Serving past and future needs

LISTEN HERE A design and development team embarking on its first new build aimed for an affordably high standard of residential design and build, with an aesthetic that beds the scheme into its historic context. Jack Wooler reports Somerbrook is... View Article

Keeping in touch

LISTEN HERE An extra care scheme in Camden designed to offer extra connections to the community evolved to include younger residents, in efficiently-designed flats with the focus on wellness and sustainability. James Parker speaks to PRP Architects about the approach... View Article

Natural harmony

LISTEN HERE In a new district of Shenzhen, a project to create a performing arts centre saw Rocco Design Architects use the coastal landscape as inspiration for a striking form in harmony with its context. Roseanne Field reports The Bao’an... View Article

Smart steps to wellness

LISTEN HERE SOM created the ‘smartest building in Chicago’ with a terraced form designed to bridge the gap between its historic low-rise and high-rise context. Its architect gives James Parker the lowdown on reaching high levels of workplace sustainability SOM,... View Article

New colours on the block

LISTEN HERE MVRDV’s first completed major US project is a mixed use scheme including a boutique hotel, which makes a bold architectural diversity statement in a range of colours and scales to help it blend with the locality. Tom Boddy... View Article

Respecting climate & culture

LISTEN HERE A timber research facility has been constructed in Rotorua, New Zealand which combines a net zero design showcasing timber’s potential with a high degree of local cultural sensitivity. Jack Wooler reports  The fritted pattern of the glazing between... View Article

More than meets the eyes

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Retail developments in Chinese cities now contain much more than just retail, and are designed to be ‘all-in-one’ destinations; the new Shanghai Jiuguang Center is no exception. Roseanne Field reports The Shanghai Jiuguang Center, located in the... View Article

Selling biophilic benefits

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Shopping malls are a key social destination in China, and with this in mind Lead8 sought to provide a landscape-rich interior to enhance the experience of a new mixed-use scheme in Chongqing, in the form of a... View Article

A clear vision

The versatility of glass made it the right choice for SOM to create curved facades with maximum transparency, in a complex mixed-use development on one of Manhattan’s last undeveloped sites. Roseanne Field reports Manhattan’s West Side Yard, a rail yard... View Article

Different ways of working

LISTEN HERE James Parker spoke to the architects behind an evolving 10 year scheme to provide flexible offices framing rare green space in the heart of Manchester, as part of a wider masterplan to create a new urban quarter With... View Article

Learning from context

LISTEN HERE When Design Engine designed a trio of buildings for the University of Winchester, they used corten steel to emulate the local built heritage, while creating spaces that supported students’ wellbeing. Roseanne Field reports Located on one of the... View Article

Green connections

A reuse proposal to create a new transport hub in Vilnius was used by ZHA as an opportunity to provide a new connectivity across the city for its inhabitants, as well as improve rail infrastructure and sustainability The design for... View Article

Rooted in users’ experience

Grimshaw is leading a team to deliver a highly-integrated transport hub at Shenzhen airport, in a structure and circulation strategy inspired by mangrove trees In April 2021, a design consortium led by Grimshaw, and including Mott MacDonald, China Aviation Planning... View Article

Positive mental attitude

LISTEN HERE 🔊 The multi-award winning Springfield Meadows is a collection of 25 ‘carbon positive’ homes in Oxfordshire, designed by Greencore Construction to be the UK’s ‘most sustainable development.’ MD Ian Pritchett tells Jack Wooler how the project was a... View Article

Balancing act

Creating a major new performance space to help revitalise a deprived part of south east London meant a delicate balancing act for Bennetts Associates in its adaptive reuse of five historic listed buildings, with close community involvement. Roseanne Field reports... View Article

Environmental health

LISTEN HERE 🔊 A mental health building by Medical Architecture in north London took a simple, ‘first-principles’ design approach to providing access to external space and daylit interiors, as well as greater independence and wellness for users. James Parker reports... View Article

Passivhaus goes large

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Agar Grove is set to become the UK’s largest Passivhaus scheme, with its housing tenants already seeing the benefits from the first completed phase. James Woodward, architect at Hawkins\Brown, tells Roseanne Field why the practice decided to... View Article

Opening a new volume in NYC

LISTEN HERE 🔊 A renovation project on 5th Avenue opens up a public library facility and resolves the functional anomalies of a former department store to provide high quality spaces for all users. James Parker reports on a fruitful collaboration... View Article

Singapore’s central park

A major mixed-use skyscraper with a difference is approaching completion in Singapore’s central business district – the facades of this richly diverse ‘vertical city’ by Bjarke Ingels Group opens up to reveal generous and highly usable green spaces. James Parker... View Article

Renewed sense of purpose

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Arup believes that its redevelopment of the workplace it designed in the 1990s in West London, including a refurbished facade, will save 40,000 tonnes of carbon compared with a new build approach. ADF’s Tom Boddy reports Situated... View Article