Newsletter July 2024

In this newsletter we present some of our recent and ongoing projects that weave new interventions into sensitive historical settings and shed some light on the thinking and processes, including modelling and sketching, that bring our projects to life.

Young's?Court development delivers new transformational facilities for Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Part reuse part new built,?the 5,770sqm scheme?is Emmanuel College’s most significant development in over 100 years, providing much needed new residential, study and social accommodation, all linked by a network of landscaped courts and passageways designed to support communal life.

Read more here.

“Finding answers to complex global challenges depends on our ability to bring people together across subjects, disciplines and backgrounds. This project does just that, enabling us to host new programmes and accommodate the majority of our undergraduate students on the main site.”

Dr Sarah Bendall, Development Director, Emmanuel College

RA Summer Exhibition 2024

There is still time to see our three works up close in the Architecture Room of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in?London, which runs until 18 August 2024. In response to this year's theme, 'Space for Making', we have offered a behind-the-scenes look at some of the processes that bring our projects to life. We are exhibiting a 'Cast Gallery', a model of 'Folie, Montpellier' and a limited edition print entitled 'Cast' — which is on sale here to raise funds for the Royal Academy Schools.

On site progress at?Clermont-Ferrand

Work continues on site at Clermont-Ferrand in France, where we are working with local practice Marcillon Thuilier Architectes to transform the listed 18th-century H?tel-Dieu hospital and gardens into a new 11,000m2 civic library and cultural facility.The key intervention is a double-height, light-filled central forum, inserted as a large canopy into the horseshoe courtyard of the existing building. The curved concrete walls of the forum are currently taking shape on site and, when complete, will enclose a circular foyer, auditorium, multimedia and exhibition spaces.

Read more here.

Image:?Eckersley?O’Callaghan?

Why draw?

Why spend time drawing by hand when you can snap a photo on your phone in seconds, and when an AI-generated image can quickly and realistically evoke a place or atmosphere? In a new visual essay, our architectural illustrator Annie Castle explains why the act of sketching and drawing by hand remains a key tool for understanding space and our place within it.

Read the essay here.

The making of the Centre Pompidou

In a new video interview for the Laboratoire d'Histoire Permanente du Centre Pompidou, Principal Director Alan Stanton recounts the atmosphere and ideas that brought to life the 'Beaubourg' in Paris — one of the most iconic buildings of the 20th century — which he played a key role in designing alongside Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers.

In conversation with historian Boris Hamzeian, Alan discusses Archigram's influence?during his student days at the Architectural Association in London, his early experiments with the radical group Chrysalis in Los Angeles in the 1960s and the ambitions, opportunities and challenges of creating the Centre Pompidou upon his return to Europe.

Watch the interview here.

“Technology made [the Centre Pompidou] possible, but the building was essentially about process: about permeability, openness and transparency, and the ability to adapt to support a range of dynamic, evolving human activities.”

Alan Stanton, Principal Director, Stanton Williams

Restore?not more: reimagining existing buildings?

Saturday 07 September, 10.00-17.00

Messums West, Tisbury, SP3 6LW

As part of Messums West's annual Architecture Symposium, Principal Director Paul Williams will present our new Museum of London at West Smithfield, focusing on the ways in which the practices of maintaining, reusing and repairing our existing built fabric require, first and foremost, a deep understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of existing spaces and their appropriateness in relation to the new functions we wish to impose upon them.?

Book your ticket here.

Three of our projects shortlisted for WAF 2024?

We are delighted that this year's World Architecture Festival shortlist includes three of our projects: the transformation of Rhodes House for the Rhodes Trust in Oxford; UCL East,?Marshgate for University College London; and?Norton Folgate a mixed use urban development for British Land, delivered in collaboration with Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, DSDHA and Morris+Company.

Build the way traineeship

Build the way is a nine-month entry-level traineeship designed to provide an alternative, accessible route to a career in architecture. We supported the programme with a series of workshops that gave the trainees an insight into a day in the life of a model maker and the opportunity to create a study model of a facade, exploring different design options.

Read more?here.?

Reimagining the campus of the future

Last month we partnered with The London Society and University College London to ask how we can continue to create spaces for the changemakers of the future. The event, which took place on 24 June at our recently completed?UCL East, Marshgate,?included a tour of the building?followed by a panel discussion on the role of the built environment in accelerating breakthroughs and discoveries in fields as diverse as medicine, manufacturing, technology and the arts. The panel was chaired by David Hill (writer/editor) and included Katherine Fletcher (Academic Planning Lead at UCL), Rosanna Lawes (Executive Director of Development at the LLDC) and Gavin Henderson (Principal Director at Stanton Williams).