Haworth Tompkins' current working practices 25.03.20

In response to government advice, Haworth Tompkins are now working remotely with all meetings taking place online. The studio remains fully operational, and secure software systems allow all teams to remain connected to both each other and the physical office. We can assure all clients and collaborators that project continuity is being maintained. Within the studio there are regular check in times for everyone, to make sure that staff are being looked after. Haworth Tompkins' wishes everyone good health during this ongoing situation.

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Reading Borough Council has unanimously approved plans for the Hexagon studio theatre in Reading, commenting that the proposals create a “visionary and transformative scheme”.

The Hexagon studio theatre will revitalise the brutalist 1977 theatre with the creation of a flexible new hub for arts, performance and community uses. The extension and refurbishment will create a new 300-seat auditorium, a café, bar, rooftop terrace, and rehearsal and workshop rooms.

A single-storey backstage and performer area will be demolished to allow for the new building to be created, which will include improved dressing rooms, a wardrobe department, and more production and rehearsal spaces. All proposals focus on improved sustainability as part of the Council’s commitment to working towards a net-zero carbon Reading by 2030.

HT will work in partnership with a multi-disciplinary design team, including Charcoalblue as Theatre and Acoustic Consultants, JCLA as Landscape Architects, Momentum as Structural Engineers, Skelly and Couch as Service Engineers and Equals Consulting as Project Managers. The project is due to start on site Summer 2024. Read the full release.

“We are absolutely thrilled that our plans for the Hexagon studio theatre have been approved. Alongside our collaborative design team we are looking forward to working with the council to deliver an ambitious, sustainable and adaptable theatre for the future of Reading.” Lucy Picardo, Director – Haworth Tompkins


A design team, led by Haworth Tompkins has been chosen by Hackney Council to develop proposals for 7 infill housing projects across the borough expected to deliver 240 new homes providing much needed new council housing as well as high-quality public realm and resident amenity spaces. Proposals for a further 7 sites will be developed by design teams led by Al-Jawad Pike and Apparata, Sergison Bates, Archio and Citizens Design Bureau.

Haworth Tompkins has assembled a collaborative, multi-disciplinary design team, including regular co-designers LDA Design (landscape) and HTS (structure), but also new and exciting talent Mark Lemanski, Nooma Studio and Balaam Murphy who will work closely alongside Haworth Tompkins but also be given the opportunity to lead on the design of two of the sites.

“We are thrilled to have been selected for this exciting project. Several members of the project team are Hackney residents, so for us there is a personal connection to working with the local communities to provide much needed new council housing and improvements to the surrounding estates.

Hackney Council is an ambitious client, with a vision closely aligned with our own aspirations to provide high-quality low-energy homes, predominantly for council rent. We are looking forward to working with the council on the development of these low-rise infill sites and exploring the opportunities for the creation of low-embodied carbon structures.” Chris Fellner – Director, Haworth Tompkins


The Haworth Tompkins team recently gathered to celebrate the completion of the superstructure at Wembley NE02/NE03 with a topping out ceremony. A big thank you to client Quintain and John Sisk & Son Ltd for hosting us – it was a brilliant event for the whole project team to mark the fantastic achievement in bringing these projects to fruition.

The NE02 and NE03 schemes combined deliver:

  • Quintain’s largest construction contract signed to date at Wembley Park
  • 769 new homes, more than 100 affordable homes and 972-bathroom pods
  • 22,000 cubic metres of concrete poured but the lowest Embodied Carbon to date
  • 1,802 offsite manufactured façade panels used across both buildings
  • An innovative design that allows each of the 752 balconies to be installed within minutes
  • 99% of waste reused or recycled or diverted from landfill
  • An average of 560 people working on site each day
  • Over 1.2 million hours worked in 2023
  • £24m spent with local businesses
  • 213 hours of volunteering to support community projects
  • 26 apprentices currently on-site
  • 7 tower cranes across NE02 and NE03 simultaneously through construction

We are honoured that our Fish Island Village project for Peabody & Hill Group has been shortlisted for a RIBA London Regional Award.

Fish Island Village has transformed a site of disused warehouses with a collection of mid-rise buildings interspersed with new public streets and spaces, opening up over 200 metres of previously inaccessible canal frontage. The development is made up of Neptune Wharf by Haworth Tompkins - 17 individual blocks forming 3 clusters, comprising 501 dwellings and 56 commercial and workspace units, opening up into a sequence of courtyards; Lanterna by Lyndon Goode - a standalone building facing a new public square comprising 16 dwellings and a ground floor restaurant; and Monier Road by Pitman Tozer - 3 blocks comprising 71 homes and 7 workspace studios. Emerging practice Bureau de Change designed the fit-out of the workspace facilities delivered by The Trampery.

2023 was a year of exciting change at Haworth Tompkins. In August the practice relocated from its previous base in Kentish Town to expanded premises in Clerkenwell, the heart of London’s architecture and design district. The practice now occupies two floors of 110 Golden Lane, just north of the Barbican, and has undertaken a major refurbishment to provide a more creative environment for the team, with enhanced audio-visual facilities, larger meeting rooms and a multi-use central space for exhibitions, lectures and cultural events.

Major new commissions have been won, including the redevelopment of Earls Court; the masterplan for a new garden community in Tendring & Colchester; the Hexagon Studio Theatre, Reading; St George’s Guildhall at King’s Lynn; the Compton Verney Masterplan; the Four Glories refurbishment at Stowe Landscape Gardens; Silvertown estate regeneration; the Gascoigne West neighbourhood development in Barking and a design competition for the redevelopment of Kouvola Theatre in Finland. Last year Haworth Tompkins became a Certified B Corporation, earning one of the two highest scores within the profession, and won the AJ100 Practice of the Year in both 2020 and 2022.

The director group has expanded over the four years since Haworth Tompkins became an Employee Ownership Trust, reinforcing its commitment to equity and collaboration as an organisation and a community. The practice is now led by Chris Fellner, Lucy Picardo, Joanna Sutherland and Roger Watts alongside managing director Toby Johnson, who have an average of over 20 years’ experience with the studio and are centrally involved in the collective mission to design regenerative, intelligent and beautiful architecture.

At the end of March 2024, marking the culmination of a five-year succession plan, Graham Haworth and Steve Tompkins will be stepping down as directors of the practice they founded in 1991. It has always been their intention to create a studio which would continue to grow and expand on its legacy and ethos, and they welcome their new role providing support as consultants. Now over 100 strong, with the combination of deep continuity, a pipeline of exciting commissions and an energised team, Haworth Tompkins is well placed to go from strength to strength.

Haworth Tompkins, alongside Finnish Architecture studio ARCO have been selected as winners of an invited architectural design competition for the rebuilding and part refurbishment of a theatre in Kouvola Finnland. The competition included five submissions and was decided by a panel of judges and a public vote which took place during a 2-week exhibition in November 2023 where all entries were open to the public. According to Riku Hämäläinen, the operation manager of the Kouvola theatre, the theatre staff were also in favour of the winning proposal. The winning proposal ‘Kouvo’, proposes an exemplar world class theatre through a bold sustainable transformation that both respects the integrity and cultural history of the existing buildings while radically opening up the theatre to the city, creating a strong cultural landmark for Kouvola.

The proposal retains the existing 1950s community education building and sports hall by the local architect Eero A. Kajava and rebuilds the adjacent 1960s Theatre. The historic and new building together will form the improved and extended theatre complex. The classrooms and sports hall of the historic community centre will be transformed into generous administration, dressing room and workshop spaces as well as the new studio theatre. A new state of the art 400 seat auditorium and stage together with the public main foyer will be built on the site of the old theatre bringing Kouvola’s theatre infrastructure into the 21st century. The judges commended the proposals for their innovative, sustainable and modern approach while respecting the integrity, spirit and culture of the original buildings and surrounding area creating a strong Kouvola identity.

“We are thrilled to be selected as winners alongside our Finnish design partners ARCO to develop proposals for the redevelopment of Kouvola Theatre. Our design aims to draw on the architectural and cultural memory of the buildings whilst radically transforming the production spaces and stages and opening up the foyer to the city.” Roger Watts, Director Haworth Tompkins

Haworth Tompkins has been appointed to work with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to develop proposals for the redevelopment of Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives. The proposals will explore options to reconfigure and refurbish the Grade II listed building as a hub for the borough archives, including upgraded storage facilities, educational and community uses.

Although originally constructed as a Vestry Hall in 1861, the building was extended and converted to a library in 1902, with the help of a donation from Andrew Carnegie. The success of the library during the early 20th century led to another major extension in 1937, and the footprint of the building was roughly doubled. The building contains several historically significant spaces, including a 330sqm hall which once housed the lending library, and a reading room with a decorative plasterwork ceiling.

Haworth Tompkins will lead a multi-disciplinary design team to develop proposals for the sensitive refurbishment and upgrade of the building, which is currently in a poor state of repair. The team will draw on their experience in the cultural, educational and archive sectors to produce designs that deliver high performance archival and community spaces for Tower Hamlets. Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives website: www.ideastore.co.uk/local-history

We’re delighted to announce Neptune Wharf at Fish Island Village for Peabody & Hill Group has been selected as a 2024 Civic Trust Awards Regional Finalist. Neptune Wharf provides a family of 17 courtyard buildings within the wider Fish Island development opening onto a sequence of courtyards. The development provides high-quality affordable homes alongside flexible commercial space to create London’s largest new complex for creatives.