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Building on our previous research—which investigated the quantity, size, and ownership of the city’s golf courses—we’ve now taken a look at how these spaces might be used to better serve a larger proportion of Londoners. Our masterplan for Enfield Golf Course shows how it might be done.

Golf courses take up an extraordinary amount of land.

Together, London’s 95 courses cover an area larger than the borough of Brent. While it’s true that golfers come from across the demographic and socio-economic spectrum, the reality is that the protocols of golf itself severely limit how many people can make use of this open space at any one time.

Whichever way you look at it, in a congested city, golf does not represent an equitable use of precious land.

Do we need so many golf courses in London? And if we don’t, what else might we do with them?

Building on our previous research—which investigated the quantity, size, and ownership of the city’s golf courses—we’ve now taken a look at how these spaces might be used to better serve a larger proportion of Londoners.

Around 40% of London’s golf courses are owned by the boroughs in which they are located. Many of these councils are struggling with profound levels of housing need, not least homelessness and overcrowding, together with a rapidly expanding disparity between those in housing comfort, and those in distress.

The success of every planning authority in building homes (in London, represented by each of the 32 boroughs, the City Corporation, and two development corporations) is measured by a Housing Delivery Test; a government calculation which assesses homes delivered against overall housing need.

In the period leading up the 2021, the four worst-performing boroughs in London were Enfield (67%), Barking & Dagenham (66%), Havering (46%) and Kensington & Chelsea (43%).

As a result of their failure to deliver enough homes, each authority is now subject to what’s known as a “presumption in favour of sustainable development”, as determined by the National Planning Policy Framework – the most severe of the penalties available.

London’s 95 golf courses are distributed across 21—mainly suburban—boroughs. That’s around one course for 95,000 residents. Neither Kensington & Chelsea, nor Barking & Dagenham, have any golf courses within their boundaries. Enfield has seven courses (that’s one for every 48,000 residents) and Havering has nine (one course for every 29,000 people).

All of Havering’s courses are located within the green belt. In Enfield, just three are. The remainder are protected by virtue of their designation as “Metropolitan Open Land”, a planning policy unique to London.

The justification for blanket restrictions on development of golf courses that fall within this policy is, at best, dubious. Few courses meet the stringent requirements established by the policy: they are neither accessible, nor ecologically important. It is our belief that responsible development, accompanied by landscape and biodiversity improvements, is compatible with this designation, and far better serves the needs of Londoners.

With this in mind, we have identified the London Borough of Enfield as an area of focus. Within it are seven courses, four of which are owned by the council. Only one of these is located within Metropolitan Open Land: Enfield Golf Course.

The Enfield Context

Housing delivery is more than just a numbers game. Whilst we clearly need many more homes to address London’s housing shortage, every one we build should be affordable to heat and light, comfortable and delightful to inhabit, and enable every resident to live a healthy and fulfilling life. New development should also make a positive contribution to the local community.

A lack of affordable, secure housing is clearly a pressing social challenge for Enfield, but there are also other opportunities that can be exploited here too. All new development must achieve carbon net-zero in both construction and use. It must promote active modes of transport, and avoid a reliance on private vehicle ownership through the creation of walking and cycling routes. There should be enhancements to community wellbeing, and an improvement in ecology, biodiversity and urban greening which integrate with surrounding landscape. New social infrastructure should be provided for the wider suburban area, including retail uses, leisure activities, education and zero-mile food production, knitting the neighbourhood back together.

All of these things are possible if we choose to develop golf courses in a responsible and creative way.

Below, we’ll show how.

Enfield Golf Course

Enfield golf course lies in the heart of the borough, a few minutes’ walk from the town centre (and conveniently close to two other courses).

At 39ha, it takes up a large area of land, and acts as an impenetrable barrier between Oakwood and Enfield town centre.

We believe that this course could be developed to unlock new homes and social infrastructure to serve the existing community around it—while also retaining nine holes so that existing members still have somewhere to play.

This includes a new east-west pedestrian and cycle link helps knit the neighbourhood together, providing existing residents with new and enhanced access to schools, natural landscapes and local amenities.

We have exploited the low-lying areas of the existing course, and the stream that runs through it, to introduce biodiverse wetlands and mitigate localised flooding. This enhances the green chain connections to other nearby natural assets. The loss of trees has been minimised by locating new development on fairways and putting greens where biodiversity is most limited.

Most importantly, we have found space for 650 homes within a series of efficient, low- to mid-rise villa blocks, set within a green landscape, and linked by cycle and walking routes and close to public transport. These homes are sustainable, efficient, and varied in size to provide a mix of homes that meets local need. Allotments and growing areas allow for zero-mile food production. Minimal parking is provided, reducing car dependency, and encouraging active travel.

New wetlands include nature trails and walking routes, with community facilities placed in the centre of rewilded parkland providing teaching areas for local schools. Elsewhere within the development are a new health centre, gym, pharmacy, mobility hub, heritage centre and café. And a large golf course.

On this page we’ve given an indication of what this might look like. This is not intended to be a fully-resolved masterplan, but simply an aspirational vision for how we might accomplish a heathier, more equitable city.

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Ebbsfleet Development Corporation appointed RCKa to lead a multidisciplinary team of architects, placemaking specialists and urban designers to co-create a strategy for community and cultural infrastructure in the Garden City through a comprehensive programme of outreach and engagement.

Ebbsfleet Development Corporation appointed RCKa to lead a multidisciplinary team of architects, placemaking specialists and urban designers to co-create a strategy for community and cultural infrastructure in the Garden City through a comprehensive programme of outreach and engagement.

The Ebbsfleet Garden City is strategically located at the heart of the Thames Estuary Production Corridor – a region of untold creative potential. The Garden City will bring together 40,000 new residents and the potential for 30,000 new jobs, to re-imagine the industrial heritage of North Kent as a reinvigorated location for investment and growth.

With funding from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Creative Estuary – Ebbsfleet Development Corporation commissioned the Cultural Co-Location Pilot in order to test and demonstrate new practice in the role of culture in planning and placemaking. EDC’s ambition is to build on the principles of the original garden cities by developing community buildings for local people with local people and to offer a wide range of opportunities for residents to get involved with the creative arts.

From the outset, RCKa set out to identify creative, cultural and community sector partners from the local area and across the south-east, offering them the opportunity to ‘co-locate’ within the civic buildings and outdoor spaces planned for the Garden City. This co-production process took place against the backdrop of the Covid-19 crisis that required a radical re-think in the way in which we engaged and collaborated with project stakeholders.

The team developed a bespoke approach and methodology to the innovative brief, ambitious client objectives and unique project circumstances. The headline figures over the 12-month programme point to best practice innovation in co-design and coproduction including:

  • Contact made with 1,500 organisations in the creative, culture and community sectors
  • 200 attendees at our ‘Come to Ebbsfleet’ co-location event
  • Almost 100 expressions of interest from organisations keen to co-locate to Ebbsfleet
  • More than 2,000 visits to our neighbourhood websites
  • 200 questionnaires returned from local consultees

“On behalf of Ebbsfleet Development Corporation we would like to thank RCKa and your team for the fantastic work you have all done on the Cultural Development Fund project over the past year. The engagements and quality of outputs are beyond the expectations we had when we embarked on this project, and we are confident they will have a significant impact on the delivery of the Garden City in the future.”

Kevin McGeough – Head of Strategy and Placemaking, Ebbsfleet Development Corporation

Client
Ebbsfleet Development Corporation

Location
Ebbsfleet, Kent

Collaborators
AOC
Fourth Street
Studio ONB

Project Team
Tom Hart
Dieter Kleiner
Anthony Staples
Daria Szmucer
Andrea Villate

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The Smithfield Wellbeing Hub is a key element of the transformation of Birmingham Smithfield – a once in a generation project led by Birmingham City Council and Lendlease to reshape a 17 hectare site in the historic heart of the city. Birmingham Smithfield will transform Birmingham’s city centre, creating 3,000 new homes and community facilities as well as major economic opportunities, including an estimated 8,000 new jobs.

The Smithfield Wellbeing Hub is a key element of the transformation of Birmingham Smithfield – a once in a generation project led by Birmingham City Council and Lendlease to reshape a 17 hectare site in the historic heart of the city. Birmingham Smithfield will transform Birmingham’s city centre, creating 3,000 new homes and community facilities as well as major economic opportunities, including an estimated 8,000 new jobs.

Our Smithfield Wellbeing Hub is a genuinely mixed-use building that bursts with life, underpinned by the promotion of healthy lifestyles and an emphasis on mental and physical wellbeing. In addition to 142 new homes, the Smithfield Wellbeing Hub will contain a range of uses including retail, food and drink, a destination gym and spa, leisure activities, and a new pub. Our building stands at the gateway to Birmingham Smithfield – and is a colourful, lively, and welcoming place for everyone.

“This really is an exceptional opportunity to create and celebrate the next chapter in Birmingham’s transformation as an international city.”

Colin Murphy, project lead at Lendlease

The site of the Smithfield Wellbeing Hub has been vacant since 2018, following the closure of the Birmingham Bullring Wholesale Markets. Our project brings this important city centre site back into productive use, as part of the wider regeneration of Birmingham Smithfield.

Rather than viewing wellbeing, leisure and retail uses as distinct from each other, our approach has been to embed wellbeing principles into every aspect of design, and to achieve a lively integration of uses. This is a building that creates joy out of an assortment of different spaces, and becomes a place where people rub shoulders with each other and feel part of a much wider community within a single urban block – whether they are arriving home, going to the gym, or meeting friends for an evening out.

The archetypal community building – a new pub – stands proudly at the corner of the site. Like many historic pubs it has a strong civic presence as well as a homely character, and will see people and life spilling onto the streets around it. Small shops and a food outlet to either side also serve residents and the wider community while bringing further activity to the street.

A focus on wellbeing informed our thinking around how people move around the building, fostering a sense of community through informal interactions and chance encounters. This is particularly evident towards the middle of the main street elevation, where our otherwise smart and civic-minded building suddenly bursts open to reveal The Hub – a brightly-coloured and multi-layered space where all the building’s different uses and users come together. At its base, people pass through on their way to their home, to the gym or to the shops, making this a vibrant and busy public ‘yard’. Within this gap in the block, lifts rise through the space and walkways are suspended between the residential blocks overlooking The Hub – giving amazing views to the bustle below, out to the new Smithfield Market, and further to the city beyond.

Walking in around the building, one catches other intriguing glimpses of colour and activity: further unexpected moments that bring the building to life. These are a series of “Little Architectures” – characterful mini-buildings in their own right, created by our design partner Intervention Architecture. Looking up from the pub, for instance, one can see a spa garden; elsewhere there is a district energy centre, rooftop community garden, and an active basketball court overlooking Upper Dean Street.

Our proposals for the Smithfield Wellbeing Hub were submitted for planning approval in December 2022. It has been a pleasure to work alongside Lendlease and Birmingham City Council, and to be part of a talented and collaborative team of architecture and urban design practices bringing the wider Birmingham Smithfield project together including Prior + Partners, James Corner Field Operation, David Kohn Architects, dRMM, Haworth Tompkins, Intervention Architecture and Minesh Patel Architects.

Client
Lendleaase/Birmingham City Council

Status
In planning

Project Type
Mixed-Use Urban Regeneration

Location
Birmingham

Number of Homes
141

Local Planning Authority
Birmingham City Council

Project Team
Andrea Villate
Anna Crew
Anthony Staples
Katie Hackett
Rhiona Williams
Tom Hart

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RCKa has designed new school buildings on the Surrey campus of the Children’s Trust, a charity focused on the care of children with brain injuries.

New school for the Children's Trust
New school for the Children's Trust
New school for the Children's Trust - Site Arrangement

RCKa has designed new school buildings on the Surrey campus of the Children’s Trust, a charity focused on the care of children with brain injuries.

The Trust takes a transdisciplinary approach to neuro-disability education and the building will cater to the specific functional requirements and the need for future flexibility. Located on the grounds of a listed mansion house, the proposals will form a more cohesive campus by connecting the existing residential and clinical facilities and mature landscape around spaces focused on the specific needs of the young people at the heart of its purpose.

Four distinct blocks will be connected by an active shared space and winter garden, each of them with a unique identity to help children orient themselves onsite, as their sensory experiences can differ greatly. The proposed designs for the Children’s Trust are the result of extensive consultation between the design team and different stakeholder groups, and users across all stages of the process.

“We are excited to work with RCKa on the development of a new state of the art centre to help us integrate and deliver education, health, therapy and care to the children and young people we support. We have been hugely impressed by RCKa’s collaborative approach and designs and receiving planning permission this week means we can take the first steps to bringing our vision to life.”

Dalton Leong, Chief Executive of The Children’s Trust

The existing school building is not fit for modern teaching and therapy. Constructed from lightweight prefabricated units, the internal comfort is poor and there is a constant need for adaptations to support the needs of children or staff. The new facilities will create space for education, healthcare, rehabilitation, and therapy while encouraging collaborative working. 

From the outset, RCKa worked with TCT to help them re-evaluate their brief and assumptions and ensure that the facilities met their current needs but were also highly aspirational. Group activities, one-to-one discussions and observations of the current site in-use all fed into a strategic and operational understanding of what the end-users really needed. Working in collaboration with the other consultants, we established 4 key pillars: Visibility of Young People, Nature and Restorative Heritage, Connectivity and “A place for everyone”, each of these responded to the charity’s holistic vision. Farrer Huxley Landscape Architects developed a coordinated approach that allows for activity to flow out into the gardens and for the building to merge with a verdant setting.

The building uses simple materials in playful ways; colour, pattern and texture are used at different scales across the building, creating a variety of sensory experiences and playful details that children and young people can directly engage with. Shape and form are also both important to help respond to the human scale and improve wayfinding. The transdisciplinary hub features a curved roof, rising to a point to highlight the entrance into the shared space while the central hall has a simple mono-pitched form. 

Client
The Children’s Trust

Status
Planning Approved

Location
Tadworth, Surrey

CGI
Atelier Permain

Project Team
Chris Barnes
Tahera Rouf
Alice Gordon
Samuel Letchford
Quincy Haynes
Robin Turner
Daria Szmucer

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A later living development in Harpenden, providing 38 homes with communal facilities, a community cafe and landscaped courtyards.

Located in the market town of Harpenden, Hertfordshire, this later-living development responds to the sensitive conservation area and open parkland. The scheme consists of 38 generous apartments at a density of 84 dwellings per hectare which represents a density increase of 170%, three times the previously consented proposals for the site. 23a Leyton Road occupies a key site in the town, providing much-needed later living together with communal facilities, a community café and landscaped courtyards – all within the beautiful setting of Rothamsted Park.

Achieving the required density on site relied on the introduction of an innovative villa typology. The villa typically consists of four dual aspect apartments around a communal atrium. This allows the villas to be located relatively close to one another but staggered to define a diverse range of external spaces with clear thresholds between them. In colder months residents can enjoy the green spaces from the comfort of the lobby spaces or overlook the garden from their living spaces, all of which will help with good cognitive function and reduce the effects of dementia.

“This proposal amounts to a significant public gain, which alongside the high level of architecture, the scheme’s design qualities, and the scale of other public benefits described, would demonstrably and significantly outweigh the less than substantial harm caused to the significance of the conservation area.”

Appeal Decision APP/B1930/W/15/3004758

Entering from Leyton Road, users are drawn through a generously proportioned garden square which leads onto a communal lounge and cafeteria in the largest building. Loneliness is recognised as a major contributor to health problems in older people and so this area is vital for encouraging social activity and chance interactions.

The layout across the site is centred on legibility with all cores centrally located to ensure easy wayfinding, supporting a sense of independence among residents. Natural light and ventilation are maximised, with top-lit circulation areas, dual-aspect apartments, and minimal internal corridors within the homes. The design is ‘care ready’ so that new and emerging technologies, such as telecare and community equipment, can be readily installed. Similarly, the homes can easily be adapted for future needs – such as allowing a care worker or family member to stay when required.

As well as our consideration of the end user’s wellbeing, we wanted our design to enhance and complement the wider setting through the sensitive use of materials and forms. Leyton Road is characterised by gable ends and protruding dormer windows that animate the eaves line. The villas we’ve designed borrow heavily from the rich Arts & Crafts heritage of the town with highly articulated gable elevations and playful eaves lines. 

Three years on from completion we have heard positive feedback from residents and the wider community, the extra-care facility shares many of its communal functions with the wider town, providing vital social infrastructure. We were able to maximise the community benefit from a site that had been derelict for 14 years despite several attempts to reutilise it.

Client 
Pegasus Lifestory 

Status 
Completed 2018 

Location 
Harpenden, Hertfordshire 

Awards
Housing Design Awards 2019 (completed): Shortlisted 
Inside Housing Development Awards 2019: Winner, Best Older People’s Housing Development 

Photography
Jakob Spriestersbach
Jim Stephenson 

Project Team
Jakob Spriestersbach
Tahera Rouf
James Hockey
Rosalind Peebles
Maria Saeki
Rhiarna Dhaliwal
Chris Scarffe
Tom Hart
Oscar Rodriguez
Phillip Gibb
Owen Jowett
Kishan San
Kaiyil Gnanakumaran
Tim Riley
Brett Mahon
Michael Pitman 

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RCKa was commissioned by Hammersmith & Fulham Council to work with the local community and design a new mixed-use workspace and community food hub within the Edward Woods Estate.

RCKa was commissioned by Hammersmith & Fulham Council to work with the local community and design a new mixed-use workspace and community food hub within the Edward Woods Estate. The Nourish Hub replaces a vacant post-office to provide new community facilities where learning about healthy eating and cooking food – as a common, social and community activity – can connect diverse cultures, teach meaningful skills and bring people together.

Funded by the GLA the Hub offers opportunities in the form of employment in catering to volunteering, skill-sharing, and cooking classes. UKHarvest – a not-for-profit charity on a mission to eliminate hunger and food waste through education will manage the hub building capacity and resilience within the local community.

“We wanted the most innovative design we could get, which was also of the highest quality. RCKa were incredible during the tender process and have lived up to their commitments all the way through the process. It’s been a real joy to work with them. The most important thing that they have done is listen. They really tuned into not only the aspirations for the hub but the practicalities. They have led this design process with integrity, professionalism and passion. They also bring fun to the project.”

Yvonne Thomson, CEO of UK Harvest

RCKa’s ambition was to involve local people from the very outset and to empower residents to take ownership of the project in the long term. To help raise awareness of the proposals we held a community paint & planting day, during which the tired security shutters were given a new lease of life. RCKa worked with graphic designer Bandiera to design a colourful mural for the shutters, with local people helping to apply this to the vacant shopfront. The activity on site encouraged passers-by to stop and speak with the team, providing opportunities for conversations with residents and helping contact the wider community.

Partnering with a local youth centre we put on two branding workshops during which the basic principles of graphic design were taught to young people from the local area. Ingredients were sourced from the local Shepherds Bush Market and participants were asked to get creative with the vegetables available. The designs that the young people created were then used to create graphics for the interior of the Nourish Hub.

This is UKHarvest’s first permanent space, but the design draws on years of experience. The Hub is welcoming, incorporating expansive glazing and servery windows that allow direct views into the kitchen and for the chefs to lean out and talk to passers-by. At either end of the main dining space two kitchens offer different functionality – a fully fitted catering kitchen for professional training and batch cooking; and a teaching kitchen which has a more domestic look and feel, with cooking stations for people of all ages and abilities. The floor finish is a low-maintenance concrete and the tiling and paintwork are colourful yet avoid flashiness.

LBHF has the highest levels of food insecurity in London and the hub addresses this and helps to create new food behaviours. In 4 months, over 4300 meals were delivered throughout the neighbourhood, 200 meals were served daily on site and over 250 children have participated in educational activities. Looking forward, the Hub will foster active citizenship and collaboration to create a more cohesive and sustainable community.

“It is a smart idea, tackling hunger, isolation and the unnecessary waste of food, space and human potential. And with high streets in decline across the country, Nourish Hub offers a model that might be adopted elsewhere”

Chris Foges, Contributing Editor, RIBA Journal

Client
LB Hammersmith & Fulham

Key Stakeholder
UKHarvest

Completed
2021

Awards
New London Awards Community Prize 2021
The Mayor’s Prize 2021

Location
Hammersmith, London

Graphic Design
Bandiera

Collaborators
Inner Circle Consulting

Photography
RCKa
Francisco Ibanez Hantke

Project Team
Tom Hart
Anthony Staples
Rhiona Williams
Shukri Elmi

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​​RCKa’s celebrated Design Code SPD for Lewisham Council sets out a bold vision for small site housing development and takes positive steps to promote housing delivery in the borough.

Working together with Ash Sakula Architects, RCKa has recently completed a new Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) for Lewisham Council, which sets out ways in which the borough intends to meet its London Plan small sites housing target of 3,790 homes over the next 10 years.

The SPD was formally adopted in October 2021, and comprises three documents: a small sites “Vision” which describes the challenges and opportunities offered by small site housing development; the SPD itself, which provides guidance on how the policies of the local plan should be interpreted; and a comprehensive appendix, which sets out the background research which informed the work.

A key aspect of the brief was to find a way for the SPD to achieve more than just a simple increase in density in appropriate locations. With this in mind, it acts as a guidebook for potential developers, community groups, planning officers and citizens to assist in thinking positively and creatively about the gentle intensification of the borough.

Each section of the SPD addresses a different aspect of small site development. Starting with general guidance, including a review of typical planning constraints, a development flowchart – which provides an easily-understandable methodology for small site development – and a comprehensive guide to how new homes can help address the climate crisis, the document then presents a series of ‘toolkits’ which speak to different aspects of development: placemaking, heritage, good design and open space, among others. Finally the SPD concludes with an examination of the types of site which are typically found within Lewisham, and sets out specific guidance showing how design excellent can optimise small sites development and to help meet housing need.

Accompanying the adopted documents, RCKa has developed a dedicated Lewisham small sites website which displays the information in an easily-accessible format. We have committed to hosting the website for the duration of the plan period. Both the graphic design of the suite of documents, and the accompanying website, were developed by RCKa’s in-house graphic designer, Zack Wellin. Further contributions to the documents included a section on heritage by Catherine Croft, and environmental sustainability by Melissa Merryweather.

View the SPD here



Client
London Borough of Lewisham

Team
Russell Curtis
Lee Jesson
Robin Turner
Zack Wellin

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Working as part of a team led by Stirling Prize winners Mikhail Riches, RCKa has been appointed to help masterplan the last new neighbourhood in the Olympic Park.

Working as part of a team led by Stirling Prize winners Mikhail Riches, RCKa has been appointed to help masterplan the last new neighbourhood in the Olympic Park.

The London Legacy Development Corporation’s plans for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park sees the creation of five new neighbourhoods. Pudding Mill and Bridgewater will be the last of these to be delivered. Comprising two distinct, but adjacent, sites the masterplan will deliver around 1,500 new homes and workspace for around 2,000 people.

Bridgewater is an island site and will be a beautiful new riverside residential community. It will provide approximately 600 homes on the southern edge of the world-famous Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, with waterfront houses and apartments knitted into this special setting. The new UCL East development, London Aquatics Centre and London Stadium are its immediate neighbours. The cultural and education district of Stratford Waterfront, the offices of the International Quarter London and the shops at Westfield are only 10 minutes away. At the crossing point of High Street Stratford, the Greenway and enveloped by the bucolic Waterworks River, RCKa and Mikhail Riches will be working together to design a landscape-led, high-density, mid-rise development which includes a high proportion of family homes.

Our brief was to create generous family homes and amenity spaces, providing streets as social spaces featuring opportunities for play. To create these homes at the densities required an innovative approach to housing design is necessary, with the client supporting investigations into non-conventional residential layouts. The site sits at an intersection between areas of vastly contrasting wealth and aspiration, and it has the potential to act as a catalyst for change. RCKa has been leading the public consultation process which is embedding the local community’s knowledge of the site into the design process, and drawing on existing and emerging local talent to help shape the emerging design.

A outline planning application for the masterplan was approved by LLDC in July 2022. A second team, led by Gort Scott architects with 5th Studio and ZCD architects are working up plans for Pudding Mill Lane in parallel. A replacement bridge, designed by William Matthews Associates, will provide access to the Bridgewater site across the Waterworks River.

Developer Ballymore has now been appointed as part of a joint venture with LLDC to bring forward both the Bridgewater masterplan, and Stratford Waterfront – designed by Allies and Morrison and O’Donnell + Tuomey – together over the coming years.

Client
London Legacy Development Corporation

Status
Outline Planning Permission Granted

Location
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London

Collaborators
Mikhail Riches (Lead Architect, Masterplanning)
RCKa (Architect, Community Engagement)
William Matthews Architect (Bridge Architect)
Expedition (Engineering)
BBUK (Landscape Architect)

RCKa Project Team
Lee Jesson
Russell Curtis

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Community-led regeneration of a workspace and community hub in South Kilburn.

Located in South Kilburn, The Granville is an is an example of community-led regeneration – a two-year long partnership between a diverse range of project partners and local people determined to bring this treasured asset back into full use.

The project was conceived by current operators, the South Kilburn Trust (SKT) and funded through the GLA’s London Regeneration Fund, while the 19th century church hall it occupies is owned by Brent Council. The Granville offers affordable workspace to local entrepreneurs, community events space and space for SKT’s charitable services such as employment training.

RCKa interrogated the brief and feasibility documents to define a commercially viable long-term vision for the project which enabled capital funding to be secured. We led public consultation events, drawing and model workshops and one-to-one workshops to facilitate a collaborative design process that directly fed into our understanding of the aspirations of potential end users.

“London’s infrastructure is facing significant pressures. This has an impact on community cohesion, quality of life and entrepreneurship. The Granville is a great example of a place responding to these pressures in an innovative manner, by bringing different users together and providing both community infrastructure and affordable workspace. Thoughtful high-quality design and community engagement has resulted in bringing a much-loved building back to life and making it accessible and fit for all Londoners.”

Jules Pipe, Deputy Mayor, Planning, Regeneration & Skills

Two strategic moves open the building and formerly hidden garden to the local community. A brightly coloured entrance sequence brings visitors directly into the heart of the building while resolving complex access issues and making the green space much more visible. Secondly, the creation of a welcoming public ‘living room’, complete with community café, rationalises circulation, increases flexibility and encourages chance encounters and informal conversations.

Working with a tight budget we focused on creating a feeling of openness and flexibility, while retaining original character features. Using a palette of low-cost materials, we created a series of open studios arranged around a bright blue staircase which linked the two floors of the workspace and further accentuated the height of the original church hall. The triple height market hall acts as a focal point for the enterprise hub. The open space is bathed in light and feels vibrant with all the activity of the individual studios on show.

“The potential of the studios is in the ability of someone to come in and transform the space, to make it their own. It really separates The Granville from almost anything else out there.”

Julian Hall, ‘The Ultrapreneur’ & SKT Business Advisor

Client
London Borough of Brent

Key Stakeholder
South Kilburn Trust

Completed
2018

Awards
Architect of the Year Awards 2020
New London Awards Community Prize 2019

Location
Kilburn, London

Graphic Design
Europa

Photography
Jakob Spriestersbach & Kit Oates

Project Team
Anthony Staples
Georgia Fear
Alan Beveridge

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One of London’s largest rooftop extension projects providing over 30,000 sqft of new residential accommodation.

One of London’s largest rooftop extension projects providing over 30,000 sqft of new residential accommodation.

The existing estate at Chandos Way and Britten Close comprises over 200 existing flats within a series of ten four-storey blocks. We have worked closely with Barnet Council to develop a proposal which strikes a careful balance between respecting the bold, uncompromising architecture of the original buildings and the sensitive conservation areas on both sides.

Our proposal carefully inserts new structures on top of almost all of the existing blocks, with access provided via new lifts attached to the outside face of existing stair cores. Landscape improvements at ground floor level include enhancements to the public realm, new covered canopies and consolidation of existing bins and bike stores.

A key consideration in the development of the design was the visual impact on key strategic views from Hampstead Garden Suburb, and so the massing was carefully designed in collaboration with Barton Willmore’s visual impact team to ensure that the new extensions caused negligible harm to surrounding areas.

Project Data

ClientJMJ Real Estate
StatusIn Planning
LocationGolders Green, north London
Site Area2.3ha
Number of Homes19
Project TypeOpportunity Residential – Airspace
Local Planning AuthorityLondon Borough of Barnet

Project Team
Rosalind Peebles
Georgia Fear
Anthony Staples
Mhari Stevenson
Lee Jesson
James Hockey
Quincy Haynes
Tom Hart

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Hortsley represents an exemplar project for retirement living, providing 39 new homes designed from the outset to enhance physical and mental wellbeing.

Hortsley represents an exemplar project for retirement living, providing 39 new homes designed from the outset to enhance physical and mental wellbeing. Winner of the 2019 Housing Design HAPPI Award in recognition of the building’s profound impact on the lives of residents, every move—from the arrangement of the building on the site to the layout of the individual homes—has been made to combat feelings of social isolation and loneliness. 

Occupying a key site on the busy high street, the building repairs two street frontages, replacing a large blank wall to the north with a steady rhythm of windows and balconies reminiscent of the neighbouring Regency architecture and a narrow slot onto the busy high street to the south, where a knapped flint wall with a vertical slot window offers a tantalising glimpse of a secret garden beyond. 

The building’s plan is simple and legible, featuring a gentle curve which responds to the profile of the site allowing every home to enjoy a dual aspect. With kitchens and bathrooms located mid-way into the plan, living rooms and bedrooms can easily be reversed to suit changing individual need. 

Running the entire length and entire height of the building is a wide wintergallery, serving not only as the building’s primary circulation, but by widening it to 3.5m, providing an informal space which residents can occupy and adopt, but not own; a place to encourage casual interaction, to sit and watch the world go by. Each front door is paired with a patio door, opening out onto a small sheltered, but unheated, terrace with views across the garden. A vertical chequerboard of voids and terraces provides each resident with not two, but six neighbours—yet the gentle curve of the gallery achieves an intimacy which belies its length. 

“Unlike some other developments of this type, Hortsley does not have a formal care facility. But care, I would argue, is implicit in its architecture, thanks to a client that recognises that commercial success and residents’ wellbeing go hand in hand, and an architect that, in a quiet and understated way, understands how architecture sits at the interface between the individual, their community and the public as a whole. If we are to have any hope of solving the housing crisis, we need more buildings like Hortsley that embody this ethos.” – Owen Hopkins, Architects’ Journal 

A sculptural, wisteria-clad spiral stair leads from the garden to the upper floors, encouraging physical movement, extending the landscaping skywards. At its base is a small lounge, providing a kitchen and communal space for regular social events. Yet, unlike conventional retirement living schemes, Hortsley’s location in the centre of town provides easy access to local amenities, and with it, economic, social and community benefits into the heart of the wider community of Seaford. 

Client
Pegasus Lifestory 

Completed
2018 

Location
Seaford, East Sussex 

Awards
Housing Design Awards 2019 (Built) – HAPPI Winner
Sussex Heritage Trust Awards 2019 (Large-Scale Residential) – Winner
Architects’ Journal Architecture Awards 2018 – Shortlisted
Housing Design Awards 2017 (Project) – Shortlisted 

Photography
Jakob Spriestersbach 

Project Team
Michael Pitman
Brett Mahon
Phillip Gibb
James Hockey
Owen Jowett
Edwin Veth
James Hockey
Russell Curtis
Tim Riley 

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The transformation of a handsome 1920’s industrial office building into 44 affordable and market homes for local young professionals and families keen to get on the housing ladder

The transformation of a handsome 1920’s industrial office building into 44 affordable and market homes for local young professionals and families keen to get on the housing ladder features innovative design solutions and generous shared amenities to encourage social interaction and the formation of a vibrant new community.

The building includes shared amenity spaces and innovative design to encourage social cohesion, such as a resident’s lounge with space for events, dining and relaxing. This space incorporates post boxes and information board, sofas and kitchenette, and opens onto a generous shared garden with raised allotments and wild-berry brambles to an ecologically rich raised railway-siding.

RCKa’s design approach focused on identifying opportunities rather than constraints, and in doing so unlocked a handful of strategic moves which turned strict technical requirements into imaginative solutions to encourage social interaction.

For example, by separating social spaces from circulation and lift cores, a requirement for costly and divisive fire separation systems was eliminated, whilst saleable area was increased. A new stair was located to one side of the existing building providing a safe and direct escape route to the street, whilst an active and open series of spaces at ground floor dramatically increases chances of interaction between neighbours and the formation of new friendships and a sense of community.

Unusually for Pocket Living this project involved the conversion of an existing structure into new homes. RCKa’s challenge was to reconcile the client’s efficient, well-established housing product with the eccentricities of the existing building fabric.

The layout was tailored to both Pocket Living’s ‘citymakers’ as well as the local market, which the practice identified as included a healthy cycling culture. The ground floor was designed to nurture this through the provision of a seamless transition from street to rear courtyard, with resilient and attractive floor finishes running throughout internal and external spaces, and the inclusion of wheel dips at each entrance door to allow residents to temporarily support their bike as they open them. The continuous diamond motif within the floor finishes runs throughout the ground floor, referencing the building’s original use as a warehouse for a manufacturer of cast-iron products; the pattern recalls the design of the inspection covers stored in the building.

The Arklow Road scheme provides an attractive arrival sequence which in turn ensures the ground floor lounge becomes active space that is comfortable and welcoming. The design strategy responds directly to the street, adapting the former entrance to this industrial building to become more residential in character; generating a community-focused model of development that celebrates the street as a vibrant place of activity and interaction.

As well as a range of standard Pocket-style units, the scheme also includes a two-storey rooftop extension which provides a series of larger dual-aspect apartments for private sale.

Residents and visitors arriving at the main entrance are greeted by an elegant, curtain-like entrance screen. On stepping through the large entrance door, visitors enter a dramatic five-storey entrance court that conceals the main stair core and provides a visual connection to the balconies on the upper floors.

Passing through the entrance court one enters a generous 3.5m high foyer/event space; with seating, notice boards and post boxes, and space for meeting, it encourages residents to linger, hold small events and generally catch-up with neighbours.

Client
Pocket

Construction Value
£5m

Status
Completed spring 2018

Location
Lewisham, London

Photography
Jakob Spriestersbach

Project Team
Owen Jowett
Dieter Kleiner
Hayley Chivers
Kaiyil Gnanakumaran
Tom Hart


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A proposal for a small site in Hackney provides five exceptional new homes and workspace for a local housing association.

Our proposal for a small site in Hackney provides five exceptional new homes and workspace for a local housing association.

The development will provide a mix of two and three-bedroom apartments from ground to fourth floor, with the existing office space, which is occupied by the client, to basement level. The ground floor is raised slightly to provide privacy to ground floor homes, which also provides an opportunity to bring daylight into the lower-ground floor workspace. The top floor features a generous duplex apartment with a south-facing loggia and views across the city.

Communal circulation space occupies the space between the existing office building and the new development, creating a legible gap in the streetscape which continues the language of King Edward’s Road whilst creating a distinct character of its own.

This project is the first of several infill schemes that RCKa is designing for Shian Housing, with others elsewhere in Hackney, Islington and Haringey following later in the new year.

Client
Shian Housing

Status
In planning

Location
Hackney, London

Project Team
Edwin Veth
Rosalind Peebles
Thomas Deckker
Tahera Rouf

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RCKa has published an open-access web portal which provides easy access to a wide range of planning data for each of the London boroughs

As part of the practice’s ongoing research work, RCKa has published an open-access web portal which provides easy access to a wide range of planning data for each of the London boroughs. Bringing together statistics from a range of sources, including planning permissions, density and housing targets, the information is presented in an accessible and attractive format for all 33 of London’s boroughs and Mayoral Development Corporations.


A separate function of the site enables visitors to submit an Ordnance Survey coordinate within greater London and receive in return a personalised map centred on the chosen location showing the distribution of small sites within a 350m radius, together with ownership details. This allows potential developers to identify potential small sites for development so that approaches can be made offline to freeholders.

View the website here

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The Enfield Business Centre is an enterprise support hub which provides in-house and online training, advice and guidance to local entrepreneurs and the wider business community in Enfield.

Opened by the Deputy Mayor of London in September 2014, this remodelled 1970’s office building is home to the Enfield Business Centre, an enterprise support hub which provides in-house and online training, advice and guidance to local entrepreneurs and the wider business community.

Collaborative design was key to the successful remodelling of the Enfield Business Centre, from multi-disciplinary design and client teams, to local stakeholder and user groups with whom the brief for the project was re-written.

Our team was selected by Enfield Council for its compelling mix of innovation and skill, with We Made That developing public realm proposals alongside graphics and brand design by Europa and building design by RCKa. The common thread to the team was its commitment to stakeholder engagement and ability to manage complex client and user groups, and ability to distil often contradictory requirements into a comprehensive and realisable brief.

A series of interviews with tenants, council departments and neighbouring businesses and institutions, as well as research into similar centres, revealed the business centre needed not just the physical refurbishment stipulated in the original brief, but a new and more defined business strategy for positioning itself amongst other, privately owned business facilities in the area.

The fundamental question became whether the new business centre should simply provide more rentable office space, or as was subsequently agreed, become a local business “hub” providing wider support services to the local area. This decision led to a new focus on creating a welcoming and flexible entrance and the provision of shared facilities that effectively increased the space available to everyone.

The result is transformative on multiple levels – visitors are welcomed with an open and high-quality entrance sequence, users are provided flexible meeting, cafe, hot-desk and seminar spaces, and the wider community enjoys an optimistic piece of contemporary architecture that positively engages with the high street.
Our collaborative approach was also manifested in matters of cost, by virtue of a priced shopping list of potential building alterations that was considered by the project steering group against respective stakeholder priorities. This helped identify and agree works with the greatest positive impact, whilst ensuring best value. These included for example both functional building user requirements, and wider high street regeneration priorities of interest to the council and GLA.

“The quality of the design of this refurbishment has meant the business centre has been transformed into a vibrant modern business hub, where a range of new enterprise services have been introduced to help businesses grow.”

– Despina Johnson, Enterprise Enfield

Design challenges were considerable, from pressure for the entrance space to provide multiple uses as required by the myriad stakeholder groups, to complex technical issues of rerouting/removing existing services networks as multiple layers of lowered ceilings were removed – and most of all a very limited budget.

The resultant entrance space is unrecognisable as it is now open, welcoming and flexible. It doubles up as reception area and lobby, as multi-use event space and cafe. It creates two lines of security, three private meeting rooms and through generous glazing it contributes positively to the activity of the high street and finally reveals the activities taking place inside.

Ultimately a few strategic design moves successfully resolve what was a highly complex brief. These included relocating car parking to the rear, reusing existing doors and screens to reduce the cost of buying new, inserting a new multi-use function space into the ground floor, and creating a striking new contemporary interpretation of the existing concrete arched canopy to provide visibility and presence on the street.

Quality and human-scale is communicated through precise construction details and a rich material palette. Delicate gold anodised aluminium fringes form an arched fascia in front of glazing, which continues deeper into the function space as a lightweight timber slatted feature ceiling. Bold pigmented concrete floor tiles provide a vibrant “carpet” running throughout the lobby; the diagonal striped motif extends out across the newly pedestrianised forecourt to dissolve barriers between inside and out, making the business centre more approachable and welcoming.

Client
London Borough of Enfield

Completed
2014

Awards
AJ Small Projects Sustainability Award 2015

Location
Enfield, London

Public Realm
We Made That

Photography
Jakob Spriestersbach

Project Team
Jakob Spriestersbach
Dieter Kleiner
Russell Curtis
Kevin Wong

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An extra-care development at Boughton Heath in Chester which places wellbeing, sustainability and community cohesion at its heart.

RCKa’s new extra-care development at Boughton Heath in Chester raises the bar for retirement housing, placing wellbeing, sustainability and community cohesion at its heart.

A former garden centre will be replaced with an attractive composition of six villas arranged to integrate with a verdant landscape and respond to key routes providing a new gateway into Chester. The villas at Boughton Heath have been designed to accommodate the needs of a retirement community, including a wide range of communal facilities that will be open to the public. The development has also been planned to adhere to the new Fitwel Standard, which is an accreditation based on environmental sustainability, wellbeing, transport connections, safety and landscape.

A net zero carbon target has been set for the project with a high-performance building fabric and a site wide “ambient loop” heat network, reducing the carbon emissions from heating and other services by nearly 50% compared to Part L (2013). This combined with renewable energy generated on site will lead to further reduction in emissions. A 40% reduction in embodied carbon over typical residential development is targeted. All of these measures combined with post-completion monitoring of overall energy use will enable the scheme to set the standard for low carbon retirement developments. The design team has had to consider the whole-building-life-cycle to make sure that both the operational and embodied carbon are taken into account, which means not burning fossil fuels and being very selective about where building materials come from.

Located on a brownfield site that sits within the Greenbelt, the development responds to a local need for extra-care housing, and achieves an optimum number of units needed to prevent urban sprawl, but balances this with large landscaped areas. The characterful nature of the Tudor town has been interpreted for Boughton Heath through a series of pitched roofs and a central clock tower that acts as a beacon for this new community set amongst the surrounding trees.

Communal facilities and shared spaces will be organised around a central pedestrianised ‘avenue’ and a community square, helping to ensure that the residents remain fit, healthy and socially active, whilst also encouraging connections to the wider community. The site, adjacent to a park & ride, and local transport links, will be connected to a nearby canal foot/cycle path. Together with the onsite mobility hub which will be open to all, the development encourages a car-free alternative route into the heart of Chester.

This is a vanguard project for Retirement Villages Group that seeks to greatly improve the quality and choice of homes for older people in the area. The projects’ ambitions regarding design quality, sustainability, health & wellbeing, biodiversity and placemaking far exceed any standards set by planning policy. If approved, this project will set a benchmark for developments in the region and the retirement sector. Furthermore, it will demonstrate that, through meaningful collaboration with local stakeholders, high quality designs can be developed that bring multiple benefits to local communities.

Client
Retirement Villages Group

Status
Planning Permission Granted

Location
Chester, Cheshire

Awards
Housing Design Awards 2021 “Towards Net Carbon Zero” Winner

Project Team
Alan Beveridge
Rhiona Williams
Tom Hart
Samuel Letchford
Robin Turner
Alicia Arguelles
Daria Szmucer
Andrea Villate
Michael Pitman
Holly Le Var
Benjamin Summers
James Hockey

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In August 2021, RCKa director Russell Curtis published research into the extent of London's land set aside for golf courses.

In August 2021, RCKa director Russell Curtis published research into the extent of London’s land set aside for golf courses. This work revealed that there are 96 active golf courses within Greater London, with a total area of some 4,331 hectares. Added together, these courses occupy more space the whole of the borough of Brent, which is home to more than 330,000 people. Even more surprisingly, 43 of the city’s courses are owned by public bodies, totalling an area greater than the borough of Hammersmith & Fulham. The research questioned whether this represents an equitable use of land when there are so many pressures on land in London, and proposes an alternative solution where some consolidation of larger 18 hole courses could release land for social infrastructure, biodiversity improvements and housing.

Following its publication the work received international press coverage, including the printed edition of the Guardian, New Statesman, with discussions taking place on both radio and television.

View the dedicated website here

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Camden Road Hostel is one of a suite of temporary accommodation projects forming a key part of the council’s Community Investment Programme

Camden Road Hostel is one of a suite of temporary accommodation projects forming a key part of Camden Council’s Community Investment Programme. Replacing substandard bedrooms for those in immediate need of safe and secure housing, Camden Road Hostel – together with projects at Chester Road and the Godwin & Crowndale Estate – will also act as pilots for the council’s rollout of volumetric modular construction. 

The building sits on the edge of the Camden Square facing the busy Camden Road, and will replace an existing hostel building which is no longer fit for purpose; a feasibility study determined that retention and refurbishment would result in substandard accommodation. 

Common with many RCKa projects, the arrangement of circulation space encourages social interaction between residents, helping to nurture a sense of community among those who may only be living here for a short space of time. A small seating area next to each front door allows occupants to enjoy views across the landscaped garden, and to keep watch over children playing below. A community room in the rear garden provides informal meeting space, a small kitchen, and an opportunity for informal gatherings. 

The security of residents – some of whom will have arrived here from challenging home environments – is paramount, yet the scheme adopts a solution which makes the building approachable and welcoming whilst retaining a secure line between the public and private realms. There is a single entrance, with an open and accessible reception area, beyond which lies a sunken courtyard featuring play space for young children. 

To make best use of the site, the scheme extends to six floors, stepping down to either side to address the height of the neighbouring properties. The presence of mature trees within the front garden, protected by tree preservation orders, required the building line to be set back from the street, reducing the apparent height of the building when viewed from up and down the street. 

Every home, with the exception of three wheelchair-accessible ground floor rooms, will be identical, and constructed offsite to minimise disturbance to neighbours during the construction process. The façade will be clad in green glazed terracotta. 

Camden Road Hostel will provide a vital place of refuge in times of need, yet through a series of small but significant moves, allow a supportive and interdependent community to flourish. 

Client
London Borough of Camden 

Status
Start on site 2021 

Location
Camden, London 

Project Team
Russell Curtis
Lucy Devereux
Holly Le Var
Benjamin Summers
Andrea Villate 

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RCKa was commissioned to design a new home for the Open Eye Gallery on Liverpool’s historic dockfront which had outgrown its former home in the heart of the city.

RCKa was commissioned to design a new home for the Open Eye Gallery on Liverpool’s historic dockfront which had outgrown its former home in the heart of the city.

This presented a unique opportunity for the gallery to become the key cultural destination within the Mann Island development, with increased exposure and visibility bringing photographic arts to a wider audience.

Commissioned at a time of arts’ funding cuts, our collaborative design process focused on innovative ways to balance the gallery’s needs for curatorial control, with open and engaging spaces better able to attract funding. A steering group with representatives from northern art centres such as the Tate, Ceri Hand and Liverpool Museum and Biennale was established, which led to our suggestion of a fourth public gallery space that transformed the external elevation into a canvas and connected back to the City. This has been incredibly successful, and helped secure a significant increase in funding and a 500% increase in visitors, resulting in more sales from the shop in its first month of opening than sold in over 6 years from its previous home.

In close consultation with the Open Eye Gallery board and architect of the Mann Island development, Broadway Malyan, the scheme was developed to better suit the brief of the gallery and the wider regeneration strategy. The design was subject to considerable consultation with Liverpool City Council’s planning department to ensure that the gallery’s objectives were in alignment with the site masterplan. Whilst core design principles remained throughout the engagement process, the final proposals were subject to numerous refinements as a result of these discussions.

We recognised the need to make the gallery more accessible and public-facing, and with this in mind pushed the gallery spaces to the edges of the plot, moving the entrance to face the primary pedestrian route through the wider development, taking advantage of the covered public realm.

Client
Open Eye Gallery

Completed
2011

Location
Mann Island, Liverpool

Photography
Mark McNulty

Project Team
Tim O’Callaghan
Tim Riley

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In 2014 RCKa was appointed to help Camden Council investigate ways in which the long-term future of Highgate Newtown Community Centre could be secured through creative development of the site.

In 2014 RCKa was appointed to help Camden Council investigate ways in which the long-term future of Highgate Newtown Community Centre could be secured through creative development of the site. RCKa was selected through a competitive process based on its experience of public engagement and a track record of achieving planning permission for innovative housing and community projects on challenging urban sites.

The focus of the practice is to create places that are more relevant and have more resonance with the people that use them. Although the brief was simply to consider ways in which much-needed community space could re-provided, RCKa chose to expand this role to include a wider assessment of the local area to see if there were additional opportunities for the development to make an impact “beyond the red line”.

This led to the scheme becoming one part of a wider masterplan, opening up a new route through the site, stitching together two neighbouring communities which had previously been isolated from one another despite their close proximity.

A new pedestrian route running north to south through the site features a public square which will become a key community asset in its own right. A public square provides access to every part of the new development: all residential entrances, the community centre, youth centre and ancillary uses are all accessed from this space, ensuring activity and security throughout the day and evening.

The new community courtyard will become a vibrant and vital new heart to the community. A further benefit of this new route is improved social integration between the high value, privately-owned streets to the north and the largely council-owned housing assets to the south.

Client
London Borough of Camden

Completed
On site

Location
Highgate, London

Graphics
RCKa and Darcstudio

Project Team
Alan Beveridge
Maria Saeki
Christopher Permain
Dieter Kleiner
Hannah Cherry
James Hockey
Roger Bonnar
Lucy Devereux
Chris Scarffe
Quincy Haynes
Mhari Stevenson
Rhiona Williams
Emma Graham
Thomas Deckker
Alicia Arguelles
Edwin Veth
Michael Pitman

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Working in collaboration with housing campaign group PricedOut, RCKa director Russell Curtis has written a guide setting out simple steps that supporters of new housing development can follow to get their voices heard.

Working in collaboration with housing campaign group PricedOut, RCKa director Russell Curtis has written a guide setting out simple steps that supporters of new housing development can take to help get their voices heard by those responsible for making planning decisions. The document is written for those with little or no understanding of UK planning, providing a brief introduction to the legislative framework and providing guidance on how to make a positive impact on planning decisions which provide much-needed housing.

Download a pdf of the booklet here

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RCKa’s new Technology Centre for world-leading currency and security company De La Rue has instigated fundamental reform of how scientists and engineers from across the business collaborate and innovate through the provision of flexible workspace within an exemplary creative environment.

RCKa’s new Technology Centre for world-leading currency and security company De La Rue has instigated fundamental reform of how scientists and engineers from across the business collaborate and innovate through the provision of flexible workspace within an exemplary creative environment.

De La Rue’s facility at Overton Mill dates back to the nineteenth century and has expanded organically during the intervening years as the company’s products shifted from playing cards to currency and passports. The site today accommodates much of the UK operation’s paper manufacturing as well as the research and innovation facilities. Until the new Technology Centre opened in 2013, each component of the printing research processes – including paper, ink and foil technologies – were scattered across the site in sub-standard facilities.

RCKa was brought on board to consolidate key business groups into a single physical location and implementing new ways of working. As well as providing a world-class research facility, the Technology Centre needed to act as a showpiece for guests and visitors arriving by car or by train, with the elevated train line passing close to the main elevation of the building. Its prominent position close to the entrance to the highly-secure site provided an opportunity to create a striking piece of architecture which exploited its prominent location, signalling the company’s commitment to research and innovation.

Before commencing design work we took time to help develop the brief for the building, talking to key members from each of the research teams as well as managers of the facility to fully understand their ambitions for the new Technology Centre.

As well as potential research synergies, RCKa spent a considerable amount of time examining the specialist equipment used in the development process, including presses, printing equipment and so on, to understand where we might consolidate space and technical services through co-locating complementary items of equipment and finding potential synergies between research teams which might encourage unexpected and exciting opportunities.

The key strategic move was the relocation of all heavy-duty research equipment to the lower-ground and upper-ground floors, with an open-plan office and write-up space on the uppermost level, benefiting from full-height windows facing out across the countryside.

The office space, providing 50 workstations for a staff of around 75 engineers and scientists, was designed to exceed BCO Guide to Specification 2009. Although not in a conservation area the building was located on the edge of an Area of Great Landscape Value, and so had to respond to this sensitive constraint. The design was developed in close consultation with the local authority, and we ensured a first-time approval within a very short timescale as a result. An immovable deadline for the relocation of staff and equipment—during the main plant’s summer shutdown period, and the opening ceremony, attended by the Duke of Kent—meant that the entire delivery team had to work closely to ensure that unexpected events were not allowed to adversely impact the programme. Unusually RCKa was also involved in helping to plan the construction strategy in close collaboration with the main contractor, as strict security restrictions for the entire site added an additional layer of complexity; materials delivery, hoarding line, construction sequencing and site arrangement had to be integrated as part of the design process.

Most importantly, however, the transformation in working methods at De La Rue has had a profound effect on the effectiveness of De La Rue’s research operation. The transition from dispersed and cellular to open-plan, collaborative working has enabled the organisation to maximise opportunities for innovation and creativity and improve the quality of research undertaken which is vital to the future of the business.

Client
De La Rue

Completed
2013

Location
Overton, Hampshire

Photography
Jakob Spriestersbach, Ben Phillips

Project Team
Jakob Spriestersbach
Stephanie Crombie
Russell Curtis
James Hockey

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Set among the rolling hills of west Essex, RCKa’s proposals for a new retirement community exploit a gently undulating topography, nestling a collection of villas into a verdant rural landscape. 

Set among the rolling hills of west Essex, RCKa’s proposals for a new retirement community exploit a gently undulating topography, nestling a collection of villas into a verdant rural landscape. 

Designed from the outset to encourage social interaction between residents, the scheme demonstrates how careful, compact development can be successfully reconciled with green open space without compromising the integrity of the rural landscape. 

The scheme comprises 105 apartments and ancillary accommodation arranged within five villas which are carefully arranged to respond to views within the development, and from the surrounding countryside. 

Working closely with the local planning authority, RCKa developed a bespoke Chigwell Design Guide which established a series of design principles for the emerging scheme, responding to the historic character of Chigwell Village. These characteristics included varying gables, a pleasing variety of materials and interesting roof forms, all of which were used to inform the design of the new homes. 

Exploiting the gradient of the site, the villas are extremely efficient in plan, with split cores allowing access from each landing and enabling a range of one, two and three-bedroom homes to be accommodated within each building. Ground floor apartments open onto private terraces which also provide access to the generous shared gardens that connects the villas across the site. 

Each villa has a cruciform plan which allows every home, regardless of size, to benefit from views in at least two directions; in many cases three. This arrangement allows different combinations of homes to be configured on each floor, with all bathrooms and kitchen stacking vertically, whilst achieving a remarkable net-to-gross ratio of 92%. 

Status
Currently in Planning 

Client
Rangeford 

Location
Chigwell, Essex

Project Team
Alan Beveridge
Rhiarna Dhaliwal
Owen Jowett
Tim Riley
Kishan San
Anthony Staples
Robin Turner
Edwin Veth

Visualisations
Blackpoint Design

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RCKa’s TNG Youth & Community Centre in Lewisham, south London, was officially opened to the public in June 2013.

RCKa’s TNG Youth & Community Centre in Lewisham, south London, was officially opened to the public in June 2013. Funded by the Labour government’s MyPlace scheme, the centre provides a wide range of vocational, leisure and support services for the young people of Lewisham.

The 1200m2 centre is full of functional spaces; a training kitchen and cafe, a multi-use games area, recording studio, health-clinic, dance and performances spaces, teaching rooms and even a climbing wall. These spaces are arranged around several flexible areas that can enhance the utility of the building as a whole.

“a political and architectural triumph in equal measure.” 

– Building Design Magazine 

Adopting a broader role than solely the project architects, RCKa identified the capital funding stream (having worked on the part-funded OPEN youth venue in Norwich), and we were instrumental in the preparation the funding bid submitted to MyPlace scheme, which was subsequently selected from over 240 competing bids. 

As well as the young people and local community, RCKa worked with a number of service providers in the borough to develop a brief for the new building. These included Lewisham College, CABE, Centrepoint Homeless Charity, local youth theatres, church groups, the Wells Park Improvement Group, Lewisham PCT, the Football Association and Millwall Football Club Community Project. 

Working closely with Lewisham Council, its partners, and young people, RCKa developed proposals to satisfy a funding brief for a “world-class” building; from the use of innovative sustainable construction and high-quality design to extensive participation of young people, whose involvement continued through the detailed design, construction, management and governance of the building and services. 

Central to this vision was the creation of a democratic and flexible building that responds to the changing demands of its occupants. A dramatic central space resolves complex site levels and forms a vibrant heart, providing an event landscape that engages and welcomes visitors, and is alive with activity and opportunity. 

In contrast to the profiled glass and concrete outer shell, timber forms the basis for the structure and surface finish of the building. The CLT frame has a natural warmth but is also highly cost efficient.

A series of undefined spaces can be appropriated by the young people in whatever creative ways they see fit. The entrance foyer is one of these ‘in-between’ spaces that helps to connect all building levels. A triple-height wintergarden on the east side of the building is crossed with high-level balconies that provide important break-out space for all key uses. It acts as a thermal and physical buffer to the external multi-use games area, with surfaces left unfinished to encourage a wider range of uses than possible within the main building, whilst providing as much space as possible within the tight budget. 

Client
London Borough of Lewisham 

Status
Completed 2014 

Location
Lewisham, London 

Awards
RIBA National Building Award 2014 – Winner
Architizer A+ Awards – Typology 2014 – Winner
RIBA Journal Award 2015 – Highly Commended

Project Team
Alan Beveridge
Justin Bridgland
Stephanie Crombie
Dieter Kleiner
Tim O’Callaghan
Obi Okoye
Joshua Scott
Jakob Spriestersbach
Sei Takenaka 

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Working with the Isle of Wight Council and engineering specialist Stantec, RCKa has secured outline planning consent for a visionary masterplan to expand the capacity of Ryde Business Park to generate employment opportunities. 

Working with the Isle of Wight Council and engineering specialist Stantec, RCKa has secured outline planning consent for a visionary masterplan to expand the capacity of Ryde Business Park to generate employment opportunities. 

The project’s ambition is to provide a sustainable infrastructure to enable businesses to flourish, enhance the environment and create a distinct place where people want to reside, meet, work and play.  

The proposals aim to create an active place through the provision of a diverse range of uses, exploiting the topography and biodiverse landscape to encourage pedestrian activity and providing a dense layout that encourages communal use. The carefully laid out buildings encourage activity beyond their footprints, creating external spaces which promote occupation. 

Capturing a unique setting through the integration of a striking rural landscape, the masterplan celebrates and enhances the area’s rich ecology and biodiversity. This landscape will influence movement to and within the site, incorporating key views into the arrival sequences and inform the character of the proposals which will complement the rural setting. 

A new community hub provides vital social infrastructure necessary to support local businesses and encourage wider footfall through the site. This provides a stronger sense of place and identity for the development and improve its commercial outreach.  

The plots will be carefully arranged to nurture growth through arrangements that encourage interaction between businesses and are adaptable to changing needs. 

A broad range of business premises are provided, including offices in a rural campus, arranged in enterprise A broad range of business premises are provided, including offices in a rural campus, arranged in enterprise courts. Paired industrial units ensure a range of operational needs can be meet and these complement the broader industrial park and the market demands, all of which is captured within a series of design codes set out to inform the later detailed design stages.

The masterplan will build social value through the provision of jobs and by encouraging interaction between the business community and the wider community. 

Client 
Isle of Wight Council 

Status 
Hybrid Planning Consent 2020 

Location
Ryde, Isle of Wight 

Awards
Architects’ Journal Architecture Awards: Masterplanning 2021 – Shortlisted
Planning Awards 2021 – Highly Commended

Project Team
Alan Beveridge
Lucy Devereux
Alice Gordon 
Tom Hart
Quincy Haynes
Christopher Permain
Chris Scarffe
Anthony Staples
Tim Riley 
Rhiona Williams 

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Design for 47 efficient new build homes as part of the Broadfields Estate in Barnet, using a modular construction system.

RCKa and Barnet Homes have submitted plans for a new development project within the Broadfields Estate that will provide 100% affordable housing on a low-density, suburban site in the north of the borough. Taking advantage of the Common Home model developed by RCKa, the 47 homes will be delivered across the estate using a modular construction system, with the potential for future expansion.

The existing estate contains a mixture of housing from the 1930s, 60s and 70s, and the new proposal involves the removal of underused garages. Typical of many estates of its era, the site suffers from a poor arrangement of space, featuring dead ends and green spaces with no clear purpose. The new development will address this and identify a number of distinct areas that can be shaped to offer all local residents sustainably-minded places, including a village green, play zones and community-oriented routes through the estate.

The houses themselves will utilise modern methods of construction to ensure that the delivery of the project is affordable and efficient. The Common Home system was developed by RCKa to minimise construction wastage, cost and unnecessary complexity. Created to accommodate local supply chains, the typical product using this system can be designed and configured in a few weeks. The homes will feature sustainable elements such as heat recovery instead of gas central heating, as well as solar panels, thermal water heating and efficient appliances both for power and water consumption. High levels of insulation and Passivhaus-level air tightness will also ensure that energy bills are kept low.

“We are excited to be forging a new partnership with RCKa to deliver much needed innovative new affordable council housing to rent into Edgware. This also offers the opportunity to deliver other wider improvements into the area including the estate environment, better local connectivity and enhanced green spaces for existing residents. I look forward to seeing the progress on site and the completed new homes in 2023.”
Derek Rust, Group Director Growth & Development at Barnet Homes

Client
Barnet Homes

Status
In planning

Location
Edgware, London

Project Team
James Hockey
Benjamin Summers
Flavio Brosio
Quincy Haynes
Holly Le Var
Wendy Charlton