Silver Street public toilets in Cambridge’s historic city centre have been officially opened to the public by the Mayor of Cambridge, Cllr Maria Cleminson, and the Leader of Cambridge City Council, Cllr Katie Thornburrow.

Gort Scott was commissioned by Cambridge City Council to refurbish and partially replace the existing Silver Street public toilets in Cambridge. The facilities, located largely beneath the street at river level, had previously been closed to the public due to maintenance issues and poor, congested access. 

Silver Street Bridge, opposite Queens’ College and overlooking the Mill Pond, is a listed location which attracts many visitors to the city, and the new toilets have been carefully designed to meet the needs of many thousands of international visitors each year and to fit in seamlessly with their historic surroundings.

Cllr Martin Smart, Cabinet Member for Nature, Open Space and City Services, said: 
“The new Silver Street toilets really enhance the cityscape in this historic and much-visited part of the city, and will provide a modern, well-managed facility for thousands of the visitors we welcome to Cambridge each year. The design prioritises safety, accessibility, and user confidence in its busy city-centre setting and demonstrates how high-quality contemporary design can successfully integrate with a sensitive historic setting while delivering lasting civic, environmental, and social value.”

The Old Oak Masterplan Framework has been shortlisted for this year’s NLA Awards in the Neighbourhoods & Masterplans ‘Unbuilt’ category.

Old Oak presents a unique opportunity for exemplary city-making at the strategic intersection of the Elizabeth Line and HS2, creating a major new urban district of local and national significance.

With connections extending across London, the UK and beyond, it is set to become a vital part of the capital’s future growth. Spanning the boroughs of Ealing, Brent and Hammersmith & Fulham, the district encompasses the area adjacent to the future Old Oak Common Station, from Harlesden to North Acton.

Approximately 8,000 new homes (including affordable) and 200,000sqm of commercial and community space will be delivered alongside new parks and green spaces, enhanced connectivity, and social infrastructure including a new primary school, leisure centre, nurseries, and cultural and community spaces. A series of distinctive neighbourhoods, varying in scale and character, will be carefully integrated into the wider context, connecting with Park Royal’s industrial heartland and Creative Enterprise Zone, Wormwood Scrubs and the Grand Union Canal.

A team led by Gort Scott, with Allies and Morrison and Periscope, has developed a Masterplan Framework for Old Oak that sets out a vision and guiding principles for a sustainable and inclusive new urban district. The framework establishes two distinct yet interconnected neighbourhoods: the residential-led Canalside Neighbourhood, supporting active and healthy lifestyles along the Grand Union Canal, and the Old Oak Town Centre, a major new town centre and hub of industrial innovation, strategically positioned along the WestTech London innovation corridor. Together, they create the foundations for a new piece of city that builds on the area’s rich industrial and cultural heritage.

The Old Oak Mile, the masterplan’s central spine, threads through these neighbourhoods, building on London’s tradition of mixed-use streets and shared public spaces. Framed by the distinctive character of the canal and two new urban centres, these neighbourhoods will provide safe, welcoming streets, green spaces and new and enhanced routes for walking and cycling, creating one connected place guided by ongoing collaboration with residents and stakeholders.

New parks and green spaces will form a connected green network across Old Oak, linking and enhancing existing biodiverse corridors while creating accessible, nature-rich spaces for people and wildlife. The framework is supported by an integrated sustainability strategy, developed by Expedition Engineering, which adopts an ambitious and holistic approach to social, economic and environmental sustainability. Designed for long-term climate resilience, Old Oak aims to become a landmark zero-carbon regeneration project.

We have produced an in-house guidance suite that distils our philosophy, tools, best practice tips and hurdles into eight Green Guides. These span from start to completion (from briefing to post-occupancy evaluation (POE)) and cover the six themes key to our work:

- Operational Energy
- Embodied Carbon and Retrofit
- Circularity and Deconstruction
- Designing for People (Community, Wellbeing and Social Value)
- Designing for Nature (Biodiversity, Green and Blue Infrastructure)
- Climate Change and Resilience

Together with our existing Sustainable Design Roadmap and project-specific Sustainable Design Trackers, these form a simple and caring framework for our practice as a whole, individual projects, and each conversation on the way.

We believe that talking early and talking often about environmental impact is the key to sustainable outcomes. These ever-evolving guides structure everything from internal training to external briefing, so we can all act as one to make resilient and future-ready places.

Dome House & The Portman Estate Head Office are shortlisted for the AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards under the ‘Adaptive Reuse into Office’ and ‘Fit-Out’ categories

Our retrofit approach for Dome House centres on retaining and celebrating the existing fabric while upgrading environmental performance in ways that are sensitive to heritage. For decades, the project’s unique roof structure was concealed behind a gridded ceiling; the design vision was to reveal this inherent beauty and make it the centrepiece of the refurbishment. By carefully removing the ceiling and stripping back layers of later additions, the historic timbers from below were exposed, breathing new life into the building and telling the story of its rich history. Many of the original 16th-century timbers remain intact, a testament to the craftsmanship of the original roof.

The original staircase beneath the dome was removed and replaced with a timber staircase positioned to the rear, creating a more efficient layout. New joinery elements are constructed in light ash, selected to contrast with the existing dark timber roof structure, respecting the building’s history while distinguishing new from old. The CAT A layout and rationalised circulation enhance flexibility for future occupants, extending the building’s useful life and supporting a long life/loose fit approach.

The Portman Estate’s new head office at One Great Cumberland Place is a low-carbon workplace within a restored 1920s Art Deco building, designed to support agile working, wellbeing and a more collaborative office culture. Working within the retained base build, we used extensive consultation to shape the layout and introduced low-carbon, high-recycled-content materials, generous planting, a flexible café-style heart and carefully placed rooms that preserve views to Hyde Park, while reused elements and measured embodied carbon helped reduce waste and support a carbon-neutral outcome with minimal offsetting.

The winning projects will be announced at the AJ ceremony in September.