08-01-2021 | FUTURE HIGH STREETS FUND SUCCESS
We Made That are delighted to announce that three of our projects have been successful in being awarded the Government’s Future High Streets Fund:
£17m for Woolwich (Royal Borough of Greenwich) to transform its historic market core, supporting new uses and connections across the town centre - the largest FHSF award in London!
£10m for Tottenham (London Borough of Haringey) to support the High Road and its surroundings with new uses and improved infrastructure, alongside major investment in its unique historic character.
£6.4m for the town of March in Fenland (Fenland District Council) to support transformative public realm at the town centre, and series of small scale mixed-use development proposals.
The bids were developed with collaborators Hatch Regeneris, Urban Movement, PRD, Gort Scott, Authentic Futures, Stockdale and Gerald Eve.
For more information on the £830 million funding boost for 72 high streets in England to recover from the pandemic and deliver ambitious regeneration plans is available here.
08-01-2021 | Back of House
Behind the stage curtain and in the big sheds
The economic importance of the creative industries to the London and UK economies is well researched and understood. But the creative industries do not operate in isolation and their daily activities rely on a mix of different kinds of businesses. London’s ‘creative supply chain’ - the set of goods and services that support at various stages creative consumption and / or production - is easily forgotten and not always well understood. These supply chains go deep into areas that people might not expect.
So much activity exists out of sight – off stage and ‘behind the curtain’. Making and manufacturing can be found in many different parts of the capital, reflecting a wide range of sectors and specialisms. Combined with logistics and other light industrial urban services, these play a vital role in London’s economy, delivering the goods and services so essential for the capital to thrive. We all know the city is home to a diverse range of workspaces, from converted warehouses, to newly built industrial spaces and small-scale design and artist studios. These support and sustain a huge array of activities within the creative and cultural sectors, as well as more broadly.
This is what makes London tick. It breeds the city’s success.
...Read More
The complexity and intricate relationships that exist between sectors, businesses, workers and geographies is difficult to reveal and demonstrate. Catching and steering change requires confidence in which levers should be pulled and understanding of how the public sector can intervene effectively. The inter-connectivity of the sectors involved – economic development, culture, regeneration - doesn’t always easily map through to the structures of local government decision makers. Unlike other city-shaping issues, such as housing, transport or waste management, the ‘economy’ is less tangible, consisting of an array of interdependencies which cannot easily be captured (and therefore planned for).
But our team has been trying.
Employment land reviews, drawing on forecasts of economic trends and anticipated business needs to recommend the safeguarding or release of different types of floorspace are the main tool used by local authorities to inform planning policy formulation and assessment of development proposals. Whilst these forge a robust and logical link between land use policies and anticipated business needs, they can often overlook the interdependencies that exist between businesses in different sectors, the complexity of supplier, customer and employee relationships, as well as the broad range of stakeholders involved in the day-to-day functioning of local economies. These overlooked aspects can be qualitative – or ‘soft’ – considerations that relate to operational, social or cultural behaviours.
Greater fidelity of understanding is required to make good decisions. That intelligence – in our case, driven by our urban research team – is a rigorous reminder to architects and urbanists delivering our cities. This has been a way of working for our practice for some time now.
Reflecting on it, we don’t know how else you can reasonably design. Surely you observe; study; interrogate, then speculate; test; iterate, then shape; design; construct. How do you arrive at successful parts of the urban fabric if you miss out any of these steps – or simply chose to land at what you want as a designer? To embed research as a way of practicing seems to remove ego from city-shaping. There’s simply no space for it when quietly assembling evidence and argument in the background.
Process of uncovering and rolling our sleeves up
Industrial areas in London have not been particularly well-understood. Contrary to the stereotyped mono-culture of ‘dirty uses’ such as breakers yards and car mechanics, these spaces host a huge variety of businesses from larger wholesalers and logistics uses serving central London’s residents and economies through to small photography studios and manufacturers which form an integral part of London’s much-envied creative industries. It’s probably fair to say that most people have no idea what is made and assembled in their local area and what happens in those big sheds.
It is difficult to gain an appreciation of the scale, purpose and ‘behind the curtain’ activity of these businesses without observing them first hand. The urban research team at We Made That has completed granular employment audits of over 1,400ha of employment land, 3,500+ businesses and 52,000+ jobs in London, including auditing of artists’ workspace, creative studios space, dance performance and rehearsal facilities across the capital. We’ve sought to reveal the activity, businesses and people behind the statistics. This includes commissioned studies with clear research outcomes, but it’s also a mode of practice that underpins strategies, masterplans and delivery projects. We always look first.
In different locations, we have used data collected from weeks and weeks of surveying and hundreds of interviews with businesses to give an insight into what people make, the facilities they operate from and demonstrate the local links and contributions made by particular business to others in their area. In these studies, a mix of granular survey and interview data is used to get under the skin of what happens in local economies. It’s fieldwork and it requires time spent on the ground, as well as a keen eye to reveal links. The interdependencies between businesses and their contribution to London as a whole are drawn out, and the productivity and resilience of these areas are highlighted.
In areas of rapid change, statistical data is certainly useful to give a means of comparison and a basis upon future scenario and trends can be built, but it is not sufficient to understand the full ecologies of places. The data is out of date by the time it hits the desk. Getting ahead of data through site visits, observations and discussion with local businesses allows us to get a more nuanced understanding of areas’ make up and businesses’ activities. There is often a large amount of activity missing from the statistical view.
Statistical data relies on Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) which are industry-defined rather than activity defined. Business clusters are therefore often over-looked in categories commonly employed, and we’ve found this to be a recurring theme when it comes to creative supply chains.
For example, where do you think one of Europe’s largest purpose-built underwater film studios, including where Harry Potter and James Bond was shot, is located? Answer: A quiet industrial estate on the outskirts of Basildon. Where do you think hair pieces for blockbuster films such as Matt Damon’s The Martian and Lord of the Rings are made? Answer: A local authority run workspace in Tottenham.
Such gems and activity to celebrate are often concealed in the data or missing altogether.
Gathering data on site through door-to-door assessment is time consuming though – a process of fieldwork and ethnographic study that can feels unreplaceable by ‘big data’. Our developed methodologies allow us to compile precise, centralised and accessible quantitative data on businesses and employment. Information gathered includes figures on employment and productivity, operations and supply chains but also more qualitative data around physical attributes of the area and premises, business tenure, connectedness to other local enterprise, social networks, business needs and plans for the future, business views on the area; hopes, fears and dreams!
Hopes, fears and dreams. What does it all mean?
While there is much to celebrate, London is losing space for production and industry. The need to house a growing population within a constrained city region and the resulting loss of industrial land is reducing the city’s capacity as a place of production and will ultimately threaten London’s position on the global culture stage. The interrelationship between industrial workspace, creative production and cultural consumption in London can appear both fragile and amazingly resilient to change.
The auditing process and studies can help play an important role in explaining the trends and patterns in data, particularly at local level. Talking to local businesses, collecting the views of the broad range of stakeholders involved in the day to day functioning of local economies will not only enhance overall understanding of the local economy, but it is also likely to reveal the value, beyond pure economic value, that businesses and organisations provide – for example social or environmental value. Particular activities are cherished by communities, some contribute to local economic diversity and more broadly underpin the human vitality that characterise local economies. In the context of COVID-19 these ecologies of activities and supply chains have been stretched.
The creative industries in London spend an estimated £40bn within wider supply chains in London alone. About 50 per cent of this expenditure falls outside the creative sectors, including such things as manufacturing of products of wood, manufacturing of fabricated metal products, specialised construction activities, wholesale of textiles, and logistics and distribution of supplies. Over 112,000 creative jobs could be lost in London this year. But we mustn’t forget there are a further 42,000 jobs at risk in London-based supply chains outside the creative industries.
We’re seeing how enterprises and individuals are reacting. Within these studies there are good lessons to be learned about local and individual initiatives that could be replicated or built upon to increase collaboration, innovation or resilience. In Hackney Wick we spoke to a cluster of food businesses who were able to share a forklift truck between them – reducing capital expenditure of each of them as individual enterprises. This one small example demonstrates equipment sharing between co-located businesses at a neighbourhood level. Such shared resources – and skills – will always be economically and socially important.
Influence, policy and impact
We believe that representing the diversity of urban economies opens up alternative, more inclusive approaches to urban economic development based on recognising, supporting and nurturing a spectrum of activity. Mix is good for our city, it always has been. Even more so than before the current pandemic, urban strategies for circular economy principles and relationships to climate crisis and social value need to be drivers for change.
Articulating this and shaping decision-making at a city level is what has driven us to take up progressive thinking in relation to London’s industrial places, including proposals for industrial intensification and co-location. This began in 2015, when we worked to develop the Mayor of London’s Industrial Land Supply and Economy Study. This study was among the first to highlight the emerging need for a changing approach to industrial uses in London. Now, as we shift into new thinking about space for production activities, we recognise their significance for businesses and for London as a whole, as well as the pressures facing local authorities and policy makers to allow intensification of such uses.
Adopting a holistic approach to the creative industries must be rooted in a recognition of the interconnected relationship between creative production and cultural consumption. London’s world-class cultural institutions rely on a range of production and support activities spanning across sectors, workspace typologies and locations. Our hope is that by allowing these enterprises to step forward from behind the stage curtain, we can reveal their value to the city and secure their future as part of the invaluable diversity of the capital.
By Oliver Goodhall & Lili Lainé
Published in Urban Design Group Magazine, Winter 2021, Issue 157.
Read Less05-01-2021 | Margate Town Investment Plan submitted to MHCLG
The Margate Town Investment Plan provides a long term plan to transform Margate and act as a catalyst for future investment. Submitted to the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government in December as part of the Town Deal process, the plan identifies £29m of interlinked investments. The bid was developed by We Made That and PRD, alongside Thanet District Council, the Town Team, People’s Panel, stakeholders, local businesses and the community. The full document can be read here.
Four project interventions have been outlined to address the challenges facing the town, helping to provide long-lasting benefits for local people and create a nationally significant visitor offer to support COVID-19 recovery. The bid for £29m includes £9m investment in Scaling Margate’s Creative Production and Skills, £6.5m investment in Coastal Wellbeing, £4.5m investment in Public Realm and Connections and £9m investment in Supporting and Diversifying Heritage Assets.
Feedback from central government is expected by spring this year. If Heads of Terms are agreed, the Board will have 12 months to develop business cases for the selected projects with local partners, stakeholders and the People’s Panel.
10-12-2020 | Afterparti x RE—SET—GO
We are excited to announce that we will be collaborating with Afterparti on the RE—SET—GO programme. Afterparti is a fresh-thinking, architecture-infused collective with an event-and-zine series of the same name. Born out of the New Architecture Writers (N.A.W.) programme, they explore big ideas about contemporary urban space through the lenses of identity and race.
Afterparti will act as critical friends and challengers of the RE—SET—GO programme, helping to reflect and build on the experience of participants and ensure we deliver a sustainable programme for the future. Through activities such as zine-making and Social Mixers, they will be checking and challenging our biases to ensure that the programme centres participants’ voices and is as educational, empowering and uplifting as possible.
Applications for paid work placements are now open. The deadline to apply is 6pm, 11 January 2021. Find out more about RE—SET—GO.
08-12-2020 | WHEN IS AN ARCHITECT NOT AN ARCHITECT? - ARCHITECTS AFTER ARCHITECTURE BOOK LAUNCH
Holly has recently contributed to “Architects After Architecture” with her piece “When is an Architect not an Architect”? The publication, edited by Harriet Harriss, Rory Hyde, Roberta Marcaccio, seeks to answer: what can you do with a degree in architecture, where might it take you, and what kind of challenges could you address? It reframes architecture as a uniquely versatile way of acting on the world, far beyond that of designing buildings.
In this volume, 40 practitioners who have used their architectural training in new and resourceful ways, together describe a future of architecture that is diverse and engaged, expanding the limits of the discipline, and offering new paths forward in times of crisis.
The book launch is on Wednesday 16th December, with a virtual presentation in collaboration with the Architectural Association, scheduled at 6.30pm. Please join us then if you can!
07-12-2020 | NEW STARTER AT WE MADE THAT
A new member has joined our team!
Cassandra is an Architectural Assistant who completed her Part I at Oxford Brookes University in 2018. She went on to gain experience in freelance roles and internships in a variety of design disciplines, and is also an active volunteer within third sector organisations.
30-11-2020 | PROMOTIONS AT WE MADE THAT
We are pleased to announce that Lili Laine has been promoted to be Senior Urban Researcher in recognition of the fantastic work and important role she plays in the practice.
She has led both London-wide and locally-focused studies to investigate requirements for workspace across a range of sectors including creative workspace, flexible provision and industrial uses. She has brought together a range of robust and incisive evidence - alongside best practice, useable tools and delivery expertise - to help local authorities, landowners and sector representatives accelerate growth in the digital, creative and cultural sectors in particular. More recently she has also led a range of research studies on social value, inclusion and community wealth building, including landmark studies for the London Boroughs of Newham, Hackney and Croydon.
Lili will take an increased role in leading urban research projects as the team grows.
30-11-2020 | PROMOTIONS AT WE MADE THAT
We are delighted to announce that Mark Flynn has recently qualified as an Architect. Mark joined the team in 2015 and has been responsible for a range of public realm and placemaking projects in London and the North West. He led a series of transformations to East Street Market and shopfronts through the What Walworth Wants strategy, where he worked with local stakeholders to develop a catalogue of projects. He has shaped the Harlesden Canalside project since inception, which will deliver a flagship community hub for local residents, businesses, boaters and visitors, a project conceived as part of the Park Royal Centre Masterplan.
He is currently leading on Chicksand play space and growspace, and Lockwood Way industrial estate public realm projects which are due to commence on site in 2021.
26-11-2020 | RE—SET—GO launched to increase diversity in architecture practices
We’re delighted to launch RE—SET—GO, a programme that will make space for excluded voices and pilot ways to build more progressive and representative architectural communities.
Despite the built environment’s influence on our everyday lives, women and Black, Asian and multi ethnic groups are still under-represented in the professions that shape it.
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 to create opportunities in architectural practice, which has a poor track record when it comes to wider participation and diversity.
A number of activities will operate over the coming year, including paid work experience; participative workshops; knowledge exchange events; and 1-to-1 mentoring sessions to support future generations of architects, designers and architecture practices. The programme will provide opportunities for Black, Asian and multi ethnic individuals and women from the boroughs of Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Wandsworth. It is employer-led and will give more than 150 individuals from under-represented backgrounds experience, skills and connections to prepare for employment in architecture practice.
RE—SET—GO is led by We Made That, coordinating with two other female-led architectural practices based in south London; IF-DO and Gort Scott, on programme leadership. Employer partners are formed from the London Practice Forum, a collective of 21 leading London architectural practices which care about the city, its people and its built environment.
Funding support comes from Stride, who campaign to build networks that inspire imaginations, encourage collaboration and the exchange of knowledge.
Get involved here: www.re-set-go.xyz
10-11-2020 | Open Call for Good Practice - ‘Dealing with empty shops’
The pandemic and associated lockdowns have resulted in a significant impact on high streets and town centres across the UK. Combined with long-term trends affecting retail, the impact is that many high street businesses are reducing their presence in town centres or closing altogether, leaving vacant property in their wake with negative long-term consequences for these places.
We Made That have been commissioned by the Local Government Association to produce best practice guidance to inform local authorities about what they can do to address the issue of vacant units in high streets and town centres.
The team are looking for examples and case studies of initiatives or strategies that have worked well in dealing with vacancy in town centres and high streets. They also want to know if and when officers have faced challenges, and what was done to rectify the issues faced. The team are looking for examples across all scales, from small independent shops to large space anchor retailers that have left town centres.
To respond to this call with your evidence and experience, please email lorna@wemadethat.co.uk by Friday 4th December.
06-11-2020 | WE MADE THAT FINALISTS IN THE CAMDEN HIGHLINE DESIGN COMPETITION
We Made That are pleased to announce we have been shortlisted as finalists in the Camden Highline international design competition.
Camden Highline are a charity with exciting plans for a £35 million proposed public park and garden walk transforming the disused railway between Camden Town and King’s Cross into a new green artery for London. The ambitions is for the Highline to become a beacon for what positive and sustainable development of the city can look like, and for others to be inspired, learn and benefit from. The route is 1.2km long, around 8 metres above ground and will bring new local green space to 20,000 people.
We Made That with Hassell submitted a proposal that focuses on the importance of the Camden Highline becoming an example to the world of using landscape to deliver long-term, positive impacts across all ages, colours, backgrounds and abilities. The team is supported by Stockdale, Counterculture Partnership, Buro Happold, Phyto Studio, Stephen Levrant Heritage Architecture, The Young Foundation, PRD and the University of Sheffield Department of Landscape Architecture.
More info on the Camden Highline design competition and other shortlisted design teams can be found here.
15-10-2020 | NESTA Rethinking Parks - A Parks for All Fund
Holly has contributed to a collection of essays of ‘Visions to Shape the Future of Parks’ as part of the culmination of NESTA’s Rethinking Parks programme. In the essay, ‘Valuing the Invaluable: A Parks for All Fund’, she advocates for meaningful recognition of the value that parks have, and a new public fund to support innovative, impactful interventions that address current challenges of access, equality and public health.
You can read the essay here and download the full collection here.
07-10-2020 | Holly appointed High Streets Task Force Expert
Holly Lewis is delighted to be appointed as a High Streets Task Force Expert. In this new national role she will support local authorities, helping to solve complex, interdisciplinary issues, and bring expertise to entrenched problems and new challenges that England’s high streets are facing.
She will visit specific high streets and town centres to work with place leaders and the community to identify the important key issue(s) that are hampering successful transformation, and how to address these. She will also consult with local authorities and place stakeholders to help solve complex challenges, which may also include running vision workshops and brokering relationships within the local community.
Read more > www.highstreetstaskforce.org.uk
06-10-2020 | WE MADE THAT FEATURED IN AJ100 DISRUPTOR PRACTICES
We Made That featured in AJ100 ‘disruptor practices’ - architectural practices and organisations from outside the AJ100 who are pioneering innovative and sustainable new ways of practice.
This year the AJ editorial team decided that the AJ100 should go in a different direction, and highlight smaller practices and networks who are challenging the norms of traditional practice in their drive to work in a more sustainable manner. They selected 25 ‘disruptor practices’ to mark 25 years of the AJ100, which traditionally celebrates business success by focusing on the 100 largest architect practices in the UK.
More info on other disruptor practices can be found here.
17-09-2020 | TWO PROJECTS SHORTLISTED IN THE NLA AWARDS 2020
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.
14-09-2020 | WE ARE HIRING IN HARLESDEN
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
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.
08-09-2020 | HOLLY SPEAKING AT OSLO URBAN ARENA 2020
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.
04-08-2020 | WE MADE THAT BECOME SUPPORTERS OF ACCELERATE
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
04-08-2020 | NEW ARCHITECTURE WRITERS PROGRAMME
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
29-07-2020 | NEW STARTERS AT WE MADE THAT
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.