Twenty Years of Making Things Happen

This year, We Made That turned twenty. It is the kind of milestone that invites reflection, and over the past few months we have been doing plenty of it: looking back at the places we have worked in, the people we have worked alongside, and the ideas that have driven us since we first opened our doors in 2006.

Last week, we marked the occasion with an evening at Jerwood Space in London, gathering clients, collaborators, past team members and friends to pause, take stock and look ahead.

Taking stock of twenty years

Of course, numbers can’t tell you everything, but they can be a good start. Across 348 projects (and counting!), we have delivered 98 urban research studies, 102 strategies and masterplans, and 76 public spaces and buildings. We have worked with 68 local authorities and public development corporations, including 30 of London's 33 boroughs, and helped raise £240m for clients to deliver their ambitions on the ground. 72% of our commissions being with repeat clients shows that we have established strong relationships with them. Nearly 99,000 homes have been planned through our strategies, alongside 600,000 square metres of employment space supporting over 40,000 jobs.

Since becoming a Certified B Corporation in 2021, we have measured our work with greater precision. In just the last five years: 67% of our projects used a collaborative public process; more than 19,600 people were engaged directly in project development; and we delivered 703 events, workshops, seminars and interviews. The majority of that work, 62%, has been for underserved communities. These figures represent real conversations, significant decisions and, we hope, genuine change.

The work itself

What connects twenty years of projects is less a single project type or approach, and more a set of persistent questions about what, and who, our towns and cities are actually for.

High streets have been a constant thread. They have apparently been dying for as long as we have been in practice, and yet the reality, as we have consistently argued, is far more nuanced. We have now supported more than 110 high street places and projects across the country, from Alperton, Bodmin and Canterbury to Uxbridge, Woolwich and York, helping communities evidence, plan for and deliver change in places that matter deeply to the people who use them.

Our industrial work has challenged the assumption that manufacturing and making have no place in the contemporary city. We have advocated for the economic and environmental value of these places, and for delivery models that address real supply challenges. Our cultural infrastructure work has taken a similarly protective stance, standing up for the full spectrum of provision at a time when affordability pressures threaten to hollow out the spaces where creativity takes root.

Running through all of this is a commitment to equity. Some of the projects we are proudest of tackle inequality directly, whether through research on women's and girls' safety, work on tree equity and urban resilience, or practical tools that give communities greater agency over their places.

The people who make it possible

We could not have done any of this alone. Our collaborators, past and present, have shaped the work as much as we have. Our current team continues to produce brilliant, rigorous, ambitious work. And to our former team members, many of whom joined us at Jerwood Space, we follow your onwards journeys with real pride.

We are also grateful to our broader professional community. It is, by most accounts, a difficult time to run a practice. Standing alongside peers, through groups like the London Practice Forum, and through programmes like RE—SET—GO, which has opened doors for 133 young people from under-represented backgrounds, has reminded us of what collective effort can achieve.

What comes next

Twenty years in, we are not slowing down. There are completed projects to share, new commissions tackling London-wide questions of equity at every scale, and research that we believe will genuinely shift conversations.

For now, to everyone who has been part of these two decades in any capacity: thank you. We look forward to the future we can build together.

Photography: Nina Robinson