Haworth Tompkins has been named AJ100 Practice of the Year 2022, for the second time in three years. Read the full story here from AJ's Emily Booth:
"Judges were fulsome in their praise of the practice, the overwhelming winner of this year’s AJ100 Practice of the Year accolade. ‘It’s a forward-thinking, genuine practice and a well-deserving winner – impressive on all fronts,’ they enthused.
Accountability was mentioned time and again: ‘It is aligning with all its principles to create an authentic environment where people prosper and thrive – and it is holding itself to account with its move to an Employee Ownership Trust,’ said one judge. ‘It has a comprehensive and accountable approach,’ said another.
No stranger to the Practice of the Year award (the studio won in 2020, when it was also named New Member of the Year), Haworth Tompkins has proclaimed a ‘bumper’ 30th anniversary year, with turnover increasing from £7 million to £10 million and its headcount of qualified architects rising from 53 to 62.
It has implemented a successful hybrid working model and an important strategic change has been to improve its gender split at leadership level with the appointment of two new female directors (Lucy Picardo and Joanna Sutherland) and a new female associate director. Forty-two per cent of its architects are women. Nearly 10 per cent are from a black or minority ethnic background. As a founding signatory of Architects Declare, it plays an active role in the organisation.
Project-wise, Haworth Tompkins has diversified its international work, with new commissions in Perth in Western Australia and Bergen in Norway, in addition to work in New Zealand, the USA and Sweden. It has won work in its core sectors of performing arts, housing and education – and, importantly, also in new sectors of masterplanning (Queen Mary University), industrial densification (Albert Island in the Royal Docks) and workplace.
Completed project highlights range from its Theatre Royal Drury Lane refurbishment right down to the small Punchdrunk temporary theatre in Woolwich. Projects currently on site are diverse, including housing (Wood Street and Blackwall Reach) and work for Pembroke College and Barking Industria (a stacked industrial brownfield development).
Addressing the climate emergency is central to the practice’s thinking. Its approaches are significant and include: a sustainability and regenerative design working group which produces and reviews its in-house toolkit; all projects being designed to meet net zero by 2030; and publishing its post-occupancy evaluation reports on its website. It assesses the whole-life carbon in projects and guides clients to use this is as part of the services engineering scope of work. It advocates that all clients appoint an ecologist on projects.
Haworth Tompkins has also firmly embedded equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) into its business plan. Among myriad initiatives, it monitors the demographics of applicants so it can tailor job adverts as required, proactively advertises via diverse networks, and has developed a transparent recruitment process. The studio carries out an annual diversity report with recommendations and targets, has established EDI groups, and has signed up to the NLA Diverse Leaders Pledge and the RIBA Inclusion Charter. It is an active member of the Architecture Race Forum.
Quite simply, as our judges said: ‘It’s a comprehensive approach to practice management and excellence.’"
A new cultural heart will emerge in the city as Kouvola Theatre is transformed into a stunning and more versatile venue.
Malmö Stadsteater HippodromenThe renovation of the Malmö Stadsteater Hippodromen has been announced as one of the winners of the prestigious Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Awards in the Restoration/Renovation category.
Pembroke Mill Lane, Cambridge, has been shortlisted in the Education and Refurbishment categories at the 2025 Brick Awards.
Haworth Tompkins has submitted applications for planning and listed building consent for a phased Masterplan for the Grade I listed De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill.
Work has started on site for the new Studio Theatre at the Hexagon, Reading.
HT Associate Directors Hugo Braddick & Ken Okonkwo have been selected as Expert Assessors for the 2025 NLA Awards, in the Industrial & Logistics and Neighbourhoods & Areas cateogries. They, alongside their fellow assessors have been busy for the past couple of weeks reviewing the entries which will be presented to the shortlist jury who will select the final winners, commendations and special prizes, to be announced at the awards ceremony later this year. Run by New London Architecture with support from the Mayor of London, the Awards celebrate the people, places and projects shaping a more equitable, sustainable and prosperous London.
Haworth Tompkins has been shortlisted in three categories at this year's Building Design Architect of the Year Awards. The awards recognise architects for their commitment to providing a high-quality work environment and a consistent body of work rather than one-off projects. We're in the running for three categories; Best Architect Employer, Refurbishment & Reinvention and Higher Education for projects including Pembroke College, The Warburg Institute, Trinity Hall Masterplan, American Repertory Theater, King’s Cross Church and Malmö Stadsteater.
Haworth Tompkins is working with lead architects and masterplanners Maccreanor Lavington alongside Sergison Bates, Architecture Doing Place and East on the regeneration of the Aylesbury Estate in Southwark. The vast 28.5 hectare estate, one of Europe's largest, is being regenerated over a 30-year programme, providing 3500 new homes, of which over 50% will be affordable and prioritised for existing and former Aylesbury Estate residents.
Our appointment, through the Notting Hill Genesis Framework, delivers over 200 homes as part of Phase 2B, alongside a new neighbourhood park, with play areas, landscaping, and spaces for community use. Our plot includes a 25 Storey tower designed to maximise dual aspect homes.
Cllr Helen Dennis, Cabinet Member for New Homes and Sustainable Development, said: “I’m delighted to see these new high-quality, safe, and warm homes given the green light to go ahead on the Aylesbury Estate. It is vital that the estate renewal continues to progress, delivering affordable, decent housing and green spaces for Southwark residents, including existing Aylesbury residents and those on our housing waiting list."
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