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We are thrilled to announce that the Science Museum Smith Centre is now open and in use. These photos are a sneak peek of the project, a new supporters space converted from a Royal Mail sorting office - more to come soon!
For further information about the project please look here.
We are contributors to the Tides of Tendring - a programme of community arts activities exploring the coastline and flooding, and an exhibition to be held at Jaywick Martello Tower between 21st August and 8th September. We are contributing exhibition material that demystifies the nature of flood risk along the coastline, and how other communities around the world are addressing similar questions and adapting their landscapes in response. We are also collaborating with Signals Media Arts to create an animation about flooding and climate change, for sharing online.
Our involvement is generously supported by Flood Re as part of their mission to talk to communities at risk of flooding about how to become more resilient for the future. It draws on the research we have been doing as part of our commission to develop the Jaywick Sands Place Plan.
Tom has been invited to join the Essex Quality Review Panel, helping to offer independent and impartial guidance on the design of new buildings, landscapes and public space.
The Essex Quality Review Panel has been set up to ensure delivery and promotion of high quality new developments through the creation of good design, sustainability and improved quality, creating better places and environments to work and live in the County.
As part of Hana's work with Public Practice, they have published her Practice Note 'Growing Villages: How should village growth be shaped in rural areas?' available to download here. It discusses best practice for rural design; drawing on research carried out as part of a year-long placement in South Cambridgeshire District Council, showing how co-creating simple design principles together with local, rural communities can help justify and shape village growth.
We were thrilled to run a drop-in workshop for kids (and enthusiastic adults) at Firstsite gallery, building and testing out junk-made water towers celebrating Colchester's very own Jumbo water tower for North Essex Heritage's #jumbosummer!
Our work at Redbridge Town Hall has now started on site. Several spaces in the Grade 2 listed Town Hall are being repurposed and converted into arts projects space and workspace, in partnership with SPACE studios. More information on the project is available here.
We were honoured to have the Science Museum Smith Centre formally opened by Her Majesty the Queen today, after months of hard work by all involved. It also became the site of her first Instagram post!
More information on the project can be found here.
Hana is really pleased to have been invited to be Guest Speaker for the Jane's Walk Colchester annual fundraiser supper, to be held at Firstsite in, on Friday 22nd March at 7pm. Jane's Walk is an International weekend of local walks led by local people on local themes ('citizen-led, walking conversations'), taking place in towns and cities around the world, honouring the legacy of the urbanist, writer and activist, Jane Jacobs (1916-2006), and marking the anniversary of her birth.
Hana's talk will touch on the themes of designing for people, civic engagement and the importance of public realm. Further information is available HERE.
We're thrilled that the Ely Museum development project has been awarded capital funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, enabling this ambitious project to become reality. Following an outstanding match funding campaign by the museum's team and volunteers, the HLF has awarded £1.66m to the Museum, towards the total capital project budget of £2.2m.
The restoration and extension of the Grade 2 listed building, which itself has a fascinating history as the Gaol of the Bishop of Ely, will increase the floor area available for displays, create a new multi-purpose space for education and community programmes, and restore historic features that are currently hidden from view. Read more about the project here.
Trinity Works, our self-developed studio complex in Colchester, has been longlisted for the RIBA MacEwen Award, which celebrates 'architecture for the common good' - projects which demonstrate a clear sense of social purpose. We're truly honoured and delighted to be considered for this award, as it rewards exactly those qualities that we feel are most important in our work - the criteria say that 'We’re looking for built projects that are of real and demonstrable benefit to society, something that architects are well-equipped to achieve.'
We want to embody this in our practice - not just responding to the brief set by our clients, but expanding this to maximise the social and public benefit of each project. At Trinity Works, we're thrilled by how quickly the space has been adopted by our community and how it is starting to serve as we had hoped - as a meeting place for creating and cross-fertilising civic projects for our town, at large and small scales.