Director Fiona Scott will be speaking alongside Jaime Bishop in a discussion about the case for locating healthcare services on high streets and in town centres to maximise cross-cutting benefits both for the city and for peoples’ health. They will be at Healthy City Design 2024 at the Royal College of Physicians in Liverpool 15th-16th October.

Wednesday 16 October, 14:00
Session 29: ‘Locating health services in town centres: Applying urban design and data to maximise benefits’

Gort Scott’s Environmental Action Group attended the 14^th UK Passivhaus Conference, held at the University of Oxford. The team were incredibly interested in the progress the University has made on their new Passivhaus Humanities building, which is set to be certified as the largest in the UK. A Passivhaus Masterclass was headlined by a number of key speakers from the project team and set out the comprehensive technical challenges associated with the project delivery. As well as providing a practical insight into how to achieve Passivhaus at scale, the Masterclass outlined the critical role of good design team communication, effective information exchange and rigorous project reporting. It also provided an insightful record of the University’s journey, from a small aspiration to design to Passivhaus standards, to an eventual commitment to achieve certification. The conference provided critical information for Gort Scott as we commence concept design stages for a large Passivhaus Standard University building in 2024.

During the second day of the conference the team heard from several public sector bodies, who are in the process of setting out a clear strategy, to improve Local Planning Policy in the face of the climate emergency. Michael Jones from York City Council introduced their ‘Building Better Places Guide’ which commits to developing all new build housing to certified Passivhaus Standards. He provided invaluable insight into the council’s new high-quality housing developments, currently in construction at Duncombe Square, Burnholme Green and New Ordnance Lane. He was followed by Lewis Knight at Bio-Regional who set out an excellent strategy to help Local Councils improve upon National Planning Policy.

As the conference concluded, we were particularly interested in the more all-encompassing energy strategies that were presented by Paul Cross, for Oxford University Estates and Barbara Hammond for The Low Carbon Hub. Barbara talked at length on the importance of preparing at all scales for a decarbonised electrical grid. She outlined that electrical services in new builds could require 4 times as much space than current best practice, so designing from the outset to low energy Passivhaus Standards will be critical to maintain spatial efficiency and viability in the future.

The UK Passivhaus Conference provided Gort Scott’s Passivhaus Designers with an excellent opportunity for ongoing training, as well as a much broader insight into Net Zero Carbon strategies emerging across the UK.

Director, Fiona Scott was invited to London Real Estate Forum (LREF) to discuss Gort Scott’s work as masterplanning lead with the Mayor of London’s Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) and the making of a new urban district in West London: Old Oak.

Old Oak is a new canalside district of 9,000 homes and 3m sq ft of workspace, and will combine the existing industrial, culinary, and creative heartland of Park Royal, with innovative and entrepreneurial new workspace, retail, leisure and public realm, that’s fit for the future. The panel discussed the building blocks to create a lasting economic and social legacy, using core principles for inclusive growth and learning from success stories across the globe.

The panel was led by OPDC Development Director, Marianne Brook, with Fiona Scott, Michael Phillips (Jamestown), Cllr Shital Manro (LB Ealing) and Robert Gordon Clark (NLA).

Read more about Old Oak here.

Forest Road has won ‘Best First-Time Buyer Home’ at the Evening Standard New Homes Awards 2024.

“Praised by the judges for its generous shared spaces, its well-planned outside space, and high standards of architecture.”

Forest Road - located in the heart of Walthamstow - provides 90 affordable one-bedroom homes for local first-time buyers and makes excellent use of an under-utilised site, to provide 100% affordable homes.

Evening Standard New Homes Awards recognise and celebrates innovation and excellence. All entries under the category includes lower-priced yet outstanding starter homes that do not compromise on design, style or construction quality.