Gort Scott has been presenting at the Architecture Future’s Day online event for the Social Mobility Foundation, that took place on Monday 5th of June.

The Social Mobility Foundation is a national charity which aims to make a practical improvement in social mobility for high-achieving young people from low-income backgrounds with the help of professionals and firms.

The Futures Day event is being supported by Gort Scott and Gardner Stewart Architects who will help students understand routes into their sector, available career options, the skills needed to succeed and provide an insight into sustainability in the sector.

Precious Ndukuba, Architectural Assistant, presented on Entry Routes and Requirements into Architecture, followed by Paul Wild, Architect and Sustainable Design Lead, who talked about Sustainability within Architecture.

Gort Scott staff regularly support the Social Mobility Foundation as part of the office EDI initiatives.

Director Fiona Scott will be speaking at the Glue event during the London Festival of Architecture on 19th June.

Rachel Birchmore is co-hosting the Glue event with Louise Rodgers and Emma Keyte, with an outstanding line-up of speakers from Be First Regeneration Limited, Studio Egret West, Gbolade Design Studio, LDA Design, Gibson Thornley, Human Nature, Buckley Gray Yeoman and HUB Residential.

During the event the guests will be discussing the reason behind founding their companies, what brings colleagues together around a collective identity, and what shapes their team.
And once assembled, what’s the glue that continues to bind them together?

Glue event takes place on 19th June at 6 pm at Shoreditch Arts Club, 6 Redchurch Street, London E2 7DD. Tickets are available here.

Gort Scott is pleased to have won a RIBA South Award for St.Hilda’s College last night. This transformative project has provided St.Hilda’s with a new entrance, offices, much needed student accommodation, spectacular roof terrace and a riverside event space, all set within a reimagined landscape along the banks of the River Cherwell.

Two new buildings help to connect the College site and maximise its cherished riverside setting. The Anniversary Building creates a strong sense of enclosure to the College’s tranquil gardens, whilst the jewel-like Pavilion nestles against the water’s edge and offers expansive views of the surrounding landscape.

Last night marked a significant milestone in our project for Pocket Living at Forest Road in central Walthamstow: the topping out of the concrete frame structure which was celebrated with a wonderful ceremony on the fourth-floor terrace, organised by Legendre UK. It was great to catch-up with all the talented people that have been involved in the project from Pocket Living, WT Partnership, XCO2, Whitby Wood and Legendre, and reflect on this momentous stage in the building’s evolution. The project is already looking beautiful, thanks to the careful execution by Legendre UK and we are all so excited to see the fruition of everyone’s hard work as the scheme approaches completion in 2024.

Works have been progressing on site in Kerasia where we designed a private family retreat on a steep hillside plot. The house construction is progressing with the first of three roofs now complete in the guesthouse. Locally reclaimed tiles have been used externally and the whitewashed timber rafters and boards have been left exposed inside. Meanwhile, the concrete pergola structure on the main terrace is now finished with the last of the structural work expected to be wrapped up over the coming weeks.

Unity Place in South Kilburn won best Residential project at the Brent Design Awards 2023, which celebrates excellence in great buildings and places, within the culturally diverse borough of Brent. It has been a pleasure celebrate the win and share the stage at the Great Hall of the Brent Civic Centre with Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios and Alison Brooks Architects.

“It seems like a long time since we sat down to sketch out our initial ideas for the project together with FCB and Alison Brooks Architects. The realisation of the concept came down to many years of hard work from those in the design and construction teams and this driving from the council. The many co-design workshops with the residents were a key part of the design journey” Jay Gort, Director.

Unity Place, a social housing scheme delivered in collaboration with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Alison Brooks Architects, was commissioned by Brent Council, to design a residential-led masterplan as part of the South Kilburn Estate Regeneration Programme.

Gort Scott and WSP have been selected by Homes England to join the Development and Regeneration Technical Services Framework, as part of Lot 1 – Multidisciplinary which provides access to multi-disciplinary expertise in support of Homes England’s mission to deliver much-needed, high-quality housing for communities across the UK.

Gort Scott brings knowledge in housing, complex masterplanning, integrated urban and landscape spaces, and pioneering research in high streets and town centres.

Gort Scott is looking forward to collaborating with the rest of the team delivering and promoting through the framework inclusion and diversity, social value, circular economy principles and Net Zero strategies.

Gort Scott have secured planning consent on behalf of the City of London Corporation for the retrofit and extension of a 1980s commercial building at 15-17 Eldon Street, opposite Liverpool Street station in London.

The mixed-use scheme designed by Gort Scott prioritises circular design principles, retaining as much of the original building as possible while creating an enhanced, flexible and sustainable commercial and retail space that also improves the streetscape in a key City location with a new, elegant facade. The scheme is on course to achieve BREEAM Excellent.

Director Jay Gort said: “We’re delighted that close cooperation with the City of London Corporation has brought us a step closer to revitalising this underperforming asset. Our retrofit strategy will promote sustainability and wellbeing while increasing internal area by some 75%. The new building will work better, will feel better, and will have real character - something individual yet contextual”.

The project will be breaking ground in Summer.

Unity Place has been shortlisted for the Brent Design Awards 2023 under the Residential category.

The Brent Design Awards celebrates excellence in buildings and places within the borough of Brent, supporting the value of high-quality design and how this can improve local people’s quality of life.

Gort Scott were commissioned by Brent Council back in 2013, with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Alison Brooks Architects, to design a residential-led masterplan as part of the South Kilburn Estate Regeneration Programme.

Winners will be announced at Brent Civic Centre on 12^th May 2023.

We are excited to collaborate with Walthamstow-based artist Adriana Jaroslavsky on the design of two murals for Forest Road residential building.

Hive Curates in partnership with housing developer Pocket Living, hosted a competition amongst local artists based in Waltham Forest to design the two murals.

Associate Andrew Tam said: “We’re delighted that Adriana has been selected for the murals at Forest Road. Her proposal’s connection to both the natural and social landscape of Walthamstow stood out to us, linking to the local area’s Arts and Crafts heritage with forms that create a dialogue with our building’s curved precast concrete features”.

The two murals will be uncovered at the Forest Road development in 2024.

We are very pleased that St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford won the 2023 CIVIC TRUST AWARDS, the longest standing built environment award scheme in Europe which recognise excellence in architecture, whilst being sustainable, accessible and provide a positive civic contribution.
The award is a recognition of the College’s original ambitious vision and the many years of collaboration by a dedicated team to realise the project including Beard , Skelly & Couch Ltd, SOLID Structures & Infrastructure,Marcus BealeArchitects , and JCLA.

Also, glad that two other projects which Gort Scott were involved in received awards; Unity Place, a social housing scheme delivered in collaboration with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Alison Brooks Architects, was highly commended.

Waltham Forest Town Hall is also among the winners. We worked on the strategic and early concept stage which was carefully completed and delivered by Hawkins\Brown.

St Catharine’s College received two commendations at the Greater Cambridge Design and Construction Awards 2023 as Best conservation, alteration, or extension of an existing building (under £2m construction costs) and for the David Mackay Award for engineering and sustainability.

The judges said: “We highly commend this project, which has radically improved the way the college operates, replaced an unsatisfactory dining hall with a beautiful new space, and created a much more coherent and accessible means of circulation in St Catharine’s College. Gort Scott have devised an extremely ingenious solution, replacing the hall, connecting the kitchens and opening up new avenues of circulation by the installation of an atrium.”

The Gort Scott team recently paid an afternoon visit to our newly completed project at 3 Mills for the LLDC and 3 Mills Studios. Three buildings have been carefully restored by Heritage Conservation Lead Sela-Jaymes Taylor and Architect Joe Crawford.

The project sees the thoughtful remodelling of dilapidated and unusable buildings into functional multi-use spaces which have future-proofed through design which considers the proximity of the river and environmental objectives.

These buildings will form a key part of this UK creative institution and have been brought back to life through collaboration with contractors Gilbert Ash, and a great design team including collaborating architect Freehaus, Momentum, OR Consulting, and Knight Frank.

Thanks to Paul de Carvalho at 3 Mills Studios for facilitating our visit and spending an afternoon with the team.

It’s been a strong start to the year for Gort Scott’s social value commitments, with Placemaking and Engagement Lead Emily heading work experience for our Open City Accelerate students alongside Architect Fraser and Architectural Assistant Kleovoulos.

Open City Accelerate partners A-Level students with London-based architecture practices for three days of industry experience during which they explore a location and produce proposals and a scale model in line with a brief. This work is celebrated and displayed at an event in July where students can meet professionals from a breadth of practices.

Meanwhile, Architect and Sustainable Design Leader Paul has been engaged with the RIBA Future Architects Mentoring programme, supporting three students with group mentoring sessions and a site visit to Walthamstow Forest Civic Centre and Town Hall.

’Amazing is an understatement. Yesterday’s site visit was such an instructive exercise in properly understanding the process of construction, the logistics behind the build phases and also the detail elements – window build ups, pre-fab integrating with in-situ (loved the stairs for that reason). It only remains for me to say thank you for arranging and then taking us to see finished GS projects in context!’ - RIBA Future Architects Mentoring Student.

Gort Scott and Sela-Jaymes Architects have been awarded an AR Future Projects Award 2023 in the Competition Entry Prize category for Nea Paphos. The project design was shortlisted in this international competition for mosaic shelters at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Nea Paphos, the ancient capital of Cyprus, for the Getty Conservation Institute.

Our proposals for Nea Paphos encompass the creation of delicate sheltering structures to cover and protect some of the world’s finest surviving Roman mosaics, on a very sensitive UNESCO World Heritage site.

The design incorporated lightweight reversible timber structures, to allow for visual connections through the shelters and minimise any impacts on the landscape and setting.

Protecting the heritage site was a priority at every stage of the design process, with innovative structural solutions introduced to resist the effects of wind and seismic activity whilst eliminating the need for foundations to avoid any impact on the extensive archaeology.

The proposals utilised local materials, and were designed as a ‘kit of parts’ to take account of the availability of local skills and resources, whilst reducing site logistics and associated impacts by maximising off-site fabrication.

Observing the context of the site the wider proposals interpret its history, restoring historic movement patterns and improving accessibility and visitor circulation around the site.