We Made That

We Made That and the Octavia Foundation are looking to recruit young people from the North Kensington area to take part in the Kensal Voices youth programme.

As part of our wider work supporting creative workspace in the Kensal Canalside Opportunity Area, We Made That has teamed up with our Local Partner, the Octavia Foundation, to deliver the Kensal Voices youth programme. To expand the conversation about the evolution of the North Kensington area with local young people, we are looking for participants to take part in the 8 week programme. The project will cover podcast production, sound design, creative writing, performance, animation, architecture and the evolution of heritage and community in north Kensington.

Details:

For young people aged 13-19

Every Tuesday from 27th October

Free to sign up but pre-registration is essential

Voucher awards for all successful completants

Click here for further details and how to apply

Congratulations from We Made That to the three winners of the Reimagining Basildon schools competition! Submissions from Elsie Jayne Lindsay (8) and Ashley Harris (9) and Ellie-Mae Woodward (10) were chosen for their bold, ambitious and colourful visions for the future of the town. 

The Basildon Town Centre Regeneration Strategy, prepared by We Made That and Cushman & Wakefield, was adopted by the council in September 2020. The strategy matches the ambition of these imaginative, local young people, and now sets the council on a course to deliver up to 4,200 new homes, 5,100 sqm of retail, leisure and workspace and a re-modelled transport hub in a re-invigorated, green and healthy town centre. 

We Made That are delighted to announce that both Battersea Design and Technology Quarter and Cheney Row Park have been shortlisted in the NLA Awards 2020.

Battersea Design & Technology Quarter was shortlisted in the Planning Category. The framework support the delivery of a distinct creative and economic cluster, capitalising on existing and incoming institutional assets in the area. 

Cheney Row Park was shortlisted in the Placemaking Category. A former landfill site that, through remediation and community co-design, has been transformed. The new £1.2m park includes an events space, outdoor stage, playspace and 467 new trees. 

More info on other categories and shortlists can be found here.

3Space and We Made That are hiring a Local Community Coordinator to join our team to assist, plan, develop and run a programme of events and activities for the Harlesden Canalside project.

Are you early in your career and keen to build your skills in coordinating public engagement and events? Do you have direct links to networks of local young and under represented people in the area?

The part time and flexible role will run from October 2020 to January 2021. A budget of £4000 has been allocated to the Local Community Coordinator for an expected minimum of 20 days. APPLY NOW! Deadline 5pm, 12th October 2020. Details and how to apply  

Download and share the flyer

ABOUT THE PROJECT

OPDC, in partnership with Brent Council and the Canal & River Trust, is bringing forward exciting improvements to Harlesden Canalside.

To deliver the project, OPDC has appointed specialist community and commercial space operators, 3Space and architects, We Made That, and a wider consultant team to work closely with the local community to scope, deliver and operate the space. The project is part of a £1.2m community investment, funded by the Mayor’s Good Growth Fund to bring forward a range of improvements to public spaces on the canal. 

We Made That are pleased to announce that the New Cross Area Framework project is a finalist in the ‘Plan-Making’ category in the Planning Awards 2020. The project was collaboration with 5th Studio and Alan Baxter.

The New Cross Area Framework sets out an aspirational and practical vision to maximise the benefit of infrastructure investment, through co-ordinating, negotiating and integrating the needs and desires of all those that have a stake in the future of New Cross. The Framework sets a trajectory for new development in the study area, identifies opportunities for a range of projects that together can cohere to deliver improvements at a strategic scale, and will significantly assist TfL in their ongoing work to deliver the Bakerloo line extension to New Cross Gate.

More info on other categories and finalists can be found here.

Holly will be speaking as part of the Oslo Urban Arena 2020 programme on Friday 11th September, discussing Super-mix and the city - how can we integrate industrial activity into the urban environment?

Oslo Urban Arena is a collective of architects, planners, developers and urban activists from a multidisciplinary background with a mission to launch a conference, debate and lecture arena every year, on urbanism and urban development from the heart of the centre of Oslo.

Holly will discuss the forgotten industrial areas of our cities - those that clothe us, feed us and deliver to us - and speculate on their futures. Holly has led a unique range of projects for We Made That, from pioneering industrial intensification work through to comprehensive high street regeneration projects and incisive research into local economies. In her role as a Mayor’s Design Advocate for the Greater London Authority, she advocates for equitable city-making.

Wealdstone Square is a public realm project for a new square for Harrow and Wealdstone. The project is funded by the GLA as a stepping-stone to the wider regeneration of the town centre, including the new Civic Centre. We Made That were lead consultants for the Wealdstone Square project, working alongside Alan Baxter Associates, Stockdale, Edible Bus Stop, Europa and Spacemakers.

The designs for the project were developed through public engagement with local stakeholders, particularly local young people, including Wealdstone Youth Workshop. The project started on site in 2019 and is now nearing completion.

More info here:

http://www.buildingabetterharrow.co.uk/#/project/153/wealdstone-square

We’re proud to become supporters of the Accelerate programme run by Open City. We want to help correct the bias in who gets to shape the cities we live and work in. We know that much more needs to be done and think that this programme makes important inroads in built environment industries that have a poor track record when it comes to wider participation and diversity.

Accelerate is a pioneering design education and mentoring programme aimed at increasing diversity in the built environment professions. It gives sixth form students from under-represented backgrounds, the confidence, skills and connections needed to make strong applications to study architecture and other built environment courses. Every year, Accelerate provides 30-40 sixth form students from across London with a series of skills workshops in university environment, one-to-one mentoring at an architecture practice and in-depth guidance on university applications.

More info here: https://open-city.org.uk/accelerate

We’re delighted to extend and renew our support and sponsorship of the next cohort of New Architecture Writers. As the talented second cohort gives way to the third, we believe we must all amplify excluded voices and build a more progressive and representative architectural media.

New Architecture Writers is a free programme for emerging design writers, developing the journalistic skill, editorial connections and critical voice of its participants. N.A.W. focuses on black and minority ethnic emerging writers who are under-represented across design journalism and curation. A series of evening workshops, talks, and writing briefs form the core of N.A.W.’s programme with one-to-one mentoring from experienced design critics and editors throughout.

More info here: http://newarchitecturewriters.org

Two new members have joined our team!

Benedikt Straňák joined We Made That as an Urban Research Assistant after earning his masters in Regional and Urban Planning Studies at the London School of Economics, where he gained extensive training in data science and professional experience in participatory research. 

Chandni Patel joined We Made That as an Architectural Assistant. She completed her Part I in Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture in 2018 and went on to gain experience at a variety of practices around London. 

3Space, We Made That and PRD have been selected to activate an underutilised stretch of the Grand Union Canal with new facilities including a boater repair workshop.

The multi-disciplinary team have been appointed by the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) to bring life to an underutilised stretch of the canalside. Located upstream from Acton Lane in Harlesden the project recognises the strategic importance of the Paddington arm of the canal as a major public realm asset and also the opportunity to deliver a thriving gateway to London’s largest Opportunity Area, Old Oak and Park Royal.

The aim of the 5-year project will be to create a flagship facility which boat dwellers, local residents, workers and visitors can use for decades to come. The project is expected to begin operations in 2022 and is funded by the Mayor of London’s Good Growth Fund and supported by Brent Council and the Canal & River Trust.

As part of the Government’s Future High Street Fund initiative, We Made That have recently submitted Stage 2 funding bids for Tottenham High Road (London Borough of Haringey) and March Town Centre (Fenland District Council) on behalf of the respective local authorities. The projects have a combined ask of c. £25m towards transformative projects creating resilient High Streets and Town Centres fit for the future. The bids were developed with our long-term collaborators Hatch Regeneris, alongside wider teams including Urban Movement, PRD, Gort Scott, Authentic Futures and Stockdale.

By skilfully balancing the needs of the local area and requirements of the funder, the team proposed a varied programme of interventions; from a transformative public realm re-think at the town centre and series of small scale mixed-use development proposals in March, to a major upgrade of the youth centre and extension of three public markets in Tottenham.

We await the outcomes with bated breath in autumn 2020! In the meantime continue to assist with urgent Covid-19 response initiatives and further project development work.

Freya and Will recently contributed a children’s workshop to Open City and Celebrating Architecture’s learning platform ‘Learning from Architecture’. Consisting of two activities, the workshop titled ‘Grow your own city’ asks children of all ages to think about how they would imagine their city if it was designed by play and nature - two things that are crucial to mental wellbeing. The first activity was to draw it, followed by a set of instructions for how to grow it: by making our own recycled wildflower-seedbomb-slingshot, we can grow the spaces we want to play in. Grow your own city here!

We Made That are pleased to announce that we have been shortlisted in the Public Realm Architect of the Year category as part of the AYA Awards 2020 by Building Design. 

More info on other categories and finalists can be found here.

Oliver will be speaking at the Bringing nature into the city – place and health in the time of COVID-19 event by the Landscape Institute on Thursday 9th July. The event is part of two free, half-day online events inspired by the summer edition of Landscape, the journal of the Landscape Institute, hosted on Thursday 9th July (AM) and Friday 10th July (AM).

The issue of how we use, design and manage highways and green spaces has rarely been so prominent in the public mind. From reusing street space to investing in city farms, the events will examine these topics and invites some of its writers to share their views with a live audience.

More information on the events can be found here.

We Made That aims to be better for everyone

We Made That starts a project by developing the brief with the stakeholders. But it’s not altruism that drives their commitment to community and forgotten spaces.

It’s said often enough that architects need to get out of their professional ghetto, collaborate with other professions and trades, be less concerned with look-at-me buildings and more with the public realm, do solid research, hit the streets and talk to real people more. It’s hard to disagree, especially when you are talking to one of the now firmly established practices which does all these things. Here they are, and they are called We Made That.

See full article on The RIBA Journal here: 

https://www.ribaj.com/culture/we-made-that-architects-as-strategists-public-spaces

Social value has been firmly on the public sector agenda since 2012 when it gained a formal place on the pre procurement radar of public sector clients with the passing of the Social Value Act. Under the Act, Social Value is considered in three parts: social, economic and environmental. Since 2018 it has moved further up the agenda after even the notoriously dry Treasury Green Book sought to include social value in its guidance on how to appraise and evaluate projects.

These developments have altered the procurement process, as commissioners have been asked to increasingly asked to consider how to get more social value for money out of procurement. They are considering how best to secure wider social, economic and environmental benefits for their area or stakeholders, often as a ‘by-product’ of the original commission. Any tender should therefore target these three parts of social value directly, demonstrating how the practice will enhance social value through each one specifically.

In a competitive tender market, at We Made That we’re always seeking to maximise the social value that can be realised through the processes and outcomes of our work.  One approach that we’ve found to be successful is to work in collaboration with other practices, local partners or stakeholders to enhance social value in both the tender and delivery process.

Collaboration offers multiple opportunities to boost social and economic benefits to a project. For example, including team members with a close relationship to the local community, or collaborating with local practices to support spend in the local economy of a project.

One example of this approach is our current work on a mixed-use masterplan for the Purley Way in Croydon. We Made That are leading a large project team, including design collective, Resolve, an interdisciplinary team which combines architecture, engineering, technology and art to address social challenges. They have a close relationship to the local community in Croydon having grown up in the area, and frequently work with youth and under-represented groups in society and engaging them in the design process, as well as working with local communities as stakeholders in the short and long term management of local projects. Resolve are leading the engagement strategy for the masterplan and have developed an online platform in response to COVID-19 implications, to crowd source stories, memories and local knowledge about the area. At the other end of the practice scale spectrum, the project team also includes Hawkins\ Brown, who are long-term collaborators with We Made That, bringing their diverse team and experience to the project.

Supporting spend in the local economy can also offer ‘added value’ to a project. In 2017, We Made That were appointed by Harrow Council to lead on the design of the new public space in the centre of Wealdstone, with the intention of using the project to bring the community together. This included building an identity for Wealdstone which celebrated the town centre and it’s successful activity. We collaborated with Spacemakers and design studio, Silo, alongside local graphic designer Karolina Ciakaite who led a series of workshops for a group of local young people to research, design and produce furniture for the new square. This was a direct response to addressing the emerging challenge of a lack of activity for young people due to cuts to youth services, and the resulting negative perception of groups hanging around the town. The Wealdstone Youth Workshop produced ‘The Wealdstone Leg’, a furniture component that forms the basis of a range of stools, benches and chairs to be used in the square. The resulting furniture is also available to buy, with all proceeds going back into the project, and the workshop participants each receiving a royalty on sales as well as a stipend for taking part in the project.

In addition to social value gained for the local community through collaboration, We Made That directly experience the additional value offered through a collaborative approach; working with larger or more established practices helps to open doors that otherwise might not otherwise be open to us, and working with more recently established practices brings new ideas and energy to the team, whilst providing a helpful ‘hand up’. In a global context that’s keeping us all physically apart, we will continue to pursue project that bring teams and communities together.

By Lorna Reed

See article on Building Design Online here: 

https://www.bdonline.co.uk/briefing/in-a-world-thats-keeping-us-apart-lets-work-together/5106593.article

The public have been invited to share their ideas related to connectivity and movement within the Lower Lea Valley and Blackwall study area. Their insights will feed into proposals for new cycling and walking interventions currently being identified by We Made That in partnership with Urban Movement and Transport Initiatives. The proposals generated will inform the East of the Borough Area Action Plan.

The online platform allows local people to navigate the study area and pin point specific areas of interest and share their experience of movement within the area.

We Made That are excited to announce that our proposals for Woolwich Town Centre are now open for public engagement. We have been working with Royal Borough of Greenwich and Gerald Eve on one of 100 applications for the ‘Future High Streets Fund’ to The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The application will explore innovative responses to bring transformative change to Woolwich Town Centre. The successful bids will be announced in Sept 2020. Have a look here and tell us your thoughts!

We Made That are delighted to have been commissioned by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to develop a Connection and Movement Study to evidence the East of the Borough Area Action Plan.

Sited in the Lower Lea Valley and Blackwall, the study will identify new interventions to improve walking and cycling connectivity, including the quality of routes, and will take a network approach assuring that proposed connections are accessible and equitable across the study area.

The team will also test the suitability of a raft of existing proposed infrastructure improvements linked to development in the area, to ensure the connectivity benefits support both existing and new residents and employees to make walking and cycling the transport choice of preference.

We are pleased to be working closely with long-standing collaborators, Urban Movement and new partners, Transport Initiatives.