Following the feature in Architecture Today, the podcast about The Rock is now online. The Rock is a private residence designed by Gort Scott on a rocky outcrop in Whistler, Canada.

Jay Gort discussed the project with Matthew Barac, architect and academic and Isabel Allen, Editor of Architecture Today.

“The whole idea of movement through the building was very carefully choreographed – how you could make that journey to the top and capture some of the essence of climbing up the rock. But we were very conscious of it not becoming just about the journey but about dwelling and stopping. The series of interconnected spaces is like a collage. Where you’re in one of those spaces, you feel grounded by the relationship to the landscape.”

Gort Scott’s design for St Hilda’s College is winner of the Oxford Preservation Trust (OPT) New Building Award, announced during a ceremony that took place this week at St John’s College. The OPT Awards celebrate the contribution that buildings and landscape projects make to Oxford’s character, streets, and green spaces.

Originally won through an invited design competition run by Malcolm Reading Consultants in 2016, the project helped St Hilda’s College realise their vision of creating a new point of arrival and a stronger relationship with the river and the city beyond. Embodying the College values of inclusivity and belonging, the masterplan served to integrate the new buildings into both the urban fabric, natural ecology, and the rich history of Oxford.

The Rev Prof William Whyte, Chairman of the Awards Panel said: ‘This year proved to be extraordinarily rich in projects. Taken together, the judges viewed something like 60 entries: all of them interesting, many of enormous merit, and some of exceptional quality. As we review the winners, we can confidently celebrate the continued commitment of so many people to the preservation and improvement of Oxford’s environment.’

We are excited to have Henry Muss, founder of The Climate Resilience Company supporting Gort Scott with our environmental strategy and becoming a net zero carbon business. We are also starting our B-Corp assessment, working towards accreditation given to businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.

With our involvement at Old Oak Common, Andrew and Sarah from our team were invited by Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) to run a series of placemaking workshops as part of a staff day at OPDC’s Brent Civic Centre offices. Our sessions complemented workshops by urban economist Richard Brown and Lisa Taylor, Founder of Coherent Cities and Executive Director of Future of London, covering a range of topics focusing on the future of cities including post-pandemic resilience, social and socioeconomic equity and environmental sustainability.

The day was a great success, involving staff from the whole organisation including CEO David Lunts and Chair of the Board Liz Peace CBE.

Our director Fiona Scott will be participating as a mentor for the RIBA’s upcoming Guerrilla Tactics Speed Mentoring event. The sessions will be hosted online on Friday 12 November. Fiona will be offering inspiration, guidance, and career advice to small practitioners as one of 25 mentors.

The event will follow on from Guerrilla Tactics: Stop, Collaborate and Listen and consist of 3 rounds of 20-minute advice on business and professional development needs.

Fiona is one of the Mayor’s Design Advocates, working with City Hall to help support London’s evolution.

Gateway West, our new commercial building for Stanhope, is beginning to take shape, with construction well underway on site.

Gateway West is one of three new buildings being built on the Gateway Site in White City Place, completing a 6.8ha grouping of technology, media and education enterprises in the rapidly developing fin-tech and creative environment of the White City Opportunity Area.

The design has been planned to obtain a BREEAM Excellent rating and makes use of passive design principles to work towards a truly sustainable place of work.

The Rock, photographed by Rory Gardiner, is on the cover of Architecture Today’s latest issue.

AT’s fifteen page feature on the project includes a discussion between our Director Jay Gort and the architect and academic Matthew Barac. They talk about eclectic architectural references, the relationship between sculptural expression and family life and responding to the unique qualities of an extraordinary site.

Thank you House & Garden for awarding The Rock ‘Project of the Year 2021’! A unique project that came from a unique collaboration between client and the design and construction teams.

‘When House & Garden visited this project in the mountains on Canada’s west coast, the challenges of the site were obvious, not least because the rocky outcrop rose several metres from street level through a scattering of pine trees. The solution that architectural practice Gort Scott came up with – creating a journey through the house as you climb to the top storey – was as ingenious as it was elegant. With its acres of board-formed concrete and unabashed modernity, The Rock completely subverts the idea of a ski chalet, but it does so without fighting the mountain setting.’

The nine winners of this year’s awards are listed here.

Last week our founding directors Fiona Scott and Jay Gort were invited to speak at the grand opening of our transformative front of house project for St Hilda’s College Oxford. They were joined by project architects Chris Neve, Dominic Dudley and Joe Crawford and St Hilda’s students, tutors, staff, alumni and the Lord Mayor of Oxford - to celebrate the project, which was won through an invited design competition in 2016. Credit also goes to key team members Amy Wong and the competition team including Alan Worn and Andrew Tam.

The buildings were officially opened by four former Principals of St Hilda’s: Elizabeth Llewellyn-Smith (1990 - 2001); Lady English (2001 - 2007); Sheila Forbes (2007 - 2014) and Sir Gordon Duff (2014 - 2021). During their combined 30 years as Head of House, St Hilda’s has evolved through its buildings.

We are delighted to have helped the college realise their vision of creating a new point of arrival and a stronger relationship with river and the city beyond.

We are delighted that our Gainsford Road project has been shortlisted for Waltham Forest Awards.

The project provides 45 affordable one-bedroom homes for first-time buyers in Walthamstow, meeting the borough’s housing aspirations while making a lasting contribution to the area.
Designed to maximise opportunities for resident interaction, the entrance to the building is accessed from the street and is clearly marked by a gateway made of precast concrete elements

Alongside the awards given by the judging panel, the public will also be given the chance to vote their favourite project from the shortlist for the People’s Choice Award.

Click here to vote for Gainsford Road.
The winners will be announced in November.

The short film ‘The Rock’ has been shortlisted for Archiboo’s ‘best use of video’ award. Filmed and edited by Tapio Snellman, with sound and music by Adam Lieber.

‘The Rock’ explores the eponymous private residence in the Pacific Ranges of British Columbia. The film attempts to present the building within its natural context and specific atmosphere. Rather than banking on perfect sunshine and sharp shadows, rain and fog are seen as the building’s equally integral components. The interior spaces recreate the original experience of the site, forming a powerful journey from the cavernous atmospheric basement up to light filled living areas.

The awards ceremony will take place on the 14^th of October in the new Greenwich Design District.

You can watch the film, here.

We are delighted that our Pudding Mill project has been shortlisted for NLA’s New London Awards.

The scheme is being designed by Gort Scott and Mikhail Richies with collaborators 5^th Studio, RCKa, ZCD, JCLA, BBUK and Stantec. Pudding Mill Lane will be a thriving, new mixed-use local centre around an overground rail station. Bridgewater will be a quiet residential peninsula forming the tip of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Together, the two adjacent neighbourhoods form one masterplan delivering c.1,500 homes, c.2,000 new jobs, with shops, leisure, and new social infrastructure.

‘NLA’s annual New London Awards, presented in association with the Mayor of London, celebrate all scales of projects, from community-led to large-scale mixed-use developments, both built and unbuilt, that contribute to and enhance our vision for a New London: a city that is sustainable, civilised and egalitarian, that seeks to improve the quality and standards of new design.’

The winners will be announced in November.

Exciting to see the latest images of the proposed ABBA Voyage arena, which will eventually be replaced by our Pudding Mill masterplan! The scheme, designed for the LLDC by Gort Scott and Mikhail Richies with collaborators 5^th Studio, RCKa, ZCD, JCLA, BBUK and Stantec, is one of the last significant pieces of the Olympic legacy jigsaw.

A copy of RUM Interior Design magazine has just landed on our desk - it includes a great feature on The Rock.

‘Some are not afraid of complexity: On the contrary, they see it as an opportunity to make something extraordinary. Both the homeowner and the architects of this home fall into this category. The former organized a competition to find the perfect match for his vision - a rare process for a private project. The latter, London-based practice Gort Scott, didn’t hesitate to cross the Atlantic, despite having no contacts and no former experience in this part of the world. The result was nothing short of unique.’

We really enjoyed having Shumaita in the office last week! She is one of the secondary school students who are joining us this summer, as part of the SocialMobility Foundation (SMF) mentoring programme.

During her time at the practice, Shumaita helped to design a free-standing unit for our meeting room, to create a new living/working space. She also joined Jay and Andrew on a site visit to Gort Scott’s housing scheme in South Kilburn, which is due to be completed at the end of summer.