News → HAT Projects

June 15, 2018

Working on Colchester's key public spaces

We're excited to have been commissioned by Colchester Borough Council to develop proposals for rejuvenating two key public spaces in the town centre. St Nicholas Square, and the Balkerne Gardens area around the Mercury Theatre, both have immense potential to become wonderful focal points, as part of the wider network of town squares that is quite a unique quality of Colchester's historic centre.

We will be working collaboratively with the organisations and business that border these two spaces, to develop a shared understanding and a design strategy that can realise their full potential, as well as developing a business case and delivery strategy.

May 14, 2018

Hana becomes a Public Practice Associate

Hana has been selected as one of the founding cohort of Public Practice Associates. She is undertaking a part-time, year-long contract with South Cambridgeshire District Council, working with village communities to co-create a new generation of Village Design Statements. Rural design is an area that Hana has long been researching and exploring through design, and she is excited to have the opportunity to pioneer new work in this area.

Public Practice is an innovative social enterprise, founded last year to help address a lack of public sector planning capacity, recognised as the primary barrier to delivering the quantity and quality of homes the country needs. It is a key initiative of the Mayor of London's Good Growth by Design programme, and is also supported by the Local Government Association, Future Cities Catapult, British Land, The Berkeley Group, and Peabody. Local authorities are using the first cohort to bring in design expertise at a time when almost half of all councils have no in house design capacity.

May 14, 2018

Announcing Trinity Works

We're very excited to announce a new self-initiated project, Trinity Works. We are creating a new home for our studio, along with Colchester Makerspace and a new independent café, Café Saison, in a 1970's former church in the heart of Colchester Town Centre.

We'll be in residence from 1 July 2018, so plan a visit, or you can have a sneak peek tour of the site on Sunday 20th May 2018, as part of the Trinity Street summer festival. Read more about Trinity Works here.

April 26, 2018

HAT Projects selected for the Mayor of London's architecture framework panel

We are very proud to be the only practice based outside London, to be selected for the Mayor of London's new Architecture, Design and Urbanism Panel (ADUP). We are one of only twelve practices on this framework for commercial, workspace, health, education and civic buildings - among some of the best of our peers and major UK practices. The framework panel will run for two years and we look forward to working on the projects coming up.

This illustration shows the design proposal that led to our selection - repurposing a former London School board complex as a community and workspace hub.

March 14, 2018

'Revisiting Postmodernism' reviewed by Hana for Architecture Today

Hana has reviewed 'Revisiting Postmodernism' by Terry Farrell and Adam Nathaniel (published by RIBA) for the February edition of ArchitectureToday. She finds that whilst not without its problems, "this necessary book rightly reinstates the best of postmodern architecture as a serious design response to an increasingly diverse cultural context." The full review can be read HERE.

March 13, 2018

Creative Workspace Summit in Great Yarmouth

As part of this excellent summit hosted in Great Yarmouth exploring the role of creatives (individuals and organisations) in creating great places and how creative workspaces can help make the most of a town's potential, HAT Projects will be presenting a talk upon how architecture can affect place.

Taking place at St George's Theatre in Great Yarmouth on 20th April, other speakers will include:

Creative Foundation (Folkestone)
East Street Arts (Leeds)
Focal Point Gallery and Southend Borough Council (Southend)
Outset (London/ UK)
MAIA (Birmingham)
Paradise Works (Manchester)
OUTPOST (Norwich)
Dove Street Studios (Norwich)
originalprojects (Great Yarmouth)
Smiths Row (Bury St Edmunds)
Mazi Reverso (independent networking)

with a keynote speech from Charles Landry.

Further information is available HERE.

February 14, 2018

Beyond Participation

Hana has been invited to speak at 'Beyond Participation', a conference in Dublin on 9th March organised by the Irish Architecture Foundation and curated by Tara Kennedy. It is billed as a vital discussion about architecture and community, bringing together "innovators, provocateurs and activists it challenges us to think about democracy, consequence, responsibility and the meaning of the things we design."

Also speaking will be Killian Doherty of Architectural (Field) Office, Ana Jara and Lucinda Correia of Artéria, Stefan Laxness of Forensic Architecture, Alex de Rijke of dRMM and more, chaired by Diarmaid Lawlor, Director of Place at Architecture + Design Scotland. Further information and tickets are available here.

January 31, 2018

Portrait of Hana Loftus featured at Jerwood Gallery

'Architects: Portraits' by Ivan Jones is a photographic portrait series which acknowledges the faces of contemporary architectural practice and will be exhibited at the Jerwood Gallery from 27th January to 15th April.

The exhibition includes a cross-section of female European architects. A statement of equality Jones explains that there are no special concessions to femininity or “femaleness”; these are architects. They just happen to be women.

Jones has photographed each of the architects at the heart of a key building they have been pivotal in creating. Each full-colour image sets the person among the materials and physical environments which form the public face of their work.

Further information to be found here.

December 5, 2017

Science Museum Smith Centre wins planning permission

We're delighted that our new centre for the Science Museum's supporters, which will be known as the Smith Centre, has received planning permission and will be starting on site in Spring 2018. It repurposes a former Victorian Post Office sorting office and delivery yard, behind the Museum's main concourse, into a series of beautiful salon spaces for everyday use, events and lectures.

October 10, 2017

Hana joins the London School of Architecture team

HAT director Hana Loftus has been invited to join the teaching team this year for the Urban Studies module at the London School of Architecture. The cohort will be looking at the borough of Southwark through research, data visualisation, mapping and strategic proposals.