We Made That

Are you driven by wanting to help create equitable cities through incisive research and impactful projects? One of these three positions could be for you:

Senior Urban Designer (Projects leader)

The ideal candidate will be responsible for delivering masterplans and area strategies at a range of scales across the capital and the UK and will be responsible for leading small project teams. Job description here.

Architectural Assistant (Part I/II)

The ideal candidate will have a desire to work on urban-scale strategies, participative co-design projects and early stages of architectural project development. Job description here.

Studio and Bid Coordinator

The ideal candidate would have previous public sector bidding experience and enjoy a collaborative environment alongside a highly motivated team of architects, urban designers, researchers and admin staff. Job description here.

Deadline for applications is 18th April 2021. See more information in each of the job descriptions.

We Made That is London Living Wage accredited and an equal opportunities employer. We are keen that our practice reflects the diversity of communities we design for, and welcome and encourage applications from under-represented groups.

We Made That are delighted to be engaging on our proposals to improve Penstock Tunnel and the open space at the eastern entrance of the tunnel. Following our last public engagement event in September 2019, we have been updating our proposals alongside lighting designers Studio Dekka, and artist Emma Smith, to take on on board comments from the public. 

The proposals seek to create better connections between the east and west of the borough with improvements including drainage, wayfinding, lighting and landscaping, along with an integrated artwork commission. The project is part of the wider Connecting Wood Green programme supported by the Greater London Authority’s Good Growth Fund.

Exhibition boards detailing the proposals are available to view on site between 8 – 21 March 2021, as well as on the Haringey Council Penstock Tunnel Improvements page here. 

Congratulations to associate Nisha Kurian who has been recognised in The Planner’s Women of Influence for 2021!

Nisha is one of the programme leaders who has initiated RE—SET—GO, a programme with the mission of diversifying architecture practices and built environment professions. One hundred and fifty individuals from under-represented backgrounds will benefit through paid work experience, workshops and one-to-one mentoring. She has recently written for ICON on diversity and representation, saying: “If we are going to be serious about promoting greater diversity within the profession, then we need to proactively create the pathways and opportunities for access into the sector.” Professionally, she has led a number of influential planning and placemaking projects at We Made That, including Battersea Design and Tech Quarter Framework, Purley Way Masterplan and Park Royal Centre Masterplan.

We’ve now launched 1-to-1 mentoring sessions and “CV surgeries” through a series of free, regular and bookable slots with London Practice Forum architecture practices. 80 sessions are on offer between now and June 2021 and can be easily booked through eventbrite.

You can book free mentoring and Q&A sessions to gain career guidance, improved awareness of career opportunities as well as being an opportunity to discuss ‘hot topics’ that concern the built environment today. You can also book free 1-to-1 CV surgery sessions to help prepare for the workplace and gain advice on CV creation/ update or making job applications.

More here.

Rachel and Mark have been involved in writing a ‘live brief’ for Year 2 BA Design students at Goldsmiths, University of London. The brief sets out a 6 week design project, based on our work at We Made That. It looks into current topics including social value and 15 minute neighbourhoods as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

On 25th January they launched the brief, alongside others from Facebook Augmented Reality and Apple Design Group. They will be involved in attending interim and final crits and look forward to seeing the student responses!

Holly will be speaking at the The Nottingham and Derby Society of Architects event on Tuesday 16th February, 6.30-8.00pm. The event is a Practice Profile on We Made That, where Holly will present and discuss the origins and ethos of the practice, as well as some recent projects.

Holly co-founded We Made That in 2006. She has led a unique range of urban projects for the practice, from pioneering industrial intensification work through to comprehensive high street regeneration projects. This includes the research portfolio of the practice, with particularly incisive studies of local economies and placemaking across London.

Tickets for the event are available for free here.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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. 

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  

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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.

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.