RCKa is part of a team led by Hawkins\Brown that has been selected to design a 2,000 home rural masterplan for Oxford University Development. Working alongside place strategist Murray Twoig, sustainability and engineering consultants Buro Happold, and two Dutch architecture and landscape practices OOZE and OKRA, our competition-winning proposal was selected from forty entries from …
RCKa has received planning permission to create a new centre of excellence for leading charity, The Children’s Trust, which will integrate education, health, therapy and care facilities for children and young people with brain injury and neuro-disability. With headquarters based in Tadworth, Surrey, The Children’s Trust is the UK’s leading charity for children with brain injury, …
RCKa is delighted to be one of only a small handful of practices to have been appointed to the LHC MDC1 framework, a Public Contracts Regulations 2015-compliant route to appointment for professional services. Covering the south-east of England, excluding London, the MDC1 framework allows for a variety of procurement routes, including mini-competition and direct award. …
RCKa has been chosen to design a mixed-use building within Lendlease’s Smithfield Birmingham development. Our appointment is part of a larger team of architects consisting of both established and up-and-coming practices, each of which will be responsible for designing individual buildings within a wider masterplan set out by Prior+Partners with support from WSP, James Corner …
Over the summer of 2021 RCKa completed work on a groundbreaking new Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) which has now been formally adopted by Lewisham Council at a meeting of Mayor & Cabinet on 6 October. Under the recently-adopted London Plan targets, Lewisham must deliver 16,670 new homes over the next decade, 3,790 of which are …
Through the Re-Set-Go programme, I was placed with RCKa and spent the course of my six-week placement working on a small site project located in Lewisham. The proposal is a part of Lewisham’s Local plan and the affordable housing scheme. Focusing on the small sites document, I used this to inform my design approach and …
We are thrilled with the decision of Camden councillors to grant permission for a new hostel for homeless families, designed by RCKa. When complete, the scheme in Camden Road will provide 39 new bedrooms for those in need of temporary accommodation, together with a community sitting room with a sunken courtyard. Every room is a …
The Gants Hill Community Hub will serve residents from across the Gants Hill area, including the wards of Barkingside, Clayhall, Cranbrook, Fullwell, Valentines and Aldborough. For this reason, it was important to involve people from all these areas and really understand the identity of each ward from the people who reside in them. After giving …
The creative industry has an important role to play at this time of heightened concern, donning our optimistic specs to share and celebrate stories of support and resilience, whilst seeking solutions that directly improve people’s lives. As many will have found in considering their Coronavirus response and business continuity plan, there are two distinct aspects …
As another year draws to a close we’re delighted to reflect on twelve more successful months during which RCKa has grown to more than twenty people and expanded into exciting new areas of work. Highlights from 2019 include our appointment to an exceptional team charged with masterplanning a new neighbourhood for the Olympic Park, and …
We started off our trip with a tour of the Strijp-S neighbourhood, a former industrial park which belonged to Philips. The area has undergone a huge shift in use and reputation since the departure of Philips in the late 90s, although remnants of the heritage remain and have contributed to the character of the area. …
RCKa has always believed that there are many ways architects can be more engaged with the people and communities who live and work in – and around – the places we create. This can take many forms. We have helped communities with fundraising, such as our TNG Youth Centre, where we supported local young people …
RCKa’s completed refurbishment of The Granville, a community workspace in South Kilburn was a recipient of the 2019 New London Awards Community Prize. Ahead of the award ceremony on 3 July, Tim Riley joined Claire Richards of award sponsor ft’work to discuss the impact the project made on the local community and how projects like …
Russell was appointed to the panel following an open call, and joins a new cohort of built environment specialists which will assist officers in responding to the changing face of the borough as it accommodates huge growth in the coming years. The panel has a particular focus on large-scale projects within Canning Town, the Royal …
RCKa has been selected to work up proposals for a new Community Land Trust scheme in south London after a public vote. The practice took part in a “choose the architect” event for the Lambeth CLT Steering Group at the weekend, vying with Mole Architects, 15-40 Architecture and Reed Watts Architects for the project, earmarked …
Our Directors Dieter Kleiner, Russell Curtis and Tim Riley will be attending MIPIM World 2019 on 12-15th March in Cannes, France. RCKa is an award-winning architectural practice with a reputation for delivering innovative, high-density developments. With a focus on placemaking and an opportunity-led approach, the practice has a proven track record in achieving high levels …
Palais de Tokyo was chosen by our directors in 50 Architects 50 Buildings, as an inspiring building which has impacted their work. Dating back to 1937 with a total surface area of 236,806 sq. ft, it was renovated in both 2002 and 2012 by architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal. First familiarised with their work over …
RCKa has published a brief guide to unlocking small sites for residential development. The guide contains a brief summary of current and emerging planning policy relating to small sites, and includes a range of case studies which explore ways in which RCKa has helped public and private clients exploit challenging urban and suburban sites to …
A huge thank you to all our clients, colleagues and friends for making 2018 – our 10th year – the most successful yet. We enjoyed a bumper batch of building completions from socially rich housing and retirement living schemes to vibrant enterprise and community facilities. A record awards season followed, featuring 5 buildings and RCKa’s …
We strive to create socially responsive architecture that resonates with people and place and our PegasusLife Hortsley scheme embodies this ideology. By encouraging chance meetings between neighbours, cohesive communities can be forged, encouraging inter-dependence and a sense of security, both highly valued by older people. Our PegasusLife Hortsley project was recently featured in the Architects …
Our director Russell Curtis will be speaking at the upcoming London Development Conference on 21st November where he will discuss ‘Post-Grenfell: what has to change in building design?’. London Development Conference is an event focused on the challenges and opportunities impacting London’s affordable homes developers and the day will cover three key stages of the development …
Our director Tim Riley will be attending RESI 2018 on 12-14th September at Celtic Manor in Newport, Wales. This is the 12th annual RESI Convention, UK’s largest residential conference and the essential meeting place for the residential property sector. The RESI programme will run under the themes of: Debate. Diversity. Delivery. Get in touch if you would …
RCKa’s Russell Curtis was joined by fellow industry experts at the latest AJ roundtable to discuss whether the Hackitt Review’s recommendations could work, the fragmentation of the industry exposed following Grenfell and the deskilling of the profession. Read the Roundtable article in the AJ here.
RCKa’s Roz Peebles has collaborated with a few like-minded friends to develop a walking tour for the Architecture Foundation, exploring some of Camden’s modern housing. North-west London has been a testing ground for radical housing experiments since the early 19th century. The tour covers a plethora of exemplar housing projects, including Highgate New Town / Stoneleigh …
Director Tim Riley was recently invited to be a guest speaker at the Swedish Institute of Architecture to talk about socially responsive architecture. Established to promote just that, RCKa has a wealth of projects which demonstrate this as a result of placing an emphasis on the end user’s experience – buildings should serve people, not …
In celebration of the centenary year of womens’ suffrage and the London Festival of Architecture’s theme of ‘Identity’, Bankside Open Spaces Trust presents ‘Interpreted Identities’ – a series of dedicated installations or ‘follies’ created by a selection of London’s leading architecture and design practices which have each taken inspiration from an extraordinary female figure – …
A huge thank you to all our clients, colleagues and friends for making 2017 our most successful and ambitious year yet. Site boots became de rigueur as significant projects commenced, from socially rich housing and retirement living schemes to vibrant enterprise and community facilities. Our approach to realising social and economic value led to exciting new commissions …
RCKa Director Russell Curtis has been appointed as one of London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s 50 Design Advocates to work with City Hall and Boroughs to help realise his “Good Growth” agenda. Good Growth by Design was a key part of the Mayor’s wider manifesto for London and seeks to realise and enhance buildings and neighbourhoods through …
RCKa’s Tony Staples, along with Benedetta Rogers, Matthew Eberhard and Lucy Paton, has self-published ‘Echoes Of Accra’, an illustrated book that documents research undertaken in March 2016 in Accra, Ghana. The work featured in an exhibition at the Doomed Gallery in Dalston as part of the London Festival of Architecture 2016. Research was largely collected …
For the second year, RCKa contributed to the Museum of Architecture’s Gingerbread City in South Kensington. Nearly 50 architects and landscape practices from across the city were involved in crafting a extraordinary range of confectionary constructions and edible edifices to a masterplan prepared by planning consultancy Tibbalds. RCKa’s own “Team Gingerbread” spent a festive Sunday …
We are very proud that RCKa’s Wendy Charlton was elected an RIBA Councillor representing the London Region. The RIBA council comprises around 60 members and is the key decision-making body for the Institute. RIBA Council meets four times each year, either at the organisation’s headquarters in Portland Place, or elsewhere around the country. We have no …
Planning application submitted for four contemporary terraced houses on constrained town centre site. Our scheme for this infill site in Knaphill, Woking, will provide a terrace of four cleverly-designed family homes in a suburban town centre location. The new houses repair an existing gap in the streetscape whilst respecting the height and form of neighbouring …