

5th Studio is one of six teams pre-invited to participate in the competition, joining Netherlands-based MVRDV, Herzog & De Meuron of Basel, KCAP from Rotterdam and Denmark’s Cobe. Invited teams will be joined by up to 12 teams of architects and urban designers qualifying through an international ideas competition. The competition will conclude in October 2020.

The Internationale Bauausstellung (International Architecture Exhibition) began in Darmstadt in 1901 and has been a consistent source of innovation and a platform to explore progressive thinking in architecture and urbanism.

More about the project here.

5th Studio working in close collaboration with landscape architects, JCLA, recently put together a successful bid for the Royal Docks ward for The Urban Tree Challenge Fund organised by the Forestry Commission.

The project was awarded funding for 712 trees to be planted by winter 2020-21. The grant will fund the planting of trees and the first three years of their care to ensure they can flourish into the future.

Furthermore, 5th Studio were appointed by the Royal Docks Team to produce all public consultation material for the Tree Planting Programme and to coordinate the programme from inception to delivery.

Between October 2020 and March 2021 the Royal Docks Team hopes to plant trees across the Royal Docks which will not only create beautiful green spaces but also add to the environmental benefit for the Royal Docks as a whole. Walnuts, quinces, sweet chestnuts, white cherries, and ginkgos are a few of the proposed species, which have been chosen based on trees that were originally found in the borough.

London has almost as many trees as it does people, but don't underestimate the benefit of these familiar figures. Trees for Cities write that 2,367,000 tonnes of Carbon is stored in London's trees alone. They soak up pollutants, cool down urban heat islands, and lower stress levels. Last week, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced almost 7,000 new street trees across 20 boroughs, and over 900 of them will be in Newham.

The online consultation survey is now live.

To respond to the online Tree Planting Programme questionnaire by March 6th here.

To help transform Thames Barrier Park, respond to the questionnaire by March 15th here.

To find out more about the Royal Docks Tree Planting Programme here.

We have opened a studio in King Edward Street, Oxford to support a growing number of projects in and around the city at a variety of scales from individual buildings and public realm to regional infrastructure. The studio will build relationships with both town and gown and with both the reinvention of historic fabric and contemporary challenges. You can read more about how our expertise will help address Oxford's particular and pressing spatial dilemmas here.

Some relevant projects and approaches include our work in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, the Greater Cambridge Greenways, New Court, and Westlegate quarter.

The Draft New Cross Gate SPD is now open for consultation and will run from 13th Nov 2019 - 5th Jan 2020

This draft SPD has been produced following the adoption of the New Cross Gate Framework and Station Opportunity Study in April 2019, and covers the area immediately adjacent to the Station. With the proposed arrival of the Bakerloo Line the area is experiencing great change. It has a growing night-time and creative economy, and is in close proximity to the Old Kent Road regeneration area. All of these factors make the area an exciting prospect for new development, and planning applications are expected to come forward in the near future. The SPD will provide LB Lewisham with guidance on this development, helping to steer positive change.

Selected from 75 international competitors, 5th Studio has been shortlisted to lead one of five teams for the Celebrating Birmingham: City of a Thousand Trades competition. The competition is at the heart of Lendlease’s Birmingham Smithfield development: one of the largest city centre regeneration opportunities in Europe. We are working with with John O'Mara Architects; Counterculture; New Economic Foundation; The Planning Practice; Donald Hyslop; EMF Landscape and Arup.

The £1.5bn development of Smithfield is part of the 2010 Big City Plan, which sets out a 25-year vision to support Birmingham’s continuing transformation into a world class city. Smithfield is the birthplace of Birmingham, a city that is known for its markets: indeed, there has been a market in the area for over 850 years.

As the gateway to the wider Smithfield development, the Market complex will be one of the first elements of the masterplan to be built. It will be the standard-bearer for the quality and character of the overall project, setting the tone as the centrepiece of both Smithfield and the rejuvenated city.

You can read more about the competition here.

Image Credit: Birmingham City Council / Lendlease.

5th Studio is one of ten practices invited to participate in the London exhibition for the Seoul Biennale of Architecture & Urbanism, Republic of Korea. The exhibition is curated by Peter Bishop with Isabel Allen as Creative Director. The Biennale is co-Directed by Jaeyong Lim & Francisco Sanin and is open until November.

We are now on the cusp of a Fourth Industrial Revolution that will be characterised by a fusion of technologies that will blur the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres. The current speed of these breakthroughs is changing almost every aspect of our lives. London is a city of constant adaptation, which is why it has remained one of the major cities in the world. In this exhibition we will consider London’s key strengths and attributes that it will need to develop in order to remain a paradigm of urban living in the 21st Century; a city that celebrates intense human interaction.

5th Studio have contributed a proposition around the idea of London as a city to work in, through and beyond the middle of this century. You can read more about our proposal here.

In describing the exhibition Peter Bishop says:

’The Seoul biennale is establishing itself as one of the principal forums of debate about the future of cities not just in Asia but globally and I am excited to have been given the opportunity to curate London’s contribution to this debate. It will be an opportunity to showcase the wealth of ideas and architectural talent from both students and new and established practices. The theme ‘London is…’ will pose propositions concerning what the successful city will look like by the middle of the century. Although based on new ideas for London, we hope that our exhibition will strike a resonance with other cities across the world.’

http://www.seoulbiennale.org/2019/index.html

For further information contact Tom Holbrook via email: tom@5thStudio.co.uk. The official Instagram is: @London_is.2019

Other participating practices include Assemblage, Studio Egret West and dRMM. The exhibition will also showcase visions for a future London by students from the Bartlett School of Architecture at UCL.

Our spatial study illustrating an approach to growth in the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge Arc for the National Infrastructure Commission has been shortlisted by the Royal Town Planning Institute for its Regional Awards for Planning Excellence in two regions - East of England and South East. The RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence celebrate outstanding projects that demonstrate the power of planning.

You can read more about the Awards in the East of England here.

And the South East here.

5th Studio has been invited to participate in the international exhibition ‘100 Architects of the Year 2019’, hosted by the Korean Institute of Architects (KIA) and the Union Internationale des Architectes (UIA). The exhibition runs between 20 and 26 September at Culture Station Seoul 284 the city’s former Namdaemun Railway Station. The exhibition aims to present a unique perspective on Korean architecture, in the context of global architectural trends and exchanges.

5th Studio are also exhibiting as part of the Seoul Biennale 2019.

The New Cross Area Framwork has been announced as the winner of the Area Strategy category at the New London Awards 2019.

Focused on a 1km area around New Cross gate station, this is a vision to maximise the benefit of infrastructure investment associated with the Bakerloo line extension to support Good Growth. Establishing an evidence base that allows insight into the life of New Cross, its economy and its built environment, the study identifies how those can be reinforced and improved through smaller projects. It will be used by the London Borough of Lewisham, Transport for London and the Greater London Authority to inform the Lewisham Local Plan and the design of new Bakerloo line infrastructure. More information about the New Cross Area Framework can be found on the project page here.

New London Architecture (NLA) is the independent centre for London’s built environment, where professionals, politicians and the public can meet, learn and have a voice on the future shape of London. NLA’s annual New London Awards, presented in association with the Mayor of London, celebrate the very best architecture, planning and development schemes making the capital a better place in which to live, work and play.

We’re really excited to hear that our recently completed Feel Good Too Centre, in Leyton, will be one of the host venues for the international Beach Volley Ball Championships in May 2019. It’s great that this fantastic new facility for the London Borough of Waltham Forest, has been selected for the Continental Cup.

5th Studio are delighted to have been so closely involved in the design and delivery of this project, including the inland beach and its six volleyball courts. We’re looking forward to the spring, when the site's landscaping will be established, and the Borough gets to fulfil the project's ambitions by hosting an international sporting event, as part of their commitment to the Olympic legacy.

More information on the coming tournament and the reaction to its announcement can be found on Volleyball England's website here.

5th Studio and urban designers We Made That have been appointed by a partnership of LB Lewisham, Transport for London and the Greater London Authority to develop a practical vision for the area.

The final draft of the New Cross Area Framework is currently out to public consultation until 14th December 2018.

There are three ways to view and comment on proposals:

• Visit the window display at New Cross Learning from 1st December
• View copies of the document at New Cross Learning, Deptford Lounge, Pepys Community Library, and Catford Library
• View and comment on the document online here.

Read more about our involvement on the project here.

Tom will be discussing his experience of practice-based doctoral research at a conference hosted by Virginia Tech at their Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center, USA.

Virginia Tech is hosting a forum of globally distinguished practitioners and researchers in the architecture, landscape and design disciplines in order to explore Practice-Based Research. It will focus on new forms and methods of knowledge-production & innovation and investigate the potential of reducing barriers between the academy and industry.

The conference is free to attend and is at the WAAC, 601 Prince Street Alexandria, VA 22314 between the 12th and 14th November.

Register here.

Tom’s PhD Viva, held in the Market Hall, Ghent, can be viewed in full here. Tom’s doctoral thesis, published by Routledge, is available here.

As part of the Venice Biennale Architettura 2018 series 'Meetings on Architecture' 5th Studio have been invited to contribute to a Symposium to be held in the Australian Pavilion on Saturday 17 November as part of a group of international participants.

'Meetings on Architecture' is a programme of events that take place during the 16th International Architecture Exhibition from May to November in 2018. The programme is curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara and explores all aspects of their FREESPACE Manifesto.

This event is part of the Repair exhibition curated by Louise Wright and Mauro Baracco with artist Linda Tegg for the Australian pavilion. The curators aim to reveal what is displaced when we occupy land, inviting one to look anew at the ground we use. This panel will extend this theme, showing and discussing projects that disclose what is displaced, replaced, altered, adapted, destroyed, repaired, not ‘seen’ or overlooked when we use the ground.

Tickets available here.

We are excited to reveal the mural for The Coalface, which is a new coworking space in Finsbury Park designed by 5th Studio. The scaffolding has just come down to reveal the full extent of the external transformation.

As a former railway coal depot, the graphics reference diagrams of geological strata. The mural was designed by Maddison Graphic (who are also collaborating on the workspace identity) and executed by Jane-lee Palmer and Keir Ralph.

Construction work on the internal transformation of the building is nearing completion and this exciting contemporary workspace will be unveiled later this Autumn.

The Lea River Park is exhibited as part of the Brussels Urban Landscape Biennial, currently at BOZAR / Centre for Fine Art, Rue Ravensteinstraat 23, 1000 Brussels.

The Brussels Urban Landscape Biennial (BULB) aims to sensitise the wider public to the importance of water and its related cycles in the urban landscape. In this context the exhibition Rising Waters – Shaping Our Gardens, Street And Urban Valleys, curated by Joachim Declerck (Architecture Workroom Brussels), is held at the Palais des Beaux-Arts. It is a collaboration between Architecture Workroom Brussels, BOZAR, Bureau Bas Smets, Latitude Platform, JNC International, and Taktyk.

More information here.

Our multi-sports, community rooms and landscape regeneration project at Ive Farm for Waltham Forest was opened by Clr Clare Coghill on Friday October 5th.

The project redevelops the run-down playing fields site in Leyton, providing competition standard facilities for football, hockey, beach volleyball and athletics, along with informal jogging trails, petanque and community allotment raised growing beds. The pavilion building at the heart of the park includes changing facilities and a public cafe.

The project restates the community legacy of the 2012 Olympics and opens up this small but valuable site as Metropolitan Open Land, connecting with green infrastructure routes across the borough.

February Phillips is presenting at the 2018 RIBA Smart Practice Conference with the theme of ‘Value-added’. She will be talking about assessing the social value of refurbishing brutalist buildings using Wolfson Flats, Churchill College, a 5th Studio project, as case study.

The session will be chaired by Flora Samuel, RIBA Vice President for Research, and the key speaker is Dr. Jennifer Thomas, Head of Built Environment, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

The event is on Thursday 4th October at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

Third year student Selam joined 5th Studio’s weekly site visit to our project at Ive Farm which is currently in the final month of construction.

5th Studio runs monthly mentoring workshops as practice mentors with the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust’s Building Futures Programme. Together with workshops focused on creating a portfolio and preparing for job applications, site visits like this are a great teaching opportunity, offering a practical insight into delivering public projects in London.

More information about the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust’s Building Futures Programme can be found here.

Tom Holbrook will be taking part in a Demos fringe event at this year’s Labour Party Conference in Liverpool to discuss some of the challenges of the UK’s crisis. The talk is entitled Quantity and quality – How can we make sure new homes improve quality of life, and build strong communities?

The event will be chaired by Alan Lockey, Head of Research at Demos, and Tom will be joined by Sarah Jones MP, John Myers, Co-founder of YIMBY and David Thomas, Group Chief Executive of Barratt Development.

The event is on Monday 24th September, 7.30am – 9.30am Concourse Room 9, ACC Liverpool and will be situated inside the Conference secured zone.

The Lea River Park has been announced as a finalist in the European Prize for Urban Public Space 2018.

It is one of 25 finalists from across Europe selected by an international jury, the winning project and commendations will be announced on the 20th June at a ceremony taking place at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona. Read more about the European Prize for Urban Public Space can be found here.

More information about 5th Studio's long term involvement in creating the Lea River Park can be read on our project page here.

5th studio will be acting as practice mentors for the Trust’s Building Futures Programme, following this week’s introductory workshop by the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust.

The programme was set up to address barriers to access to the architectural profession faced by aspiring students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and provides young people with the support, advice and guidance they need to achieve and confidently take the next step in their architecture careers. Over the next six months, Kaiyil Gnanakumaran and Emily Carmichael will be mentoring two students in their final undergraduate year.

More information about the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust’s Building Futures Programme can be found here.

5th Studio have won a place on a record five lots on the Greater London Authority’s Architecture + Urbanism Panel which runs until 2022. 5th Studio have qualified on the following Lots:

Lot 1: Urban Strategies, Spatial Policy and research

Lot 2: Site Masterplanning and Development

Lot 3: Public Realm and Landscape

Lot 7a: Transport Architecture and Interchange design

Lot 7b: Specialist Infrastructure

The Architecture and Urbanism Panel is a pre-approved panel of built environment consultants. Consultants on the panel were whittled down from more than 225 shortlisted applicants through a design challenge to demonstrate their expertise. The panel is available for EU-compliant pre-qualification by virtually all public bodies, including Network Rail, boroughs & local authorities outside London and housing associations.

The GLA set up the Architecture and Urbanism Panel with Transport for London to advise London's public sector on how to deliver the best quality building and design work. The Panel’s job is to support the Mayor's regeneration programmes and priorities, as well as other public sector-funded projects in London and beyond.

More details available here.

Illustration: Our proposals produced during the tender process of Lot 7b, for a crossing between the key growth areas of Barking Riverside and North Thamesmead.

Professor Tom Holbrook will be taking part in a Symposium exploring the design of innovation districts in Melbourne, Australia.

RMIT University is hosting a Symposium on the Melbourne Innovation District that will focus specifically on the role of design. The symposium will share knowledge between emerging mixed knowledge economy quarters in Melbourne, the @22 district of el Poblenou, Barcelona, and 5th Studio’s project in North East Cambridge. Participants include representatives of the municipalities and key universities of these cities. The Symposium aims to make explicit the contribution of design in all its forms, exploring how through strategy, advocacy and action, designers can facilitate positive change.

The Symposium is part of Melbourne Design Week and takes place on Friday 23 March from 9:30 am – 5:30 pm AEDT at the RMIT Design Hub, Victoria Street, Carlton.

Tickets are available here

Councillor Clare Coghill, Leader of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, joined Associate Liz King for a chilly topping out ceremony for 5th Studio’s new sports facilities in Ive Farm, which will be, as the poster says, ‘Opening in Summer 2018’. In the background is the former Leader of the council, Chris Robbins, who initiated the project, Darrall Bishop, the council’s Project Manager, together with members of the team from the contractors, Willmott Dixon. More details here.

5th Studio’s long term project to create a new public foreground to regeneration in London’s Lower Lea Valley was picked as a top ten highlight of the year by The Guardian’s Architecture & Design Critic Oliver Wainwright. Read the article here.

“After years of negotiations, 5th Studio’s Leaway riverside path finally opened in spring, stitching together crucial missing links with ramps, bridges and new sections of towpath with a rugged, as-found quality that makes them feel like they’ve always been there. A model of useful green infrastructure – unlike the Garden Bridge, which was finally cancelled this year."

5th Studio’s spatial study for the National Infrastructure Commission illustrates how growth in the 100-mile Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge arc can be realised, securing the future of this critical engine of the UK’s knowledge economy. The study proposes the establishment of the first New Towns in a generation, as part of a diverse range of development typologies that draw upon exemplars from around the world to make strong and beautiful places rooted in their locale. The study identifies optimal relationships between transformational growth and associated infrastructure, including East-West Rail and the proposed Expressway.

The cities and towns across the arc are some of the UK’s most productive and innovative places, but their continued success and vitality is not guaranteed. Oxford and Cambridge have some of the most expensive housing in the UK; the lack of suitable, affordable housing in the corridor threatens sustainable growth.

The corridor is currently hard to negotiate, and needs connective infrastructure to make stronger, more functional relationships between its constituent cities and towns. A lack of integrated metropolitan transport infrastructure results in congested cities, affecting productivity and blighting the environment.

Without swift and determined action this innovative landscape will fall behind its international competitors and fail to attract and retain the talent and skills it needs. With a finite amount of land, it is critical that this scarce resource is used in the most optimal way. 5th Studio’s study explores the consequences of accommodating up to 1.9 million additional people in the corridor by 2050.

NIC Commissioner Sadie Morgan said:

“The work of 5th Studio was instrumental in framing the ambition of the NIC final report on Cambridge Milton Keynes Oxford arc. Their work is rigorous, thoughtful and credible and they have been a pleasure to work with.”

Both our study and the NIC’s report to Government - Partnering for Prosperity: A new deal for the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford Arc - are available for download as PDF documents.

Our multi-sports and parkland project for Ive Farm in Leyton has started on site. Piling is now complete for the community pavilion building that will be at the heart of the new development.

5th Studio have been working closely with London Borough of Waltham Forest on the strategically important regeneration of this previously neglected public open space within the Borough.

The plans include a full size 3G pitch, competitive standard hockey pitch and a 4 court beach volleyball arena. Landscaping includes a publicly accessible green roof, raised spectator seats in the landscape, community allotments, wetland reedbed area and fitness/jogging trails around the park.

The project is due to complete in summer 2018.

Tom Holbrook has been appointed as a member of the RIBA Planning advisory group.

The RIBA advisory groups are made up of expert advisers appointed following an open call to the profession, these advisers bring with them specialist knowledge and experience to help inform RIBA policies and guidance.

Read more in RIBA's Practice News post.

Oliver Smith has been invited to represent The Edge - a campaigning built-environment think tank - on the Membership Panel of the Construction Industry Council.

The Construction Industry Council is the representative forum for the construction industry, with a mission to improve the industry by collectively representing and supporting the built environment professions, research organisations and specialist business associations.

Tom Holbrook will speak at the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland Annual Conference at the Royal Dublin Society, 6-7th October. The conference theme is Challenge, Change and Collaboration and Tom will be a protagonist in The Great Debate: The Generalist vs The Specialist. Leading on from his book, Expanding Disciplinarity in Architectural Practice, Designing from the Room to the City, Tom will be defending the role of the generalist in architectural practice, with Dr Alan Mee of University College Dublin, speaking for the specialist.

Tom Holbrook will be taking part in a week-long urban design workshop at the Università IUAV, Venice, 18-22nd September. Other participants include Hernan Diaz Alonso (Director of Sci-arch, Los Angeles) Marjan Colletti (University of Innsbruck), Enric Luis-Geli, Barcelona and Tom Kovac and Mauro Baracco from RMIT Melbourne.

Tom will be discussing 5th Studio’s work seeking to integrate infrastructure with successful city making. Material from the workshop will feature in the International Architecture Biennale, Venice in 2018, and the workshop forms part of the Malaysia Biennial 100YC.

At a lecture at the London School of Economics Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London launched City Hall's Good Growth by Design programme and announced the appointment of Founding Director Tom Holbrook as one of his Design Advocates to help steer the programme.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, launched his Good Growth by Design programme to enhance the design of buildings and neighbourhoods for all Londoners. In a major speech at the London School of Economics, the Mayor spoke of his vision for the future of London as the city’s population heads towards 10 million peopleIn his first major intervention on this topic, the Mayor is calling on London’s architectural, design and built environment professions to help realise his vision of London as a city that is socially and economically inclusive as well as environmentally sustainable.

London needs to provide space for 46,000 new jobs and build 50,000 new homes a year just to keep up with demand, as well as build the social infrastructure to support both. Good Growth will enable this, leaving a legacy of world-class buildings, outstanding public realm and large-scale regeneration for Londoners of the future.

The Good Growth by Design programme will:

• Set ambitious design standards.
• Apply these standards and undertake rigorous design reviews.
• Increase capacity by launching a new social enterprise - ‘Public Practice’ - that will plug the skills gap in local authorities.
• Support diversity to tackle the under-representation of women and people from minority groups in the built environment professions.
• Use open procurement processes such as design competitions to seek the highest standards for public projects.
• Lead by example, with the Greater London Authority being champions of good growth by advocating best practice to support success across the sector.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “My vision for London is a city that enables all Londoners to reach their potential, a city that is inclusive and a city where growth brings benefits to communities.

5th Studio's new Oxford office are taking part in Oxford Green Week event 'Greening your historic home' on 21 June at Lady Margaret Hall. Iona is presenting the recently completed project at Trinity College Cambridge which upgrades the Grade 1 listed building to current energy standards.

Oliver and Iona will be in a panel discussion with other building experts from the University, Oxford City Planning and the construction industry and answering questions on how to save energy within the constraints of a heritage building - of which there are many in Oxford. The 5th Studio Oxford team will be holding a stall and Helena will be introducing 5th Studio's 'Top Trump' green cards of projects completed.

This event is free and can be booked through eventbrite.

More information about our award winning work for Trinity College, Cambridge can be found on our website here.

Tom Holbrook will be speaking at the Launch Event for Open City’s Green Sky Thinking Week on the theme of ‘How to Build an Open City: three projects changing how we think about London’.

The event will be chaired by Sarah Cary, Head of Sustainable Places and British Land, and Tom will be debating the topic with Holly Lewis of We Made That and Patrik Schumacher of Zaha Hadid Architects.

This year’s Green Sky Thinking is centred on the theme of Building the Open City. Over 50 events are planned: workshops, seminars, hackathons and debates, all run by industry experts. Each takes place in a unique location in London. More details here.

5th Studio are designers of a new transport interchange and public realm improvements at Vauxhall, London, which together seek to re-establish the lost space of Vauxhall Cross: an important threshold to central London.

The project is catalysed by the replacement of the car-dominated road gyratory, established by transport engineers in the1970s, with a two-way highway arrangement. The project integrates this more urban road plan with one of London’s busiest bus station and interchange with rail, riverboat and underground services. The project also creates a new set of public spaces, including a station square.

A network of public realm spaces in the wider Vauxhall area will create a unified and connective landscape with the transport interchange at its heart. Our work builds on the rich character and history of Vauxhall, and this set of spaces and streets is intended to work as an urban ensemble, articulating the area’s distinct character.

More details - including a series of engagement events - are available here:

https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/roads/vauxhall-cross/

Tom Holbrook is Visiting Professor at the Scuola di Architettura e Società at the Politecnico Milano and will take part in the Milan International Architecture Workshop (MIAW) in February - March with other practitioners including Olav Kristoffersen of Brendeland & Kristoffersen, Norway, Ippolito Pestellini of OMA, Oliver Thill, Atelier Kempe Thill, Lisa Fior of Muf and Luis Basabe Montalvo of Arenas Basabe Palacios, Madrid.

Each research workshop focusses on a specific question related to the urban transformation of Milan. This year the research will concentrate on developing urban scenarios around the Farini rail yard (circa 618.000 m2) as part of an ongoing discussion seven rail yards in Milan about to be vacated by the Ferrovia Statale - a total area of 125Ha returned to urban use.

5th Studio's Trinity College, New Court refurbishment project has been featured in this month's RIBA Journal.

The article sets out the collaborative research project which was key in the development of the detailed designs for renovating this Grade 1 listed building and the conflicts which had to be managed along the way.

Read the article here.

We have been working in Waltham Forest on the council-led regeneration of the Ive Farm Sports Ground in Leyton (4.9ha). The site is categorised as Metropolitan Open Land yet has been neglected and largely inaccessible for many years, with a derelict former pavilion. The proposal includes two all-weather multi-use sports pitches that address a critical shortfall in outdoor sports provision for schools, club and community use across the borough. The project also includes an international standard beach volleyball arena, 60m sprint track, a new sports pavilion, landscaped perimeter jogging trails and natural gym facilities, a woodland car park, community allotments, new and relocated pedestrian and cyclist bridges across the Dagenham Brook and an outdoor petanque area.

The design incorporates a comprehensive sustainable drainage proposal with landscaped reedbed area. The scheme opens up the site as publicly accessible open space and provides crucial links in the network of cross-borough pedestrian and cycling routes.

We are excited to announce that Richard Thompson has joined 5th Studio from Dixon Jones, where he was Associate Director.

At Dixon Jones since 1996, Richard worked on a number of projects including the Royal Opera House, Saïd Business School, Oxford, Chelsea Barracks masterplan, and £100m Kings Place, London - home of the Guardian newspaper.

Richard brings a wealth of experience to 5th Studio and strengthens our ability to deliver complex large-scale commercial projects. Having worked across education, residential and commercial sectors, he also brings experience of all aspects of the design process, managing programme costs and delivery through a variety of contract types and procurement approaches, and through all phases of the design and construction process.

Richard enjoys working closely with clients and consultants to fully understand the functional and commercial drivers of projects, and believes that successful schemes stem from a truly collaborative approach to design and construction.

See Richard's profile on the People section here.

Tom Holbrook will be speaking at Cambridge Ahead’s Annual Seminar on 18th January 2017, which will highlight placemaking, asking ‘What makes for a Successful UK City in the 21st Century?”.

Cambridge Ahead’s annual seminar, will take place on the morning of 18th January 2017 at Granta Park, Great Abington. The seminar will cover a variety of topics but will highlight place-making and its relevance to Cambridge. This is a widely debated issue, especially its contribution to quality of life. It is arguably more so in high growth cities, where demand for those other aspects that contribute to a strong quality of life – housing, commuting, education and leisure – can rapidly outstrip supply.

More details are available here, and registration which is required can be carried out here.

The University of Westminster's Ambika P3 gallery is proud to present ADAPT-r, a major exhibition exploring research processes of working artists, architects and designers – revealing the diverse approaches and how they do what they do. From digital designers to landscape architects, brand designers to design activists, painters to performance artists, and many different types of architects, including 5th Studio's Tom Holbrook.

The exhibition is on display from 26 November - 18 December 2016, open daily from 10am - 6pm, more information on the exhibition can be found here.

ADAPT-r is a partnership of seven European Universities - Aarhus School of Architecture (Denmark), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture (Belgium), Estonia Academy of Arts (Estonia), Mackintosh School of Architecture - Glasgow School of Art (UK), RMIT Europe (Spain) & University of Westminster (UK). For more information see: http://adapt-r.eu

This project has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 317 325.

Tom Holbrook will be taking part in a discussion on the regeneration of the Ligurian city of Imperia, co-commissioned by RMIT University, the Politecnico di Milan, the local council and Confindustria - the town’s business organisation.

Tom will be speaking on examples of collaborative regeneration projects in the UK: 'casi di progettazione in collaborazione allargata, in Inghilterra’ Friday 18th November, 9.30-13.00 Auditorio Camera di Commercio di Imperia, Via Belgrano 10, Imperia Oneglia, Imperia.

Tom Holbrook’s book - Designing from the Room to the City: Expanding Disciplinarity in Architectural Practice, has been published by Routledge. The book emerged from Tom’s PhD at RMIT University, supported by an EU Adapt-r fellowship.

A launch event and talk with Dr Tom Holbrook, Prof. Kester Rattenbury and Prof. Leon van Schaik, will be taking place at Ambika P3 - Westminster University. The launch is part of a series of events to conclude this EU Adapt-r funding programme, and there will be an opportunity to preview an exhibition of the creative practitioners who have been part of this process.

Registration for the event is free and should be made on Eventbrite.

Thursday 24 November 18.30-20.30

Ambika P3, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS

Credits: Photograph by Claus Peder Pedersen

February Phillips will be talking about 5th Studio's New Court, Trinity College, refurbishment - at the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Architecture, in association with ARCSOC (the University of Cambridge Architecture Society) and the Cambridge Association of Architects.

The theme of how the interventions at New Court responded to the idea of 'local character' will be explored alongside four other presentations from practicing Cambridge architects. This lecture is intended to engage practitioners and students in discussions about the current topics affecting development in Cambridge.

Wednesday 16th November - 18:30 Faculty of Architecture, 1 Scroope Terrace, Cambridge CB2 1PX

The judges of the Civic Trust Awards - established in 1959 to recognise outstanding architecture, planning and design in the built environment – have shortlisted the New Court project as a Regional Finalist for the 2017 awards. The project will be put forward to National Panel for consideration for a National/International Civic Trust Award or Commendation.

As the longest standing, independent built environment awards scheme in Europe the scheme has continued in its objective to recognise projects that have made a positive contribution to the local communities they serve and provides an opportunity for the general public to participate in nominating and judging schemes from their local area. Award winning projects are expected to exhibit strong sustainability credentials, a high level of inclusive and accessible design, and to provide a positive civic contribution.

The Civic Trust Awards/Commendations will be presented at the 58th Annual Civic Trust Awards Ceremony at The Guildhall, Winchester on Friday 10th March 2017

5th Studio are delighted to have been appointed by the National Infrastructure Commission to make recommendations on the Built Environment of the Cambridge, Milton Keynes, Oxford and Northampton Growth Corridor. The study was commissioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his letter to NIC Chair Lord Adonis in March 2016 in which the the Commission were asked to: “make recommendations to maximize the potential of the Cambridge – Milton Keynes – Oxford corridor as a single, knowledge intensive cluster that competes on the global stage, whilst protecting the area’s high quality environment and securing the homes and jobs the area needs. The commission will look at the priority infrastructure improvements needed and assess the economic case for which investments would generate the most growth.” The study - which the practice will be working on with SQW - will inform recommendations to government on maximising the growth potential of the corridor; in particular by spatial analysis, assessing the most appropriate options to deliver significant new housing, support for jobs and growth across the corridor.

Oliver Smith will be presenting 5th Studio’s New Court project at a 2-day workshop as part of the Venice Biennale Architettura 2016.

Sponsored by the Italian Chamber of Commerce for the UK and Valorizzazioni Culturali, the exhibition and workshop brings together international experts from different sectors across Europe to focus on ‘best practices’.

The project will be displayed at the ground floor exhibition in the 17th century building on the 29th and 30th October in the Palazzo Flangini in Venice, with a conference/workshop from 2pm on the Saturday.

- Workshop (29th October) and exhibition (29th – 30th October)

The piling rig arrives at Twelvetrees, Lower Lea Valley, time-lapse courtesy of contractors, the Buckingham Group, action by WHH barges Van-Elle, piling rig operator.

Tom Holbrook & Kieran Perkins will be taking part in the London Stansted Cambridge Commission's fourth Growth Commission Inquiry Event - Implementing Change.

Organised by the London Stansted Cambridge Consortium, this event will explore the main opportunities and challenges to this major growth corridor. Tom will be addressing the issues of place-making for the tech economy and what the key requirements to create globally competitive locations and environments for tech and knowledge-based enterprise might be.

The event takes place between 9-11.30am on Thursday 12th May, at BL_NK, 25-27 Curtain Road, Hackney, London, EC2A 3LT.

Further information on the event and registration can be found here.

5th Studio’s refurbishment of Westlegate House in Norwich has received a RIBA East Award. This project involved the redevelopment of the 11-storey Westlegate Tower, one of Norwich’s most high profile buildings, together with its immediate urban setting, blighted by the creation of the tower in the early 1960s.

"The Westlegate Tower project has redeveloped one of Norwich’s most high profile, and most unpopular buildings.…5th Studio decided to question the City Council’s planning policy, which recommended demolition of the tower; they saw that retention and reuse were not only possible but could bring real positives in terms of sustainability and a new social cohesion for the area.

In order to improve the proportion of the tower, its height was increased by three storeys. This, together with new cladding, means that the development now provides a landmark for the city rather than the eyesore that the unused tower became.

At ground level the development also repairs the urban grain in a most successful way. The new accommodation knits together a neglected area of the city’s urban fabric; a previously unloved car park in leftover space at the base of the tower. The development has helped to re-establish the historic grain of lanes, yards and passageways, rediscovering the lost Lion and Castle Yard as an enjoyable public thoroughfare, and enriching the pedestrian experience."

Extract from RIBA judges citation

5th Studio are seeking an ambitious, qualified architect with housing and regeneration experience to expand the senior team at the London studio. For further information, and details on how to apply, please visit Dezeen. The deadline for applications is the 30th April 2016.

After years in planning there is now exciting activity along the banks of the River Lea.

The neglected landscapes around the A13 at Wharfside Road are being transformed by the London Borough of Newham to the designs of 5th Studio with JCLA. This scheme will create an accessible riverside, and transform Wharfside Road into a shared surface with new street tree planting and street furniture.

At Twelvetrees Crescent Bridge work has just commenced on creating a major Leaway project designed by 5th Studio in collaboration with Alan Baxter and JCLA. The Twelvetrees ramp will allow for the first time a connection between the towpath from Three Mills and the eastern riverside walk of the River Lea to Cody Dock, and is due to open in Autumn 2016.

These projects are key phase 1 projects in longer-term delivery of the Lea River Park. Together these, and a series of other planned projects will create the connective infrastructure needed by the housing zones of the Lower Lea Valley

5th Studio have won planning consent for the redevelopment of the Ferry Boat Inn site in Norwich, following our award-winning project at the City’s Westlegate.

The proposals provide 41 homes around a landscaped courtyard creating a new frontage to the River Wensum and the Novi Sad bridge. The project aims to repair the King street frontage and refurbish the listed but derelict inn.

Tom Holbrook joins a stellar cast, including Nathalie De Vries, Nicholas Serota & Selina Mason on the newly established independent design panel for HS2, Britain’s second high-speed rail-line. The Panel, chaired by dRMM director Sadie Morgan, will be the project’s independent adviser, helping it to deliver on its key design principles and will ‘mentor and inspire HS2 to design a transformational railway system which will exceed all of our expectations’.

HS2 Ltd chief executive, Simon Kirby said:

“I’m delighted the Independent Design Panel has now been formed. It’s a mark of HS2’s significance that it’s attracted such a wealth of talent to help us deliver this transformational piece of infrastructure for the nation.”

5th Studio is proud to be part of the Practice Network supporting the newly-launched London School of Architecture which opens in the autumn.

With fees of £6,000 a year, the school offers an alternative Part 2 route into the profession, and is designed to cut the cost of architecture education. Students spend half their time working in practice.

5th Studio’s Tom Holbrook is the school’s Leader of Urban Studies.