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.