Wigglesworth @Work

How do we design for a healthy everyday? Here are some photos from Sarah’s second seminar for the MASc Creative Health course at UCL, focusing on health and wellbeing in architecture. Sarah spoke about how to synthesise and prioritise different, competing issues and the importance of differentiating space and place. Our learnings from working in Ebbsfleet Healthy Garden City have inspired this, namely the Health and Wellbeing Hub in Central Ebbsfleet. Read more about our approach to a healthy everyday on our website – link in bio!

We are delighted to be able to share with you some of the wonderful photos that @timcrockerphotographer has captured of our Highbury Roundhouse project in Islington - a brand new community facility. We are so very proud of this project and team, and it is terrific to be able to share some professional shots of the spaces. We hope you enjoy them! You can read more about the Highbury Roundhouse project on our website – link in bio. * Client: Highbury Roundhouse @hi_roundhouse @hrhyouth * Structural Engineer: Heyne Tillet Steel @heynetillettsteel * M&E: Richard Pearce and Associates * Fire Consultant: OFR * Contractor: HA Marks Ltd * Employers Agent / QS: Artelia * Project Manager: Local Agenda * Photos: Tim Crocker @timcrockerphotographer #Community #Islington #SocialValue #Sustainable #Design #Engagement #Architecture #Diversity #MultiGenerational

Season’s Greetings from SWA! Coming together with friends and family this festive season, gives us an opportunity to reflect on our submission for the @neighbourhoodsforgenerations competition earlier this year. The competition invited everyone from architects to anthropologists to explore how different generations will live amongst each other in the future. Our proposal ‘A feast for all ages’ was developed in collaboration with @turner.works . We proposed to use food as a means to unite all ages, using the rituals of eating at all scales - from making a sandwich - to hosting a wedding feast - to bring neighbours together. Dialogue and wisdom would be shared across generations and cultures through the processes of growing, preparing and eating. This image (minus the festive additions!) was originally made for the competition and illustrates one key element of our proposal – a community feast. The preparation of the feast was a means to stimulate a diverse range of interconnected activities. We saw these exchanges as a means to prompt discussion and provide a starting point to identify priorities for the community and what is needed to deliver them. #Architecture #Collaboration #Community #Food #Engagement #Multigenerational #Copenhagen #Socialvalue #Communitybenefit #Garden #Feast #Seasonal #Festivities #SeasonsGreetings

INSPIRE FUTURE GENERATIONS AWARD 2023 WINNERS! Nominated by Sarah Wigglesworth, we are delighted to share that our Project Architect and Diversity Champion, Clare Bond, was named emerging ‘Individual of the Year’ at the TET Inspire Future Generation Awards earlier this month. These awards showcase exceptional efforts in youth and children engagement by architects and built environment professions, spotlighting individuals and organisations that go beyond mere tick-box commitments to produce meaningful participation and co-design. “With a focus on SWA as knowledge sharers, Clare, with the ad-hoc support of a small EDI committee, has implemented several education initiatives within the practice, with personal involvement in all of them. Clare provides a framework for small practices with limited resources to drive forward a clear, considered and measurable EDI agenda, sharing architectural knowledge through thoughtful engagement, education and broader EDI initiatives.” A huge congratulations to all the brilliant winners, including joint winner in this category, Christina Ergler (School of Geography, NZ)! #IFGAwards23 #IFGA23 #TET #ThorntonEducationTrust #InspireFutureGenerations #IndividualOfTheYear @thorntoneducationtrust

Happy Friday! Last month, the SWA team were lucky enough to visit the Cosmic House. Lily Jenks (daughter of Charles Jenks and Maggie Keswick, who grew up in the house between ages 3-18) gave us a wonderful tour and shared her fascinating stories. We left feeling suitably inspired! #CosmicHouse #PostModernism #LondonArchitecture #TerryFarrell

How times flies! Reflecting on the last 12 months, at the end of 2022 SWA were shortlisted as part of the VeloCity & Tibbalds wider design team in the international contest for a new 704-hectare garden community in Essex; Colchester Garden City. Along with the four other shortlisted teams, we received an honorarium to expand our initial design philosophies and develop a more detailed delivery strategy. SWA loved our short time working with this fantastic team and one year on, have written a short article reflecting on the collaboration process and our initial thoughts (outlined for the competition) on how to embed intergenerational and multi-generational housing strategies. Link in bio! Brief & client: Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community Competition for Latimer by Clarion Housing Lead masterplanner, design code lead and lead consultant: Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design @tibbalds Local character and zero carbon masterplanning: Mikhail Riches @mikhailriches Community and social design focus: Featherstone Young @featherstoneyoung Placemaking and public realm: Petra Marko @petramarko Outdoor swimming specialist: Studio Octopi @studiooctopi Landscape Architect: BBUK @bbukstudiolimited Green infrastructure: The Landscape Partnership @t.landscape.p Biodiversity specialist advisor: Biodiversity by Design Sustainability consultant: Expedition Engineering @expedition_engineering Communications, identity & consultation lead: Thomas Mathews @tm_thinking Intergenerational living and active travel infrastructure: Sarah Wigglesworth Architects #Collaboration #Masterplan #GardenCommunity #SpecialistHousing #IntergenerationalLiving #MultigenerationalLiving

Tomorrow evening Sarah will be part of a brilliant panel, discussing different approaches to Feminist Practice as part of the AA Public Programme. Free tickets via link in bio – don’t miss out! “Sarah Wigglesworth will present her Stock Orchard Street dining table sequence drawings that reveal the choreography of women’s different roles across domestic spaces, and discuss how these observations have shaped her architectural career at the intersection of feminist and sustainable practice.” #FeministPractice #ArchitecturalAssociation #CollectiveApproach @marianna.jano @alis.meyer @geomassoud @rayan_elnayal @spaceblack__ @edit.cllctv @material_cultures

We are DELIGHTED to be a finalist in the TET Inspire Future Generation Awards 2023 in the Mentoring Category! The awards recognise and celebrate outstanding initiatives, organisations, and individuals who are bridging the gap between architecture and young people. We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without working with several incredible organisations – Grimshaw Foundation, Urban Learners, LFA, Built by Us, Arts Emergency, Paradigm Network, Blueprint for All, Homegrown Plus and Architecture Foundation Young Trustees. What an honour for our efforts be recognised by such an expert panel of judges and alongside organisations we admire. Congratulations to all in our category - Greater Cambridge Shared Planning, Greater London Authority, Matter, Narrative Practice, The Glass-House Community Led Design and POoR Collective. “Mentoring can take many forms - from coaching and career experience for teenagers considering entering the built environment profession - particularly from a disadvantaged background - through to students currently in architecture education.” We look forward to sharing more of our submission with you all soon. #IFGAwards23 #InspireFutureGenerations #Mentoring @greatercambridgeplanning @matterarchitecture.uk @narrativepractice @poor_collective @glasshousecld @grimshaw.foundation @urban_learners @builtbyusuk @londonfestivalofarchitecture @artsemergency @paradigmnetwork @blueprint_for_all @homegrownplus

On Monday we rode the Elizabeth line to Slough to visit Britain's first R&D centre for heat pumps. What a fun morning we had with Octopus Energy! Inside their warehouse there are two full-size buildings (1950’s and 1990’s building regs), built to represent around 40% of UK homes. They act as a training centre for people that want to learn how to install air source heat pumps (ASHPs), solar panels and fit homes with electric vehicle (EV) charging points. Thank you, Emma Fletcher, for the tour and sharing your insight into current and proposed Octopus initiatives – your people first approach is enlightening. Research, innovation and collaboration are critical in achieving our carbon goals – Octopus are doing all three and we look forward to seeing what you do next! Also, thank you to Wates, Airey Miller, Igloo and Siobhan Davies Studios for joining us for the tour and sharing your experiences. #RenewableEnergy #ASHP #SolarPanels #Decarbonisation #SkillingUp #OctopusEnergy #ZeroBills @octopusenergy @watesgroup @aireymiller @iglooregeneration @siobhandaviesstudios

Tomorrow (7 Nov), SWA will be speaking as part of the 2023 Trent Talk program at Nottingham Trent University. Open to students and staff, the talk starts at 6pm at the School of Architecture, Design & the Built Environment. If you’re able to, please come along! We will be sharing several case study projects, including Nottingham-based housing projects Trent Basin (photo 2) and The Elms (4), Mellor Primary School near Stockport (5) and our recently completed community project for the Highbury Roundhouse in Islington, London (3). #ArchitecturalEducation #NottinghamTrent #BestPractice #Housing #Schools #Community #GreenFutures #NextGeneration @nottinghamtrentuni

We are delighted to share with you our recent work in Ebbsfleet Garden City to design a Health and Wellbeing Hub (HWbH) – a new form of community-focused healthy living centre based on the model of the Bromley-by-Bow Centre in Poplar - with integrated inter-generational and specialist housing, including key worker housing and supported living. This project built on SWA’s previous work carried out at Ebbsfleet Garden City and aimed to address people’s health and social problems primarily through facilitating social prescribing. The building’s site forms a prominent element of the Outline Masterplan (by Allies & Morrison) for the future town centre, which aims to become a healthy place to live, work and play. We are very proud of this innovative project and hope you enjoy reading about it on our website – link in bio! #HealthAndWellbeing #EbbsfleetGardenCity #Community #HealthyLiving #IntergenerationalHousing #KeyWorkerHousing #SupportedLiving #SocialPrescribing #NewModelOfCare @ebbsfleetgardencity @bromley_by_bow_centre @cottverm @farrer_huxley @civicengineers_sketch #Etude #Qoda

“A recent survey finds that multigenerational housing could be set to triple by 2040” – this is the headline in the latest issue of Attivo Life Magazine. In an interview with Sarah Wigglesworth, Nicky Rampley-Clark uses SWA’s award-winning Haycroft Gardens (2019) as a case study project, demonstrating how multigenerational living can be achieved with flexible, future-proofed design. “Modern-day UK is just beginning to wake up to its benefits, which includes shared bills and meals, improved wellbeing and stronger interpersonal connections.” Read more about the project on our website – link in bio! #MultigenerationalLiving #Wellbeing #UKHousing #FutureProofDesign #FlexibleArchitecture