2020 has been a year unlike any other; but amidst the turmoil and hardship there have been some welcome highlights for our studio.
We have won a number of high profile awards, not least of which was being named the AJ100 Practice of the Year. Fish Island Village won in two categories at the Evening Standard New Homes Awards - Best Large Development and the prestigious Grand Prix; at the New London Awards, Battersea Arts Centre was named overall winner as well as winning the Experiencing Culture and Community Prizes while our project for Kingston School of Art was highly commended in both the Mayor's Prize for Circular Design and the Environmental Prize. In US awards, the Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre won an International Chicago Athenaeum Award, while Battersea Arts Centre won a USITT Architecture Award.
We have secured new projects in residential, workplace, higher education and performing arts sectors over the year and expanded our horizons internationally on projects in New Zealand, USA, Sweden, Norway and Russia.
We have supported the effort to tackle the fall out from the pandemic by using our model shop capacity to make visors for local healthcare providers, and by donating our Christmas party funds to Shelter. Many of our clients, particularly in the creative industries, have experienced the hardest of times and we have offered our assistance where possible. We have continued to support Blueprint for All (formerly Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust), Heart of the City, Arts Emergency, the Social Mobility Foundation.
Despite all the challenges and uncertainties caused by the pandemic, we have managed to keep our 80-strong team together over the year. We would like to thank them, our clients, and collaborators for helping us ride the storm of 2020 and look forward to working alongside you all in the new year.
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.