Haworth Tompkins have won Practice of the Year in the AJ100 Awards for 2020. We were also named New Member of the Year for our "business success and the quality of [our] work."
From the AJ - Why Haworth Tompkins was named AJ100 Practice of the year - Will Hurst
"The AJ100 judges were bowled over by the achievements of Haworth Tompkins in a competitive field of nominees. The Stirling Prize-winning practice itself began its presentation by describing 2019 as the ‘most significant year’ of its 30-year history and it quickly became clear this was no exaggeration.
As well as achieving steady growth in profit and turnover (architecture fees totalled £7 million in 2019), Haworth Tompkins diversified into new sectors, such as retirement living and industrial buildings and gained 16 significant new clients over the course of the year.
It also completed a string of significant projects, including a major retrofit for Kingston University, the Fish Island project for Peabody, and The Den theatre auditorium in Manchester.
Co-founder Steve Tompkins was named the most influential person in British theatre by The Stage magazine and the practice won 19 awards, including the most RIBA National Awards for any architect that year. It underlined its forward-thinking attitude by investing 12 per cent of its turnover in R&D.
Haworth Tompkins also found time to spearhead the globally influential Architects Declare movement, putting its money where its mouth is by placing social and climate justice at the heart of its purpose as a company. It did this by transforming itself into an Employee Ownership Trust, signing up to the RIBA 2030 Challenge and upping its game on things such as in-house embodied carbon assessments and post-occupancy evaluation and focusing further on retrofitting.
When Covid-19 hit, the studio helped the hard-hit world of theatre by offering its services to a number of theatre organisations pro bono.
‘Haworth Tompkins is setting the standard for architectural practice in today’s world,’ one judge said. ‘They are challenging themselves to improve on every front and succeeding, working incredibly hard to promote architecture and create diversity within the profession and their own leadership team. While universally applying new, higher sustainability standards on all projects, they also share vast amounts of knowledge through open-source publications.’
Other judges admired the practice’s ‘truly democratic studio environment’ as well as its commitment to environmental sustainability. One remarked: ‘They have gone through a series of deep reflections, which have engaged the whole studio. They have redefined their leadership structure by rebalancing age, gender and ethnicity among the group and laying out a clear path to succession. That is so rare.’
In 2020, Haworth Tompkins has set the bar for AJ100 Practice of the Year very high indeed."
Read the full piece here
Haworth Tompkins is working on a Strategic Industrial Land (SIL) masterplan for Enfield Council at Meridian Water. Our project will test intensification options for the Hawley Yard site next to the north circular and help establish a land zoning strategy for industrial and co-location uses within the overall Meridian Water masterplan. The whole regeneration project seeks to deliver around 10,000 homes and 6,000 jobs over a 25-year period.
Haworth Tompkins has been announced as the lead on the multi-disciplinary team for the St George's Guildhall and Creative Hub project in King's Lynn. Led by the Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk, the redevelopment is set to transform the Guildhall and surrounding buildings into a nationally important cultural heritage site. Stakeholder and community engagement and consultation will take place throughout the project, which is due to be completed in 2026.
Haworth Tompkins has been shortlisted in the Innovation of the Year category at the AJ100 Awards, for the Modular Auditorium most recently used at @sohoplace. Originally developed with specialist stage engineers and manufacturers Tait Towers for the Bridge Theatre, the kit of parts can be assembled in numerous permutations to achieve different capacities, seating formats and staging options, each with dense capacity, excellent sightlines and clear acoustics.
HT Associate Director Dan Tassell is on the NLA Education Expert Panel this year. The panel is concentrating on three key themes which will result in outputs and recommendations that will inform the New London Agenda and beyond. This month he reports back on the themes being explored by the subgroups; Creative Curriculum, Reusing Space and Retrofit. To read the summary of their work click here. Haworth Tompkins have completed several Education projects around the country including Rockwood Academy, a school retrofit in Birmingham, shown here.
Theatre Royal Drury Lane has won a RIBA London award. Our major restoration of this Grade I listed building for LW Theatres opened in summer 2021. The RIBA Regional jury commented that "transformations are seamless and are deliberately integrated into the historic building to ensure that its heritage remains its predominant character. Haworth Tompkins has successfully unlocked the building’s history and simultaneously created a very modern theatre". National Award winners will be announced in June.
Ahead of the completion of Industria next month, we have produced a short film (watch here) with graphic designers DNCO, exploring the concept and construction process for the UK’s first multi-level light industrial estate. The project, for Be First, represents an innovative and ambitious approach to modern industrial design, with 45 light industrial units and maker spaces arranged around yards across three levels, accessed by a helical van ramp.
Director Lucy Picardo is taking part in the upcoming RSAW Spring Conference on ‘All Things Alternative’ at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, Wales.
Haworth Tompkins has been chosen to be part of the masterplanning design team, working with U+I and TOWN, on a mixed-use development in North East Cambridge. The team, led by Kjellander Sjöberg Architects, includes Bell Phillips, Alison Brooks Architects, Feilden Fowles, Nooma Studio and 5th Studio all working together on 5000 homes alongside shops, workplaces, schools and parks located within easy walking distance, based around the principle of the five-minute neighbourhood. Community engagement will take place throughout 2023 and a planning submission is anticipated in late 2024.