Transition by Design

Learn more about co-ops, the Employment Rights Act, and what these changes mean for you at our April Branch Meeting! ✊ We’re joined by our members from Transition by Design, speaking on genuinely democratic workplace structures, putting power back in the workers’ hands. We’ll also break down key updates to your rights under the 📜 Employment Rights Act, with changes coming into force this month and in the months ahead. What do they mean in practice? How can we use them to defend and strengthen workers’ rights? Come and find out. 👉 Get informed. Get organised. 🗓 When? Tuesday 21st April ⏰ 6:30pm start (ends 8:00pm) 📍 Where? 🏢 In person: 33 Moreland Street, Unite Eastern 💻 Online: Check your emails for the link

Come and join us for Rooted in Place: Community Solutions for Housing & Climate Justice - our Marmalade 2026 session 🍊 It's the Marmalade Festival 2026! Join us for an interactive workshop where we will explore community-led solutions for housing and climate justice. 🌍✨ 💡 Wednesday 22nd April - @Old Fire Station, Oxford OX1 2AQ, 7:30-9:30pm Based on our research into wealth, race, and housing, as well as the community retrofit action plan co-developed with residents of OX4, we aim to bring together local, national, and global participants to co-create solutions to issues such as access to housing, positive health outcomes, and community wealth-building. Local organisations, including Oxford Renters’ Union, Retrofit Balsall Heath, and Rose Hill & Iffley Low Carbon Hub will be present to co-facilitate sessions alongside us. This workshop might interest those involved in community action, climate justice, housing justice, collaborative design, and those seeking a fairer, better world. We look forward to seeing you there! 🎟️ Find out more and sign up via the link in our bio

This International Women’s Day, we want to recognise the work by women in our co-operative (members past & present). Weve taken a look at key projects we’ve delivered and our processes / how we work at Transition by Design Co-operative

🌿🌿🌿 TbD Team Away Day in Tring! On this sunny day, we're taking a throwback to last summer, when we left the studio for trails in the sun and spent the day walking the Ashridge Drovers Walk, enjoying wild oyster mushrooms, Olivia’s flower crown, and Wongani’s legendary sourdough banana loaves. We explored old drovers’ paths, shared snacks in the woods, and finished with a well-deserved drink at the Trooper pub. Thanks to Liv for planning such a fun, windy, and refreshing day! 🥾🍄✨ #TbD #TransitionByDesign #TeamAwayDay #AshridgeDroversWalk #StudioLife #CommonLand #NatureBreak #WorkLifeBalance

Last but by no means least are the final two principles of a co-op: Cooperation among Cooperatives and Concern for Community. At T/D, these aren't just boxes to tick—they are fueled by our North Star. 🌟 A North Star is an organisation’s guiding mission that keeps everyone on the same page. Ours is: ‘To lead the way in strategically designing sustainable neighbourhoods that address complex problems in the world we live in. We strive to enable a socially and environmentally just transition to an ecologically sustainable and convivial future. ‘Our approach is community-oriented, inclusive and collaborative delivering breakthrough and bedrock projects that inspire, challenge and change the way we live. ‘Our work is motivated by the belief that collaboration combined with good design and research can solve multifaceted challenges and improve the world we live in.’ To build a thriving mutual economy, we trade with other co-ops whenever possible and participate in the network, including supporting other architecture co-ops to become certified. Based in Oxford, we are deeply connected to local community groups and activists focused on housing and social justice. From supporting grassroots housing activists to hosting placement students, our goal is to ensure our work truly changes the way we live. Our advice to other practices? If you are a social or environmental purpose organisation, consider the co-op model. It aligns your business structure with your values. There is so much power in this network, and we are just beginning to tap into it. Check out @CooperativesUK for mentoring and guides on starting your own journey toward democratic ownership. We have previously been business mentors for practices looking to become a co-operative, so get in touch with them or directly with us if this is of interest. #TbD #TransitionByDesign #CooperativeWorking #BeingYourOwnBoss #Sociocracy #Training #ConsentBasedDecisionMaking #Architecture #ArchitectureCoop #Coop #PeopleCentredPractice #WorkingTogether #StudioCulture #MutualSupport #BusinessModel

Did you know that we were the project architects for the second domestic enerPHit* project in the UK back in 2020? We've been inspired by seeing the @channel4 show on 'Guy Martin's House without Bills' that features former T/D collaborator Hannah Dixon (@ProgressinPractice ). It is great to see a TV programme that is making principles of enerPHit, Passivhaus & Retrofit mainstream. This has given us time to consider revisiting our Hutchcomb Road project, a whole house retrofit which has led to the client having low to no energy bills. Joyce has recently written a blog about enerPHit, which you can find in our bio, and find out more about the Hutchcomb Road project. *EnerPHit is the Passivhaus standard for retrofit - in essence the best standard for transforming an existing building to meet the highest sustainability targets (📸: @danpatonphoto ) #sustainability #sustainabledesign #architecture #retrofit #passivhaus

In a world of "hiring and firing," we take a different path: we collaborate to navigate uncertainty together. ⛵ To maintain Principles 4 (Autonomy and Independence) and 5 (Education and training), economic resilience is key. Co-ops are 2.5 times more likely to survive their first five years compared to traditional businesses. In 2020, co-ops were 4 times less likely to cease trading—only 1.5% were dissolved, compared with 6.5% of businesses overall. How do we maintain this resilience at T/D? - Regular Financial Oversight: We maintain controls through the Finance Circle and a management plan reviewed regularly. - Diverse Funding: We balance private client work with research projects, enabling us to access a range of funding streams. - The Associate Network: We don't work in a vacuum. We collaborate with a wide network of associates—independent specialists who bring unique expertise to our projects, allowing us to remain agile and multi-disciplinary without the overhead of a traditional large firm. - Investing in our People: Resilience also comes from knowledge. We ensure our members become multi-skilled so they can meaningfully participate in the co-op's development. From training in Sociocracy and Conflict Resolution to technical qualifications such as becoming a Passivhaus Designer, we provide our workers with the tools to lead. By investing in education and financial planning with support from partners like Co-operatives UK and the Co-operative Bank, we’ve built a practice that doesn't just survive; it thrives. #TbD #TransitionByDesign #CooperativeWorking #BeingYourOwnBoss #Sociocracy #Training #ConsentBasedDecisionMaking #Architecture #ArchitectureCoop #Coop #PeopleCentredPractice #WorkingTogether #StudioCulture #MutualSupport #BusinessModel

Fair pay strengthens businesses and communities. As a proud Oxford Living Wage employer, we’re celebrating fellow employers this Oxford Living Wage Week who invest in their people by paying the Oxford Living Wage too. It’s more than a commitment – it’s a statement that your team matters, and Oxford thrives when everyone is valued. Interested in joining the movement? Find out more through @OxfordCityCouncil We are also the first architecture practice in England to be Living Hours accredited with the @LivingWageFoundation . As an RIBA chartered practice, this further cements our commitment towards fair pay and working conditions for architectural workers.

In a co-op, we don't just work for the money—we decide where the money goes. 💸 The third principle, Member Economic Participation means we democratically control our finances. By participating in the finances of a co-op, members can agree on a pay and benefits structure and ensure any profits are distributed equitably between members. While some co-ops use this as bonuses for workers, others reinvest this money into the community. What this looks like at T/D: - We have a transparent pay structure and a fair pay policy that means everyone gets paid their core working hours and any overtime. - We are a Living Wage- and Living Hours-accredited employer. - We reinvest surplus funds into our community or use them to offer pro bono services to grassroots local organisations. - We are continually developing the way we run the cooperative to be as radical as possible. The Mutual Economy Report shows that co-ops are more likely to reinvest profits into their workforce and communities, with 86% reporting a focus on social and environmental impact. It also notes that cooperatives are more likely to adopt fair wage policies, with 70% of co-ops reporting pay ratios of less than 5:1 between the highest and lowest earners. #TbD #TransitionByDesign #CooperativeWorking #BeingYourOwnBoss #Sociocracy #Training #ConsentBasedDecisionMaking #Architecture #ArchitectureCoop #Coop #PeopleCentredPractice #WorkingTogether #StudioCulture #MutualSupport #BusinessModel

"Doesn't democratic decision-making take forever?" Our secret to moving fast without leaving anyone behind is Sociocracy.⭕ At T/D, instead of a top-down hierarchy, our team self-manages in ‘circles’. Each circle has the autonomy to make decisions within its area of expertise, allowing individuals to develop the business without involving everyone in every detail. When a decision affects the whole collective, we work toward consent-based proposals. Consent isn't about everyone being in "love" with an idea; it’s the absence of critical concerns that would prevent the organisation from meeting its mission. We seek proposals that are "good enough for now and safe enough to try," ensuring that concerns are used to improve an idea rather than block it. To support a proposal, we shift the tone from individuals thinking critically about each other to a team working together. This model fundamentally shifts power dynamics. The results are measurable: Co-ops are more likely to promote gender equality and inclusivity, and 76% of co-op members report a strong sense of belonging. #TbD #TransitionByDesign #CooperativeWorking #BeingYourOwnBoss #Sociocracy #Training #ConsentBasedDecisionMaking #Architecture #ArchitectureCoop #Coop #PeopleCentredPractice #WorkingTogether #StudioCulture #MutualSupport #BusinessModel

✨ We opened a shop that sells nothing but stories ✨ In November 2018, we transformed an empty retail unit on Little Clarendon Street, a busy shopping street in Central Oxford into a public talking shop on housing and homelessness. Meanwhile use in action. 👩🏿‍🎨 Using principles of participatory urban design and building on the concept of an ‘urban room’, Open House was an experiment in placemaking, active citizenship and how to include more people in the decisions that are being made about housing in Oxford. By creating Open House we were asking a question. Could creating a space that is actively welcoming to people without a permanent home and including them in the conversations that are being had about housing in the city encourage a movement to create a fairer housing system that has a lived experience of homelessness in its DNA? [More to come as we share the story about Open House Oxford...] 📸 : Saskia Kovandzich (@kiakova )

Did you know there are over 9,000 worker co-ops in the UK, but only 6 are architecture practices? 🏛️ At Transition by Design, we've been a worker co-op for 15 years. With the recent Mutual Economy Report showing that cooperatives are on the rise, we want to share why this model is the heartbeat of our practice. What is a co-op? A co-op is a membership-based organisation where workers collectively own the business they work in and make decisions democratically. In a traditional setup, workers are often employed to maximise a boss' (or shareholders') profit. In a worker co-op, we are the bosses. We collectively own the business and make decisions democratically. Our main function isn't profit—it's providing the best possible working conditions, from fair pay to shorter hours to better pensions. We're not just part of the movement—we're growing it. We've helped 3 of the 6 UK architecture co-ops become certified. Want to see how "being your own boss" actually works? Follow this series as we break down the seven co-op principles in the coming months. #TbD #TransitionByDesign #CooperativeWorking #BeingYourOwnBoss #Sociocracy #Training #ConsentBasedDecisionMaking #Architecture #ArchitectureCoop #Coop #PeopleCentredPractice #WorkingTogether #StudioCulture #MutualSupport #BusinessModel