Tonight, ‘Epic Iran’ will feature on BBC2’s ‘Secrets of the Museum,’ a behind the scenes look at the V&A - showing the work of its curators and conservators.

The episode shows the extensive conservation works and installation of ten-meter-long replicas of the painted interiors of mosque domes from central Iran, dating from the 1850s and created by local Iranian craftsmen.

The three hanging gores are a key element of the exhibition, together with a suspended animation created by Luke Halls Studio, which shows how the pattern replicates on the original shape of the dome.

‘Epic Iran’ is open until the12 September 2021.

We are excited to have Shivani Suthar and Robin Simpson join us for their work experience placements.

Shivani completed her Part 1 in Architecture at Oxford School of Architecture, graduating in 2021. During her final year of undergraduate studies, she investigated ‘how strengthening an existing form of sustainable infrastructure, the canal, can help reduce the social stigma that currently exists between the canal boat community and locals.’ At Gort Scott, Shivani is using her understanding of placemaking, sustainability and context-led design to work on the Oxford Covered Market masterplan for Oxford City Council.

Robin has been with us for the last three weeks as part of a shared placement with Free Haus Design to broaden his experience and understanding of practice. He has been helping with delivery of stage 4 visuals as part of the Three Mills Studios regeneration project as well as using previous experience in helping to specify materials. Robin is currently in the final year of his Part I at London Met and has been working with Farsight.ai and artist Lawrence Lek as a digital artist and world builder. He recently won an award as part of London Met Accelerator - Big Idea Tech category for his Open Art digital galleries project and will be delivering his first exhibition with curators Thorp Stavri later this year.

Congratulations to Gort Scott’s Jonathan Mann and Paul Wild who are now Certified Passive House Designers!

‘The course is aimed principally at building professionals in the UK and prepares delegates for taking the Certified European Passivhaus Designer qualification. It introduces the principles behind the Passivhaus standard and methodologies and the use of the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) for achieving low energy performance, with teaching firmly based on UK building examples. The AECB CarbonLite Programme is designed to prepare delegates not only for the exam but for future involvement in very low energy building projects.’

Congratulations to Jonathan Mann, Sela-Jaymes Taylor and Andrew Tam, who have recently become Associates at Gort Scott, joining our Senior Team.

Fiona and Jay said: “Sela and Jon joined us last year, both very talented designers with experience at all project stages, seeing their projects built. Sela brings an emphasis on heritage and conservation, Jonathan in environmental design. Andrew has been with Gort Scott for over 8 years and brings acute design sensibility, great care and precision to all our endeavours. They are all uniquely talented, skilled and dedicated architects and their senior roles as part of the team at Gort Scott are hugely valued. They join existing Associates Alan Worn and Joseph MacMahon, Associate Director Susie Hyden and Technical Director Chris Neve as our heroic senior management super team. Thank you, guys.”

Ewa Effiom joined Gort Scott last month as an Architect, bringing a broad set of skills and interests to the practice.

With a master’s degree in both architecture and urbanism, Ewa has a particular interest in public spaces, and their importance to the quality of life and sense of belonging in urban areas. He has experience working on masterplans and feasibility studies and has been involved in projects at a variety of scales.

Ewa was also part of the Architecture Foundation’s New Architecture Writers, which sought to create more equity within the domain of architectural journalism and has a recurring role as a visiting critic at the Manchester School of Architecture.

Gort Scott in collaboration with IF_DO and Unscene Architecture was among the seven practices shortlisted for the design competition to take forward a major redevelopment programme at City of London School.

The international open call competition was organised by New London Architecture (NLA) and the City of London Corporation. 71 teams responded to the call for entries, which specifically encouraged collaborations of established teams with new and emerging practices.

Our proposal has been developed around the concept of ‘Finding the heart’ emphasising the courtyard playground as the ‘heart’ of the school and masterplan. The existing building and new buildings complete the quadrangle, embracing and protecting this space whilst allowing each to confidently express their own character.

Gort Scott Associate Director Susie Hyden will join on the 11th of June the panel of discussion Designing London’s Recovery organised by the Design Council.

The Recovery Programme, overseen by the London Recovery Board, identified one grand challenge: To restore confidence in the city, minimise the impact on communities and build back the city’s economy and society, following a missions-based approach to deliver the programme through nine Recovery missions. The Open Call for Ideas deadline is the 30^thJune.

Susie has been invited, together with Patricia Brown (Director of Central) and Dan Hill (Mayor’s Design Advocate and Director of Strategic Design at Vinnova) and Pam Warhurst (Chair of Incredible Edible) to share experiences and insights on Brief Three of the Programme focusing on: A Green New Deal and High Streets for All.

Book your free ticket here

We are delighted to announce that, as part of the Londonon collective, we are the joint winners of an international design competition by the Bergen Municipality, to re-masterplan its Laksevåg waterfront district. The competition sought ‘visionary, site-specific and feasible’ concepts to restore and redevelop the former shipbuilding area which occupies a prominent city centre location overlooking the Puddefjorden.

The core of the collaboration was built around four UK practices who make up a large part of Londonon, a self-funded research initiative which explores the urban condition across cities on a global platform. The team consists of Haptic Architects, Morris+Company, Turner Works and Gort Scott, alongside Elliott Wood, Urban Systems Design and VILL.

Our proposals focus on the notion of surgical repair and remodelling, with a circular philosophy of retention and reuse as the foundation of the concept. We have focused the programme on work and craft, drawing upon our shared expertise in realising the powerful contribution that buildings of all scales can have for creative industries.

Image credit: Filippo Bolognese

Gort Scott’s new Gateway West office at White City Place is starting on site.
We are delighted to be working with Stanhope on this characterful new addition to the emerging Gateway scheme which champions the masterplan’s sustainable agenda.

The constraints of the angular site have been treated as virtues to generate a strongly sculpted brick building that anchors this important corner and forms a point of contrast to the predominantly steel and glass-clad neighbouring buildings.

A collaborative approach to sustainability has lowered embodied carbon, achieved 2025-2030 energy performance.

Find out more about the project here

We are excited to unveil the design of the Epic Iran exhibition opening on Sunday 29th of May at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

The show explores 5,000 years of Iranian art, design, and culture, bringing together over 300 objects from ancient, Islamic, and contemporary Iran and it is conceived as a journey between spaces of very different atmospheres, each relating to the objects displayed and their time and place in history.

Jay Gort said “The history of Iran is incredibly rich with a complex weave; certain epochs are referenced at various stages of renaissance and modernity. It is this re-iteration of arts and culture that leads to the tenacious identity. The challenge, therefore, has been to capture how one point of the expansive history references another, without creating confusion or pastiche. We have been unafraid to play with sensory layers – using the metaphor of a city to communicate the richness of Iran’s thousands of years of culture, breaking down the preconception of historic exhibitions as silent, while carefully guiding and orientating the visitor”.

Find out more about the project here

Our drawings, Thames to Tooting: Urban block and the arterial London high street, expand upon research Fiona Scott initially did as part of the AJ/RPS Urban Design Scholarships programme which proposed a new understanding of London’s urbanism – one focused not on centres, but on routes. This linearity isn’t the American ‘strip’, and it’s not a Modernist streak of speed and movement: it’s a low-key, disorderly linearity that is particular to the way London has evolved.

These particular drawings capture a moment in time and were exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2010. They show High Street urban blocks along a long, arterial high road that runs from London Bridge, through Borough, Clapham, Tooting, and out of London, following the route of a Roman road. Roads like these are part of a large network of high streets that are the life-blood of the capital. They have an extraordinary depth and variety of form and use, which supports more than half of London’s jobs.

The drawings aimed to harness the move to a renewed recognition of the importance of our high streets after riots and recession and informed an attitude to London’s urbanism at a strategic level and how investment and resources could be distributed. The drawings and what they encapsulate about truly understanding and valuing what already exists in all its complexity is foundational to the ethos of the practice and how we go about our work.

Last month, Fiona Scott spoke to Peter Murray, Curator-in-Chief of New London Architecture. They discussed Gort Scott’s High Streets Adaptive Strategies report and the concept of the 15-minute city.

Fiona Scott said: ‘One of the most attractive elements of the 15 minute city is localised economic ecosystems, addressing the huge wealth inequality in London. How do we retain the value that is built in a local area? There has been a genuine shift in mindset to thinking more locally but, at the same time, Amazon and online shopping is going through the roof. We need to find a way for the local and the global to co-exist mutually.’

You can listen to the conversation here.

We are very excited to have been appointed by the LLDC to lead a design team in renovating and refurbishing parts of 3 Mills Studios, iconic TV and Film production studios in the heart of London’s most vibrant creative community, by the River Lea in Bow.

The project aims to fit-out and undertake remedial works to several of the characterful, historic and listed buildings along Three Mill Lane. The project will support the long-term viability of 3 Mills Studios through the creation of new workspaces and contribute to supporting the creative industries in east London. Our team includes the architectural practice Freehaus, and engineers OR Consulting and Momentum.

We are pleased to announce that Kerasia House is beginning to take shape, with construction underway.

The new home will be situated within a grove of olive trees on a steep hillside, with expansive views over the Ionian Sea. The built elements of the project are distributed amongst a collection of small buildings set into the landscape, referencing the vernacular of Corfu’s hilltop villages.

Working with local builders and craftspeople, the external walls are being made from a local stone and terracotta blockwork, with a contemporary interpretation of traditional construction techniques used on the island. The walls are 650mm thick, to build thermal mass and protect against Corfu’s warm climate. Roof tiles have been reclaimed and windows are constructed from timber.

The project is due to be completed in spring 2022.

To view the project page, click here.

We are delighted to have won an important commission to create an urban design strategy and development framework for the New Spitalfields and Leyton Mills area of the Lea Valley in London - for Waltham Forest Council. Gort Scott will be leading a team including We Made That, Hatch, Sweco, Cushman Wakefield and Turley.

The project will connect high street and town centre with the river and regional park as well as significant new and existing transport infrastructure. We are excited to establish a new vision for a site that has such high potential to benefit residents and businesses.

A range of public sector organisations including the Greater London Authority, Transport for London, City of London Corporation and London Legacy Development Corporation are supporting this project.

Fiona will be on the judging panel for this year’s Architects’ Journal Small Projects Award, alongside Pedro Gil, Selina Mason and Martin Edwards. The AJ Small Projects Award celebrates completed projects with a contract value of £299,000 and under.

Since its launch in 1996, the intention of the award has remained the same: From home extensions to restaurants, offices to shops, architects all over the country are busy working on projects that may not make the headlines but nevertheless give a real indication of the design talent in Britain today.

We are delighted to work with the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) to deliver a strategic and sustainable vision for this key area of London’s future development. AJ have published an article about the local plan which you can read here.

Fiona Scott will be speaking at ‘Urban Depth & Autonomy Workshops: City Depth’ on Thursday 11th February.

Hosted by Art, Architecture and Design Research at the London Metropolitan University, this is the third in a series of four interdisciplinary workshops asking how the built environment shapes our capacity to exercise autonomy in cities.

The workshops explore the nature of spatial order, and the relationship between people and their environments from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives. The aim is to establish common ground; understand the nature and breadth of existing research into spatial ordering; define shared concepts and to begin to explore conceptual and normative issues around architecture and urban design.

Fiona will speak alongside Birgit Hausleitner, Nicola Bacon and Francesca Froy.

Click here for details.

Great to see high-quality design by Gort Scott, 5th Studio, Mikhail Riches and RCKa architects promoted the current phases of Olympic fringe development, which focus on affordable housing and sustainable mixed-use urbanism between Stratford high street and Olympic park.

Link to the AJ article here.

Waltham Forest Council have given our Forest Road project the green light. The scheme for Pocket Living will provide 90 one-bed flats, on a site formerly occupied by a care home.

High-quality considered public realm is key for this development, to ensure it is safe and enjoyable for all residents and successfully integrated. The residential block will provide 100% affordable housing, eight apartments of which are wheelchair adaptable, with communal external landscaping.

Precast curved concrete elements respond to the William Morris Gallery opposite and help to articulate the massing. A wall piece, on a section of the façade, has been designed by a local artist and responds to the area’s Arts and Crafts heritage.

We are delighted to announce that we have been appointed by Oxford City Council to develop a masterplan for the Grade II-listed Covered Market, an important historic structure in the city centre.

The masterplan will set out how the market, first opened in 1774, could be regenerated and improved. We are looking to promote participation and inclusivity, encouraging more people to spend time in the market in the daytime and evening. We will be making the market more visible and attractive from the street, while exploring approaches to incubate new uses, businesses and activities. The market will become a model for sustainability, streamlining and future-proofing public services and market servicing.

RE—SET—GO make space for excluded voices and pilot ways to build more progressive and representative architectural communities.

You can now book free 1-to-1 mentoring and ‘CV Surgery’ sessions with London Practice Forum architecture practices, including Gort Scott. You must live in the boroughs of Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark or Wandsworth to take part.

Click on this link for all the details.

We have designed an immersive scenography for the Epic Iran exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Based on the idea of ‘The Exhibition as City’, the show covers 5000 years of history set within ten unique spaces.

Looking forward to seeing the museum reopening soon!

Click here to book tickets.

With introductions from former London mayor Ken Livingstone and his then architectural advisor Richard Rogers, this book by Peter Bishop and Lesley Williams discusses the impact of the Design for London team Livingstone and Rogers pioneered in 2006. Many projects that have been so influential to our practice, including some of our own, are featured, providing insight on London’s ongoing transformation.

Find out more about the book here

‘On a rocky outcrop in the mountains of British Colombia in Canada, the London-based architectural firm Gort Scott has crafted a house in concrete, timber and glass that responds to its spectacular surroundings’ writes David Nicholls, Deputy Editor of House & Garden.

We are thrilled to be the cover feature of House & Garden magazine’s Christmas edition.

Read more about The Rock

Link to House & Garden

We’re pleased to report that our project at Arnhem Drive for Croydon housing provider Brick By Brick has been submitted for planning. The scheme adds 56 homes across two new buildings to enhance an existing estate in the New Addington area with public realm and landscaping improvements reinforcing connections between the estate and adjacent park.

By adopting a low-energy approach, the scheme also adheres to sustainability principles set out in the One Planet Living framework by South London charity Bioregional.

Read more at the Architects’ Journal.

We are excited to be involved in this pioneering programme to increase diversity in built environment professions.

Accelerate was developed and established by Open City, in partnership with The Bartlett, UCL. Over the last decade, hundreds of students have taken part in the programme, with 70% of Accelerate participants securing conditional offers to study architecture and related subjects at university.

Click here to find out more.

The proposal centres on the remodelling of the Dining Hall, with new lantern skylight, to reinstate the Hall as the centrepiece of the site. A new atrium and Garden Room to Chapel Court will connect key spaces including the refurbished Sherlock Library and Rare Books Collection.

Design gestures reference the College’s rich history, including a new Gallery to the Hall that borrows from the site’s past architecture. New red stonework unites the Grade-I listed 17thC Court and 1960’s McGrath Centre, strengthening coherence and identity across the campus.

Today, we’re at St Hilda’s College! This is the first time some members of the practice have seen the project on site, and it’s looking fantastic in the August sunshine.

What does ‘normal’ look like anyway for London’s diverse and ever-evolving high streets? Fiona writes for the NLA, speculating on the future of high streets and the opportunities and challenges that may come in defending urban life.

Reflecting on our recent High Streets Adaptive Strategies research project in partnership with the GLA, Fiona observes how strategies explored in the research have incidentally been catalysed in the unprecedented circumstances of 2020. It is important to use this period to reflect on the consequences of the pandemic – to identify where we have and can continue to make changes in relation to home working, transport and healthier streets. It is vital not to forget the value that comes from community, physical proximity and inhabiting public spaces – it is more important than ever to defend models of urban life when looking towards a sustainable future.

Read more

‘More flexibility and moving more easily between use classes, as well as mixing use classes and incorporating multiple uses within the same property will be crucial.’ Read Fiona’s contribution to the Architect’s Journal feature on high streets adaptability.

Our Architectural Assistant Olly Carter and Studio 7, London Met School of Architecture have won the Sustainable Project award, AJ Small Projects 2020, for the CASS Studio at Margent Farm, an industrial hemp farm outside Huntingdon practising regenerative farming methods.

Congratulations Studio 7 and to studio leaders David Grandorge and Paloma Gormley!

Photography credit to David Grandorge.

Read more

Following the launch of our High Streets and Town Centres - Adaptive Strategies publication, part of the GLA’s Good Growth By Design programme, Fiona writes in Building Design about how the most successful high streets are those that look beyond a narrow retail focus and move towards a diverse range of social, economic and cultural uses.

Read more

Today we launched our latest research document for the Mayor of London: High Streets and Town Centres - Adaptive Strategies, part of the Good Growth by Design programme.

The document has been a collaboration between Gort Scott, Hatch Regeneris and We Made That, and a number of London’s boroughs and partners across the capital.

It gives guidance that emphasises the public value of high streets and town centres, showcases the innovative work taking place to adapt them, and provides the necessary support for boroughs, developers, landowners and civic society groups across the capital to engage in London’s high streets and respond to the many local and global challenges they face. It makes clear that the future lies in collaboration and mission-orientated innovation.

As champions of retrofitting in architecture we are proud to demonstrate what can be achieved through creative reuse. Today more than ever it is crucial we approach construction differently and reuse where we can. As a result, we have an inspiring studio space that is both forward-thinking and deeply embedded in the industrial history of the area.

Watch Jim Stephenson’s film or read the AJ In Practice feature about our project 55 Leroy Street.