We are super excited that the renovation of Trinity Square, just yards from our studio, is under way for @colchestercitycouncil ! Already @bakersofdanbury are making fantastic progress.
Check out the tired 1970s brickwork before and after a Doff clean and raking out the bad cement mortar for new lime pointing so it can breathe...plus carefully cutting out and replacing damaged bricks. Railings lifted out surprisingly well for reuse, and the non-functional French drain around the Grade 1 listed church cleaned out ready for proper drainage to be installed so the building will no longer be so damp. Weldon Stone, specialist masons, have carefully lifted broken gravestones to be repaired and reset.
A very special project, @lauriceradones looking after it with @hanaloftus while @ketikejt is on mat leave!
Fitting that our first reel is this lovely (if slightly embarrassing...says @hanaloftus 🫣) video made by @tendringdistrictcouncil to celebrate Sunspot winning the Special Award for Community Impact at @civictrustawards last night. 💚💚💚
Laurice, our wonderful Part 1, is soon going to be off to do her Part 2, after two years with us! So we are seeking a new team member. This is a job for an energetic, curious, quick-learning person, who can be either a Part 1 or a relatively recently graduated Part 2. You must be local to #Colchester as it is full-time in our studio here. Hand-drawing, attention to detail and good design eye essential. We will teach you a huge amount. Please get in touch!
And thank you Laurice for all your hard work! 💚
We are so pleased that the planning application for the Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community, including our designs for Gateway Place, has now been submitted for planning approval. We are particularly excited that our design for Gateway Place – a group of community and workspace buildings around a new public square – will be the first phase to be constructed, a real signal of the intent to create a thriving and vibrant community that goes far beyond just the provision of new homes.
Designed in regenerative and low-carbon materials, including hempcrete and stone, Gateway Place will serve both existing residents around the site – providing early years nursery, park-and-ride facilities, café and business units - and provide for the daily needs of the first new residents.
The quality and ambition of this project is the result of bold leadership from @latimer , fantastic collaboration with @haworthtompkins and @kjellandersjoberg as the lead masterplanners, and the wider team of brilliant people at @periscope_uk@grounded_practice@jasbhallaworks@bellphillipsarc@arupgroup@stantec and so many more. But a big thank you particularly to @russkona as project director holding fast to an incredibly ambitious vision.
Delighted that the Felixstowe Seafront Development Strategy, which we have developed for @eastsuffolkcouncil , has been formally adopted! An initial wave of projects from the strategy are now going straight into the next stages of delivery.
Been super fun working with the ESC team on this as well as with the brilliant seafront businesses, the Town Council, Historic England and the Environment Agency.
#Felixstowe #regeneration #coastalcommunity
'I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage.' So said Peter Brook, the theatre director, and it remains a guiding principle.
It's so lovely to see St Nicholas Square coming to life in all kinds of ways. People making it their own, at quiet times and busy times. It's a good reminder that public spaces don't always need loads of 'stuff'...sometimes an empty space is the space people need.
PB has been an inspiration since our earliest days: @hanaloftus was lucky enough to work with him in her pre-architecture life.
If you spot the square being used in lovely and unexpected ways, tag us! The above are from project architect @ketikejt ; @maddie.persent ; and @hanaloftus catching @creativecolchester 's Family First Thursday filling the square with bubbles today. 💚
@colchestercitycouncil
Some #wip photos from @lowestoft_townhallproject which is underway on site for @lowestofttowncouncil . Always exciting to uncover the bones of the building, along with - of course - plenty of discoveries. This building has already had many lives and much adaptation. We are addressing dry rot, guano, underpinning and many other remedial works alongside the new-build extensions starting to take shape. Our Associate Rebecca Kalbfell doing a fantastic job steering the process.
Funded by @heritagefunduk@eastsuffolkcouncil and others, great teamwork with @momentumstructuralengineers@maxfordhamllp@rgarchitects . @barnesconstruction_ as contractor.
Our project at St Nicholas Square in Colchester celebrated its grand opening this weekend. The site was formerly the churchyard to a Sir George Gilbert Scott-designed church (demolished in 1955), and had become an unloved left-over space dominated by ad-hoc parking. It has now been transformed into an open and welcoming square for markets, events and the spill-out of the cafes, restaurants and bars that surround it.
This project has stories to tell! The square includes adopted highway land, diocesan land, privately owned land, and Council land leased to the nearby shopping precinct. Below ground, the team negotiated basements under the public realm; medieval graves; Roman streets and buildings; and a congested tangle of pipework and cables, both live and disconnected. All of which made for a very complicated project - but none of that is visible on the surface, which feels effortless, open and generous. But if you want to know how many skeletons were dug up, head over to the news page on our website 💀
It is truly special to work on a project minutes from our office. We loved working with a wide range of local groups to help inform the design - shout-outs to @walkcolchester , Essex Sight, @colchester_cycling_campaign , @colchester_ecargo , we hope you are pleased with the final result. 🙏
Thank you @ketikejt for steering this through with great patience, @fogg_alison for being a really great, supportive PM, @colchestercitycouncil@brooksandwood and all the partners around the square.
We are very happy that big colourful tin sheds inspired by the structures of the Essex seaside resort (and other pop culture influences) can be recognised as being exactly the right kind of architecture for a place like this. Thank you to @ribaeast@riba for awarding Sunspot a RIBA East award last night. Also: public sector clients are less and less ambitious for the quality of the buildings they commission. @tendringdistrictcouncil stuck with us, and for that the RIBA recognised them as Client of the Year and we could not be more happy for the team, including the now-retired but truly visionary commissioner of this project, Tom Gardiner. Tom, they liked that arch you were never totally convinced by!
Thank you to @momentumstructuralengineers@ingletonwooddesign@potterraper and contractor TJ Evers. 💚💚💚
📸 @clickclickjim and @mpersent
We're excited that work to restore and extend Lowestoft Town Hall has begun on site. We're carefully removing the ad hoc extensions to the Grade II listed building, whilst making the most of the good weather and repairing the historic roofs and facades.
The buildings should be completed in 2026, and will be the administrative and civic home of @lowestofttowncouncil , with a restored Council Chamber, a Register Office, exhibition spaces, co-working and event hall. We have already found lots of exciting things to put back on display, as well as accommodating the extensive collection currently in the council's archives.
@barnesconstruction_ are the contractor, with the team including @maxfordhamllp , @momentumstructuralengineers , @rgarchitects , @cahilldesignconsultants , @dcpsurveyors , #AndrewMortonAssociates and #MossKingAssociates.
The Lowestoft Town Hall Project is a Lowestoft Town Council initiative supported National Lottery Players via @heritagefunduk . Funding support is also provided by @historicengland , @archhfund , Towns Fund, and @eastsuffolkcouncil
