In collaboration with the new owner Tishman Speyer and Encounter Contemporary, the project has also reintroduced a public art programme to the Plaza, with a series of dramatic sculptures alternating in the main public space and a new art gallery at street level. All this ensures that once again, in line with the Smithsons' original vision, the complex can serve the public and the city, as a cultural gathering and focal point for the wider district of St James's.
News
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16.10.2018
Architecture Tour of Smithson Plaza for Cristie's Lates
Last night, for Christie's Lates, Director Deborah Saunt hosted a talk at the nearby Smithson Plaza, discussing the Smithsons' legacy and showcasing DSDHA's recent restoration of the duo's celebrated complex.Share: -
15.10.2018
Deborah Saunt judges the Dezeen Awards
Director Deborah Saunt joins a cohort of leading architects and designers judging the first ever Dezeen Awards ahead of the presentation ceremony in London on 27 November. The group finalised the 33 award winners, selected from more than 3,500 submissions from architects and designers around the world.Share: -
11.10.2018
Directors Deborah Saunt and David Hills named in the ES' annual Progress 1000 list
Deborah Saunt and David Hills, says the Evening Standard, "are making their mark on the West End, with a £32 million urban landscaping project to improve the area between Tottenham Court Road and Gower Street due to complete this year." For this reason they have made the Evening Standard’s Progress 1000: London’s most influential people 2018 – Architecture list – which honours the people who are helping to shape the city for the future.Share: -
13.09.2018
David Hills Judges the AJ Retrofit Awards
DSDHA Director David Hills has judged the AJ retrofit Awards 2018. The winners were announced during a ceremony at The Brewery in London on 12 September.
The AJ Retrofit Awards celebrate design, engineering and construction excellence that prolongs and improves the life of the built environment.Share: -
07.09.2018
Deborah Saunt speaks at the NLA's Constitutional London talk
Constitutional London
Enhancing the heart of Westminster
NLA, The Building Centre,
26 Store Street, WC1E 7BT
Friday 7 September 2018, 08:30-09:30
DSDHA Director Deborah Saunt takes part to the NLA's breakfast talk discussing ideas to change the design of Constitutional London - the area between Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square - to improve the experience of those who visit, live and work in the heart of Westminster.
Back in June 2017, Deborah had been one of the key-participants of a two-day workshops to propose a future vision for Constitutional London. The outcomes of this work have fed directly into the new Government Estate Strategy.Click here to read more about the event.Share: -
05.09.2018
Ellen Hadden discusses the influence of Alison Smithson
To celebrate the winners of the RIBA's Eye Line Drawing Competition, DSDHA Senior Associate Ellen Hadden took part to a discussion on inspirational drawings. Ellen presented a set of photographs and sketches from Alison Smithson's seminal publication “AS in DS: An Eye on the Road”, documenting her experiences travelling from London to the countryside in her Citronen DS.
By adopting the point of view of the car driver – looking at the urban environment from the motorway, the road, the street and from the parking-lot – Alison showed how the altered perception of space enabled by the car had transformed the social and physical nature of the city.
DSDHA applied similar techniques to study a cyclist’s experience of the city, conducting extensive research on the ground, on foot and on our bikes to map people’s journeys and understand how London can best reprogram its spaces as it moves away from the prominence of car use.Tags: Smithsons urban mobilityShare: -
03.09.2018
We Are Hiring
Come join us our diverse team in Vauxhall. We currently have the following full-time positions available: Project Leader; Project Architect and PART II Architectural Assistant.Click here for more information on the roles and to apply.DSDHA are committed to equality of opportunity and applications from suitably qualified persons are encouraged regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships.Share: -
24.08.2018
DSDHA at the Docomomo International Conference
Metamorphosis. The Continuity of Change
15th Docomomo International Conference
Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana, Slovenia
28 to 31 August 2018
Next week Deborah Saunt and Roberta Marcaccio from DSDHA will present two papers at the 15th International Docomomo Conference in Ljubljana. Deborah will be speaking about our recent work at the Smithsons' Economist Plaza (now renamed Smithson Plaza), while Roberta will report on our research on cycling and mobility in London.
Every two years Docomomo (the international committee for documentation and conservation of buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement) organises an international conference, bringing together members and friends from its 72 national Working Parties, as an opportunity for in-depth exploration of an important theme or aspect of the Modern Movement. The 15th International Conference addresses the history of Modern Movement transformations, both in relation to cultural and natural aspects within the overall continuity of change.Share: -
03.08.2018
The Business of Research Symposium
Tuesday 3 July
2 to 6.30 pm
Foster + Partners
Riverside, 22 Hester Rd
London SW11 4AN
In preparation for our guest-edited issue of Architectural Design – titled ‘The Business of Research’ (Spring 2019) – DSDHA have assembled distinguished scholars, researchers and a number of practitioners, both in public and private fields, to discuss the emerging landscape of practice-based architectural research: a mode of working which is destabilising the deep-rooted separation between academia and practice, demanding a new definition of the term ‘research’, one that is relevant to both parties.
Speakers included Shumi Bose, WeWork, Public Practice, OMA, Assemble, Ziona Strelitz, James Soane, Lara Kinneir and more.
Read Jessie Turnbull's review of the event for the RIBA Journal here.Share: -
05.07.2018
Success for Link Special Needs School at the NLA Awards
We are very proud that our project for the Link Special Needs School in Sutton has received an awards in the Education category at the NLA Awards 2018 yesterday.
The project follows the success of DSDHA's Pond Meadow School in Guildford: a multiple award-winning special needs "through" school for children and young adults, aged 2 – 19, with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties.Share: -
07.06.2018
The Smithson's Economist Plaza renovation by DSDHA is revealed
The first phase of DSDHA’s reimagining of the former Economist Plaza has just been unveiled. Completed by Alison and Peter Smithson in 1964 for the Economist and acquired by Tishman Speyer in 2016, the iconic development has now been renamed ‘Smithson Plaza’ in honour of the original architects.
As a practice hugely indebted to the Smithson’s work, DSDHA have considered the impact of incremental changes made since 1964 and have assessed what might be preserved and what could be changed. The result is a phased framework that stays true to the original design intent while creating sustainable contemporary workspaces and maintaining this unique public space for the city.
Click here to hear DSDHA Director Deborah Saunt talking to Monocle about the project.Share: -
07.06.2018
Our model of the Albert Memorial on show at the Royal Academy of Art
Catch our model of the Albert Memorial at the 250th Royal Academy Summer Exhibition between 12 June and 19 August.
Through the use of digital modelling and fabrication techniques, DSDHA has manipulated the geometry of the Memorial to reveal its hidden complex of brick vaults and arches: a fascinating yet largely forgotten space which could be converted to accommodate much needed cultural infrastructure in our city.Writing for the AJ about this year's Royal Academy show, Jon Astbury mentioned our piece, saying that: "DSDHA’s stunning Alternative Perspectives on the Albert Memorial is a particular highlight, its woozy twisting of perspective very much at home among Perry’s wider selection."Share: -
21.05.2018
Central Somers Town Masterplan Wins Planning Award 2018
Last night, at the Planning Awards ceremony, our Masterplan for Central Somers Town was recognised with an award for the Best Use of Publicly Owned Land in Placemaking.
Somers Town is one of the few substantial areas of publicly-owned land in Central London. The single ownership of the buildings and of the public realm around them, allowed the London Borough of Camden and our team to develop an ambitious place-making strategy, which uses a self-funding development framework to enable the delivery of a new primary school, community facilities, affordable homes and a world-class public park — worthy of the site’s significance — as well as a proportion of private housing.Share: -
16.05.2018
Double Success at the RIBA Awards 2018
We are proud to announce that our Alex Monroe Jewellery Workshop in Bermondsey and Abell & Cleland high-density residential scheme in Westminster, have been recognised with two RIBA London Awards last night.Earlier this year, Abell & Cleland was named “Best Place to Live” at the London Planning Awards and the scheme is currently on the shortlist for the Housing Design Awards 2018. Alex Monroe Workshop was highly commended both at this year's London Planning Awards and at WAF 2017.Share: -
25.04.2018
Abell & Cleland Shortlisted for Housing Design Award
Abell & Cleland, our new-built residential block in Westminster, has been shortlisted for the Housing Design Awards 2018. The judges will visit the site on 1st May and winners will be announced during the ceremony on 2nd July.Share: -
23.04.2018
The Crown Estate and DSDHA win approval to rebuild office in London’s Piccadilly
On 27th March, Westminster City Council’s planning committee approved DSDHA's and The Crown Estate’s proposal for the redevelopment of 33-35 Piccadilly, to create a new, quality retail and office development.The proposals will replace a post-war office block, known as Airwork House, dating from 1956, and will offer retail on all of its elevations, as well as a new entrance to its commercial accommodation on the corner of Vine Street and Swallow Street.Read more about the project on the AJ website.Share: -
04.04.2018
DSDHA selected for London Mayor’s new £35m Architecture and Urbanism framework
DSDHA has been selected for Mayor Sadiq Khan’s new Architecture and Urbanism framework. The framework covers architecture, urban design, public realm, and housing projects on publicly owned land throughout London. DSDHA were chosen for both Lot2 (Site Masterplanning and Development Feasibility) and Lot 7a (Transport Design: Transport Architecture and Interchange Design).
Read more about the shortlist here:Share: -
19.01.2018
Abell & Cleland proclaimed 'Best New place to Live' at the 2018 London Planning Awards
Last night Abell & Cleland – our recently completed pair of residential buildings in Westminster – won the prestigious award celebrating the best collaborative projects where clients, architects and planners come together to bring world-class architecture to the capital.Working closely with client Berkeley Homes, Westminster City Council and local residents, DSDHA's design provides a new type of ‘super-density’ based on a mix of private and affordable homes, carefully arranged around generous landscaped courtyard and glazed lobbies that animate the street between the buildings.Other members of the design team include: Project Orange (Interiors); Wirtz International (Landscape); EPR Architects (Enabling Architect); Manhire Associates (Structures); URS Scott Wilson (Services); Gerald Eve (Planning Consultant); Peter Stewart Consultancy (Townscape); and MTT Consulting (M&E).Our Jewellery Workshop for Alex Monroe in Bermondsey was also celebrated at the Awards, receiving a commendation as 'Best New Place to Work'.Share: -
18.01.2018
Is Architectural Education Outmoded, Overpriced and Increasingly Irrelevant?
FUNDAMENTALSThe Way We Work - LEARNCentral Saint MartinsThursday 25 January, 6.30pmDeborah Saunt, as Director of Inter-Practice at the London School of Architecture, joins Mel Dodd (CSM), Robert Mull (University of Brighton) and Bob Sheil (The Bartlett, UCL) in a panel discussion chaired by Oliver Wainwright to interrogate the status of architectural education today.Click here to read more or buy a ticketShare: -
18.01.2018
Deborah Saunt Speaks at the Architecture Foundation's 20 Ideas for London's Public Space Charter Debates
Architecture FoundationThe Garden MuseumTuesday, 23rd January, 7-9pmDeborah Saunt joins a panel chaired by Travis Elborough in an evening discussion at the Garden Museum asking what kind of spaces London should be creating to foster its public life by night.The arrival of the night tube has reinvigorated debate over how the city’s urban realm should respond to darkness. The GLA says London wants a holistic night-time economy, yet public parks and pedestrian routes continue to close after dusk. The vibrant life of public spaces we enjoy by day is often deemed threatening and disruptive by night? Is civicness incompatible with darkness?Click here to read more about the event or buy a ticketShare: -
01.12.2017
First Phase of the Economist Plaza's Restoration Starts on Site
The first phase of DSDHA’s plans for conservation and sensitive modifications to the Smithson' much celebrated Economist Plaza has just started on site.
Working with the owner, Tishman Speyer, DSDHA has developed a phased restoration strategy for the Grade II* listed brutalist landmark. Our project takes into account the original qualities of the Smithsons’ design; the impact of incremental changes since its completion in 1964 as well as the contemporary needs of its new occupiers.
Click here to learn more about the projectShare: -
30.11.2017
Communications and Graphics Assistant at DSDHA
We are looking for an exceptional communications and graphics assistant to join our busy architecture and design studio in Vauxhall, supporting the team across the areas of design, research and business development.Click here to learn more about the role and apply.Share: -
27.11.2017
Book Launch of 'The Space Between'
Hosted by Architectural Association36 Bedford Square, WC1B3ES 27November 2017 from 6pm'The Space Between’ (Walther König, November 2016) is the newly released third part of the intended collected works of Alison and Peter Smithson and is complementary to the volumes ‘The Charged Void: Architecture’ and ‘The Charged Void: Urbanism'.
To celebrate its launch in the UK, DSDHA invited author and editor, Professor Max Risselada (TU Delft) to present the book and join a panel of distinguished scholars and designers – including Susannah Hagan (Westminster University), Dirk van de Heuvel (TU Delft) and Ana Ábalos Ramos (abalosllopis arquitectos) – who, through their work, have had the chance to study the Smithsons’ work in depth.Click here to learn more about the event.Share: -
27.11.2017
DSDHA in the The Progress 1000
Our Founding Director Deborah Saunt has been featured in the Evening Standard's The Progress 1000: London's most influential people 2017Share: -
15.11.2017
Two of our Projects Finalists at WAF 2017
DSDHA's proposals for the sensitive restoration of the Economist Plaza, as well as our recently completed new Jewellery Workshop for Alex Monroe have both be shortlisted at the World Architecture Festival (WAF) this year.David Hills and Eleanor Alexander will present both projects at the Festival in Berlin on 15th November.Share: -
14.11.2017
The Continuing Legacy of Alison and Peter Smithson
Hosted by Docomomo.ukThe Gallery, 77 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6EJ14 November 2017 from 6.45pmChaired by Tony Fretton, Deborah Saunt will join Dirk van den Heuvel, Peter Salter and Takero Shimazaki in a panel discussion on the Smithsons' legacy. The speakers will address several themes, including ‘Contextualism’, 'Sensibility' and 'Imagination'.Our contribution, entitled ‘Change’, will consider the Smithsons' attitude to architecture evolution over time, as evidence through their writing and practice, and will discuss DSDHA's proposals for sensitively modifying the Economist Plaza.click here to learn more about the event and buy a ticket.Share: -
14.11.2017
Cultural Infrastructure in Transit
The London Salon: Cultural Infrastructure in the CityHosted by Theatrum MundiMuseum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN14 November 2017 from 7pmBuilding on DSDHA's two year-long Cultural Infrastructure research project, with the London School of Architecture (LSA), and The CASS School of Architecture, David Hills and Molly Judge will present our vision at Theatrum Mundi's event this month.Working collaboratively with our students from the LSA's Metabolic City Design Think Tank, DSDHA have addressed some of the issues raised by the Mayor’s Cultural Infrastructure strategy and devised MeSS (MEtabolic Spatial Strategies). This is a city-wide spatial strategy that operates between mobility and public space and that integrates cultural uses within new and existing transport networks, creating much needed spaces for informal cultural participation and production, at a time when these are under threat.Click here to learn more about the event and buy a ticket.Share: -
10.11.2017
Deborah Saunt Heads RIBA House of Year Judging Panel
DSDHA Director Deborah Saunt is the head of the judging panel for this year's RIBA House of the Year, which is awarded annually to the best new house designed by an architect in the UK.The shortlist and winner will be announced this month as part of Grand Designs: House of the Year, a special four-part Channel 4 TV series.Catch Deborah sharing her thoughts on the shortlisted buildings in the last episode here.The next episode airs on 14th November 9pm on Channel 4.Share: -
16.09.2017
DSDHA Model of the Albert Memorial on show for the London Design Festival
Other Stories: Alternative Perspectives on DesignThe Brompton Café, 10 Thurloe Place, SW7 2RZ16–24 September 2017 from 10am to 6pmFor the London Design Festival DSDHA presents a model of the iconic Albert Memorial revealing the monument's hidden undercroft: a vast vaulted structure that is currently inaccessible – and largely unknown – to most. Through the use of digital modelling and fabrication techniques, the Memorial’s form has been manipulated. This distortion hints at the ability of digital technologies to enhance urban experience, allowing access (either physical, virtual or both) to underused spaces, which could be adapted to accommodate cultural uses, including much needed rehearsal space and artists’ studios in the city centre.Share: -
14.09.2017
Alex Monroe New Workshop Shortlisted for the AJ Architecture Awards 2017
DSDHA's new jewellery workshop for Alex Monroe has been shortlisted for the AJ Architecture Awards in the category 'Workplace of the Year'. The winner will be revealed on 7 December.Reminiscent of the roller shutter pulled over shopfronts at the end of the day, the facade’s Cor-ten moiré screen acts as a protective shield, whilst offering passers-by tantalising glimpses of the interior and signposting the presence of creative production in the city.Share: -
14.09.2017
Our Proposal for 125 Shaftesbury Avenue Featured in the AJ
DSDHA have been leading the proposed refurbishment and extension of 125 Shaftesbury Avenue – a huge 1980s office building in London’s West End, in urgent need of rejuvenation. The scheme (which was granted planning consent in April 2017) comprises 33,000 sqm of office, retail and ancillary accommodation, including generous external terraces on multiple levels.A thorough analysis of the surrounding context allows the proposal to exploit the site's full potential, whilst improving urban legibility and permeability. The scheme does so by relocating the main office entrance from Shaftesbury Avenue to Charing Cross Road and creating a public arcade through the site, reconnecting Soho and St Giles along the historic route of former Little Compton Street. This is achieved whilst still retaining the building's existing concrete structure, ensuring a low carbon solution.Share: -
06.07.2017
West End Public Realm Winner at the New London Architecture Awards 2017
Our West End Public Realm project was awarded Best Public Space at the New London Architecture awards.Share: -
30.06.2017
New Homes Awards
Abell and Cleland wins Best Luxury Home over 100 Award at the London Evening Standard New Homes Awards 2017.Share: -
16.06.2017
Public Spaces and the Role of the Designer
Tuesday 20 June 20173pm–8pm (2 sessions)
Royal Institute of British Architects
London W1B 1AD
DSDHA Director David Hills will join a panel of distinguished practitioners and academicians to examine the role of the architect in London during the mid-20th century and speculate on its possible futures.
Convened by Professor Susannah Hagan and Dr Neal Shasore from the University of Westminster, this symposium addresses the often ignored importance of design and designers in the production of (civic) public spaces. Other speakers include Bob Allies, Matthew Carmona and Vincent Lacovara.
Click here to learn more about the event and book at ticket.Share: -
05.06.2017
DSDHA's Drawing of the Economist Plaza on Show at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
Royal Academy of ArtsSummer Exhibition 2017Architecture Gallery, Burlington HouseFrom 13 June to 20 August 2017Responding to Farshid Moussavi's call for 'artworks showing the complexity and richness of buildings beyond their outward appearance', DSDHA's drawing for the RA Summer Exhibition re-interprets the Smithsons’ much-recognised axonometric of the Economist Plaza. It exposes the challenges of restoring and sensitively upgrading the iconic brutalist complex – a project we are currently working on together with our client Tishman Speyer.Click here to learn more about the show and buy a ticket for the exhibition.Share: -
25.05.2017
Corner House Shortlisted for the BCI Awards
Our beautiful Corner House in Fitzrovia made it to the shortlist for the British Construction Industry Awards 2017. The winners will be revealed at the awards ceremony in October.Share: -
19.05.2017
DSDHA Takes Part to Theatrum Mundi Charrette to Design The Conditions for Culture in Our City
Friday 19 May, 10am to 5pmRCA Darwin BuildingKensington Gore SW7Deborah Saunt and David Hills join Assemble, We Made That, Haworth Tompkins in Theatrum Mundi's Charrette: Can we design the conditions for culture?The four architecture practices working on cultural infrastructures were invited to develop design responses addressing the key tensions identified during the three expert round tables that took place in 2016: mobility, determinacy, publicness, and value.This series of events is organised by Theatrum Mundi and LSE Cities to debate issues raised by Sadiq Khan’s plans to create a Cultural Infrastructure plan for London, asking if and how the conditions for cultural production can be designed. They assembled over 50 artists, performers, architects, writers, urbanists, scholars and institutional leaders as well as a representative from the Greater London Authority’s Culture Team.A working paper, compiling the ideas and questions raised during these discussions will be shared with the GLA’s Culture Team in April and developed into a full report for publication in September 2017.Share: -
04.05.2017
London Craft Week: A Space for Making with DSDHA and Alex Monroe
Alex Monroe WorkshopTower Bridge Road, SE1Thursday 4 May 2017, 5 to 7.30pmJewellery designer Alex Monroe and award winning architects DSDHA present ‘A Space for Making’, a conversation chaired by visual arts writer Veronica Simpson.The talk explores Monroe’s new workshop space, designed by DSDHA, followed by an extensive tour of the building.A few tickets left. Click here to book one.Share: -
30.03.2017
The Princess Royal Inaugurates Alex Monroe Jewellery Workshop designed by DSDHA
As president of the UK Fashion & Textile Association, the Princess has inaugurated our beautiful new Workshop for renown jewellery designer Alex Monroe.Having completed the award-winning Alex Monroe Snowsfields Studio in London Bridge in 2012, DSDHA were appointed to design a second building for the jeweller, on nearby Tower Bridge Road, and accommodate his burgeoning success.The Workshop, the Boutique and the Studio are all in close proximity to each other, just a 10 minutes walk apart. This means that Alex’s business, and the architectures which accommodate it, involve the city in their daily routines. They do so aesthetically, socially and economically, contributing to the urban renaissance of the area.Share: -
23.03.2017
DSDHA Presents Davenies at RIBA PIP Seminar on Education Buildings
PIP Seminar Series: Education Buildings66 Portland Place, W1B 1ADThursday 23rd March, 8.30am to 12.00pmSenior Associate Isabel Moreira Presents DSDHA's Davenies School in Beaconsfield at the RIBA PIP Seminar on Education Buildings: a content rich mix of research, development and individual case studies providing professionals with a briefing of current trends in the education sector.Davenies School is a testimony to how a good learning environment can support high-quality teaching and learning as well as promote pupil engagement. Vital to delivering such building was the collaboration between client, design team and manufacturers.Share: -
16.03.2017
DSDHA in Bristol: IBstock Lunchtime Lecture Series
University of the West of EnglandBristol BS16 1QYThursday 16 March, 1.00 to 2.00 pmSpeaking at the University of the West of England in Bristol, DSDHA Director David Hills presents the practice's recent research and design work.Focusing on award-winning projects Corner House, he shows how the studio continues to blur the boundaries between landscape and architecture, art and urbanism, intimacy and infrastructure; always questioning our preconceptions around the city.Share: -
01.03.2017
DSDHA in Glasgow
The Glasgow School of Art
Reid Auditorium
Friday 3 March
3.00-5.00pmSpeaking at the Glasgow School of Art, DSDHA Director Deborah Saunt will present her practice's recent research and design work, showing how the studio continues to blur the boundaries between landscape and architecture, art and urbanism, intimacy and infrastructure; always questioning our preconceptions around the city.Share: -
13.02.2017
David Hills Speaking at the Drivers of Distinctiveness Conference
Drivers of Distinctiveness: Maximising the Heritage and Culture Potential of Place23 February 2017, 9am to 1pmCommissioner's House, The Historic DockyardChatham, Kent, ME4 4TZDSDHA Director David Hills will speak at Drivers of Distinctiveness, a conference organised by Kent University and exploring the role of design in place-making. How can historical and cultural assets be managed and sustained through creative re-use? What is the role of designers in heritage and culture-led re-presentation of places? What new forms of collaboration can maximise the potential of historic and cultural places? These are some of the questions this conference aims to explore.Tickets can be booked online hereShare: -
02.02.2017
The South Molton Street Building shortlisted for the People's Choice Award
The South Molton Street Building has just been shortlisted for the People's Choice Architecture Award: a new initiative by Westminster Council to promote the central London borough’s vision for its built environment.Westminster residents picked their favourite Westminster buildings from a shortlist, narrowed down by a panel of local councillors and outside experts. This new award – the first of its kind in London – is part of a broader campaign to engage the public in a debate about architecture.Share: -
31.01.2017
Deborah Saunt Takes Part to London's Roundtable on "The Quito Papers"
Deborah Saunt joins Ricky Burdett, Saskia Sassen, Richard Sennett – authors of “The Quito Papers” – and a panel of urbanists, artists and academics at the LSE to debate and interrogate the ideas presented in the Papers and to ask their significance to a London context.The “The Quito Papers” is a research collaboration between Theatrum Mundi, NYU and UN-Habitat, developed in the run-up to the United Nations Habitat III conference held in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016. This is the second in a series of events debating "The Quito Papers" in Paris, London, Beijing and New York – with other cities to be announced in early 2017.Share: -
23.01.2017
Deborah Saunt Visiting Professor at the University of Navarra, Spain
Working with the overall theme of Cultural Infrastructure, Deborah's Studio is focusing on the design proposal for a new "House of European Art" in London – a new type of art gallery, where EU member states can continue to promote European culture in post-Brexit U.K.The site is in Vauxhall, close to many new developments, and also near the new American, Chinese, Dutch and Belgian Embassies. There are plans to change Vauxhall’s transport interchange where railway, underground, bus routes link with vehicular and pedestrian journeys and a new urban centre is envisaged. Cultural Infrastructure is therefore critical to Vauxhall's future identity, particularly as the public and the private in our cities increasingly blur.The students will design spatial counter-proposals to the current drift towards the private and the hidden and ask what will be the common cultural and public spaces of the future.Share: -
14.12.2016
DSDHA's Xmas Celebrations: Visit at Alex Monroe's New Workshop
As part of this year's Xmas celebrations, DSDHA's team visited our new Workshop for renowned jeweller Alex Monroe.Share: -
14.12.2016
Public Realm and Design expert Deborah Saunt joins the Independent Transport Commission (ITC)
DSDHA Director Deborah Saunt joins the ITC’s distinguished pool of members, bringing her extensive expertise in relation to architecture and urban design. Deborah will work with the Commission to evaluate the opportunities and urban consequences of major transport strategies and emerging technologies, particularly focusing on their impact on human perception and mobility.The ITC is Britain's leading ‘think tank’ investigating strategic infrastructure development and committed to improving policy on transport and land use across the UK. The charity explores the long-term effects of current policy, considers new approaches and makes recommendations on the way forward. The latest reports issued by the Commission have focused on changing travel trends, key issues around devolution in England, the impacts of High-Speed Rail on cities and regions, and the sustainability of aviation. Please visit www.theitc.org.uk to read more about the ITC’s research and events.Share: -
03.12.2016
Roberta Talks at the RCA about DSDHA's Grounded Research Agenda
Inside/Out: Talks on the Built EnvironmentRoyal College of ArtInterior Design. School of ArchitectureKensington Gore SW7 2EUTuesday 6 December, 6.30pmIn this lecture Roberta will unpack the complex nature of the relationship between architecture, buildings and photography, to then introduce the way in which DSDHA, as research-oriented architects, experiment with the photographic medium; treating it as a design tool rather than simply fixing on glossy images the final outcomes of our endeavours.Share: -
01.12.2016
Covert House Shortlisted for RIBA House of the Year 2016
Today two more shortlisted homes, including our Covert House in South London, were revealed at the end of a special edition of Grand Designs.
The overall winner is set to be announced on the Channel 4 programme on 15 December.
The RIBA House of the Year is awarded to the best new house designed by an architect in the UK. The award, sponsored by Hiscox Home Insurance and Paint & Paper Library, replaces the previous title ‘RIBA Manser Medal’ which was created in 2001 to celebrate excellence in housing design.Share: -
25.11.2016
Architecture Must Never Stand Still: ADAPT-r Keynote Lecture by Deborah Saunt
ADAPT-r Keynote Opening Lecture
(Introduction by Prof Richard Blythe)
University of WestminsterHogg Lecture Theatre35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LSFriday 25 November 201618:30 – 20:30Deborah Saunt’s PhD, completed as part of the RMIT Practice Research programme, revealed a life-long determination to encourage access to architecture, as well as an overarching search for new forms of beauty, grounded in a tradition of creating socially-minded architecture.DSDHA's structured yet dynamic process, based on workshops and using grounded research as a driver, allows the practice to “insert itself” into each project to actively design within the given constraints, whilst also going beyond the brief for the purpose of maximising impact for all.Deborah's lecture will demonstrate how this attitude manifests itself across all of her work, both within academia and in her studio. Click here to reserve a place.Share: -
23.11.2016
Deborah Saunt's PhD Research on Show at ADAPT-r Exhibition
ADAPT-r
Ambika P3, University of Westminster
35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS
26 November – 18 December 2016
Daily 10.00-18.00
Admission Free
The works of DSDHA Director Saunt – completed as part of the RMIT Practice Research programme – is on show at Ambika P3, on the occasion of ADAPT-r: a major exhibition that explores the research processes of working artists, architects and designers, revealing the diverse approaches to how they do what they do.
Curated by Katharine Heron, Director, Ambika P3, this challenging exhibition is the conclusion of a four-year international research initiative, funded by a major EU grant, and aims to provide rare insights through an extraordinary range of 35 creative practitioners from around the globe. Click here to read more about the show.Share: -
15.11.2016
DSDHA at WAF 2016
World Architecture Festival16-18 November 2016Arena Berlin, GermanyDirectors Deborah Saunt and David Hills are on their way to Berlin to attend WAF. Deborah will be a judge for the Festival, while David will deliver live crit presentations for two of our shortlisted projects – Corner House and Davenies School.Share: -
10.11.2016
DSDHA Takes Part to Theatrum Mundi's Round Table: 'Can We Design the Conditions for Culture?
Theatrum Mundi / LSE CitiesInfrastructures of Making10 November 2016The Triangle, SPACE Studios,129 – 131 Mare Street E8Deborah Saunt and David Hills take part to Theatrum Mundi's round table discussion on Spaces for 'Cultural' Making in the city, seeking to define what role architecture and spatial policies should play in sustaining creativity and its infrastructure in the city.This event is part of a series of three expert round tables to debate issues raised by Sadiq Khan’s plans to create a Cultural Infrastructure plan for London, asking if and how the conditions for cultural production can be designed. The three events were developed with and hosted by organisations that provide space for the production of artistic forms with very different relationships to the city: performance at Siobhan Davies Studios in October; making at SPACE Studios in November, and the virtual at The Trampery in December. They assembled over 50 artists, performers, architects, writers, urbanists, scholars and institutional leaders as well as a representative from the Greater London Authority’s Culture Team.A working paper, compiling the ideas and questions raised during these discussions will be shared with the GLA’s Culture Team in April and developed into a full report for publication in September 2017.Share: -
09.11.2016
We are Hot! DSDHA is in Dezeen Hot List
DSDHA features on Dezeen Hot List, an index of the 400 hottest architects, designers, brands, events and more over the past year. The list is entirely based on data from Dezeen's readers.Share: -
07.11.2016
David Hills Speaking at Guerrilla Tactics 2016: Business Models with the Power to Change Practice
Tuesday 8 November 20169.00am - 5.00pmRoyal Institute of British Architects66 Portland Place W1B 1NRIs the established way of a practice earning revenue – in which a fee or percentage of construction costs is paid in exchange for a bespoke design solution to the client – still the best and only way of doing business? Should we be engaging with different types of clients and providing a more diverse range of services? Should we also be creating innovative products and even seeking out an alternative client base?As part of the mentoring event organised by the RIBA, DSDHA's Director David Hills will try and answer some of these questions. He will offer his insight into the potential that business models have to dynamically transform practice.Book tickets or find out more about the event here.Share: -
31.10.2016
Roberta Marcaccio to speak at Inter=Photography and Architecture Conference in Pamplona
Museo Universidad de NavarraPamplona, Spain2-4 November 2016Speaking at the International Conference Inter=Photography and Architecture this week, Roberta will first unpack the complex nature of the relationship between architecture, buildings and photography, to then introduce the way in which DSDHA, as research-oriented architects, experiment with the photographic medium; treating it as a design tool, rather than simply fixing on glossy images the final outcomes of our endeavours.She will focus on DSDHA’s techniques of ‘grounded research’, which use photography as their starting point to investigate our sites and identify the latent concerns, aspirations and trends of the many individuals which inhabit them – all aspects that often remain hidden to the generic gaze of statistics and evade the canonical artifact-focused photographic representations of architecture. The images DSDHA manufacture by means of these techniques are our starting point to map what we call ‘personal landscapes’, and understand how individual narratives relate to the urban morphology as well as to the history of a place. It is from this vantage point that we then proceed to speculate on future scenarios.Share: -
31.10.2016
DSDHA's Project for Davenies Schools Showcased at MoA's Exhibition Well Built
Well Built: Designing for Health and Wellbeing in Architecture1 November – 29 November 2016 Opening hours: 10am - 7pm 10Thurloe Place, South Kensington, SW7 2RZThis exhibition is FREE to attendThis week, the Museum of Architecture launches Well Built, featuring our award-winning project for Davenies School in Beaconsfield. The exhibition traces new ways of thinking about health and wellbeing beyond the design of traditional therapeutic environments towards a more integrated approach that includes everyday spaces.The exhibition is divided into five different sections, each of which examines a specific building typology – hospitals and health centres, housing, workplaces, schools and public spaces. Demonstrating the enduring historical relationship between health and the city, Well Built points to the urgent need in reshaping our assumptions about health, place and space.Share: -
28.10.2016
Cycopaths: The Future of Urban Mobility
Royal College of Art
Monday 31 Oct to Friday 4 NovAs recipients of the 2016 Fellowship in the Built Environment awarded by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 – DSDHA's Ellen, Tom, Astrid and Roberta will be running a workshop at the RCA to map the beautiful everyday journeys across London.Taking the bicycle as a primary vehicle for investigation, their workshop will consider alternatives to the narrative of ‘speed/efficiency’ that is currently regulating London’s transport system, and deeply investigate how the way we move affects our experience of space. To this end, with the students, they will map the visual, psychological and sensorial experience of London’s cyclists, analysing their movement in relationship with notions of ‘beauty’ and ‘pleasure’.The research methodology will draw inspiration from previous experiments carried out in the 70s, which analysed the impact of the altered perception of space allowed by the car on the perception and production of architecture.Share: -
20.10.2016
Corner House and the West End Project shortlisted for the London Planning Awards
Our beautiful Corner House in Fitzrovia and Camden's West End Project have both made it to the shortlist for the London Planning Awards 2016/2017. They will compete to be nominated 'best new place to live' and 'Best Conceptual Project’ respectively.The winners will be revealed at the awards ceremony in City Hall on Monday 27 February 2017.Share: -
19.10.2016
DSDHA's entrance to the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens is a PokeStop
DSDHA's sculptural entrance to the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens has been made a PokeStop: a location marked in the augmented reality video game PokemonGo as a place that allows you to collect items such as eggs and more Poke Balls to capture more Pokemons. Good hunting!Share: -
18.10.2016
The USA's Architectural Record reports on DSDHA's "richly rigorous" Corner House
In an article titled Welcome to My House: Multifamily Housing John King says that “it is exciting, despite all the bureaucratic and corporate obstacles, to see architects striving to produce innovative and urbanistically appropriate living options across the social, cultural, and economic spectrums. This can mean the addition of new housing in historic districts, such as the richly rigorous Corner House by DSDHA in London."Share: -
12.10.2016
Join DSDHA
Are you interested in working at DSDHA?We are currently looking for talented and experienced architects to join our team and work on a range of exciting new architectural and public realm projects.For more information please contact careers@dsdha.co.uk.Share: -
06.10.2016
Deborah Saunt and David Hills named in The ES’ Progress 1000
Our Directors have been named by the Evening Standard among London’s most influential people of 2016: "The team have attracted much attention in the capital for their striking 'Flatiron' building in South Molton Street, a studio for artist Edmund de Waal and their own sunken house in Clapham. Next up is the £32 million project for new landscaping around Centre Point and the surrounding streets, to be completed in 2018."Share: -
06.10.2016
Ellen Hadden speaking at the National Urban Design Conference 2016
Thursday 6 and Friday 7 OctoberVSC Conference Centre63-79 Seymour StreetLondon W2 2HFSpeaking at 'Learning From London' – the second session of this year's Urban Design Conference – Senior Associate Ellen Hadden will present the most recent developments of our study on cycling in London.As recipients of the 2016 Fellowship in the Built Environment, awarded by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, DSDHA are currently exploring the notion of 'The Beautiful Everyday Journey’, with the aim to make cycling in our city a more pleasurable, exciting and accessible mode of transport.
learn more about the conference hereShare: -
27.09.2016
Deborah Saunt Appointed as Juror for the AJ/Crown Estate Future Office Competition
DSDHA director Deborah Saunt, will act as a judge for the AJ/Crown Estate Future Office competition, which aims to find innovative ideas for the office of the future.
Deborah will be joined by the Crown Estate’s James Cooksey and Jon Allgood, Despina Katsikakis of workplace consultant DELOS, and Nick Macrae of joint venture partner HOOPP (Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan). The jury will be chaired by AJ managing editor Will Hurst, and also includes AJ editorial director Paul Finch.
The AJ/Crown Estate Future Office contest is open to all UK-based architects. It asks entrants to consider how inspiring and effective workplaces will operate from 2020 onwards, based on changing ways of living and working, new technology and other factors such as traffic congestion and the impact of climate change.Tags: officesShare: -
20.09.2016
How Smart is your Practice?
Thursday 22 September 201610.00am - 7.00pmNottingham Conference CentreBurton Street, NottinghamSpeaking at this year's RIBA Smart Practice Conference in Nottingham, Deborah Saunt will give key insights into DSDHA's approach to research, business-thinking and technology; explaining how these different elements have helped her propelling the practice forward, amidst a climate of uncertainty.Please click here to read more about the Conference or book a place.Share: -
14.09.2016
Come Visit Us! This Week-end DSDHA Throws Opens the Doors for Open House
Saturday 17 September 20161.00 - 6.00pmRegular Tours (first come basis)Max 20 per tourHaving joined forces with Open House London festival, this year DSDHA will throw open the doors to our quirky studio in Vauxhall. Converted from a Victorian perfume works, and set within an oasis-like urban yard, our building is accessed down a narrow alley next to a pub.Do not miss the chance to poke around the drawings and project models that populate every space of our studio, and to hang out in our generous and homely kitchen, which is the very centre of DSDHA’s social life… even though it sometimes also migrates to the local pub next door!Share: -
14.09.2016
Deborah Saunt Speaking of Good Grief
Good GriefThe Architecture FoundationFriday 16 September, 7pmHighgate CemeteryBuy tickets hereThis Friday Deborah will speak about today's rampant culture of memoralisation at Forget about it: an evening event exploring loss and rebirth in the heart of Highgate Cemetery.As part of the Architecture Foundation’s Good Grief series, this debate asks whether a city can remember too much; trying to determine if we have effectively hit ‘peak memorial’, or if not when will we.Share: -
12.09.2016
Is London an Open City?
Open House Week on Robert Elms Show
BBC Radio London (94.9FM)
13 September 2016
11.35 to 11.55amAs part of the 2016 Open House Programme, DSDHA Director Deborah Saunt will join Robert Elms on his BBC Show to discuss whether London is effectively an Open City, one fit for the demands of the 21st century and beyond.At the time of the orchestrated decline of state-sponsored interventions, and the encouraged growth of private speculation, how do we ensure that all Londoners benefit, regardless of their wealth or status? And how do we keep our cities safe, without fencing ourselves in?Deborah will give her perspective on these issues explaining how – in line with DSDHA's ethos that “the City is our Client" – all of our projects strive to make a positive contribution to their surroundings. She believes that the architect's role today is to “insert oneself” in a project to actively design within the given constraints, going beyond the brief and the rigid definition of a codified “profession” and in this way maximising impact for all – whether clients, ultimate users or passersby.Share: -
03.08.2016
How Does Research Feed Design?
DSDHA’s Deborah Saunt takes a look around the Bartlett School of Architecture’s end-of-year show for the AJ and asks:"Where was real life in all its guises?
Where was architectural agency expressed – the idea that you ‘insert yourself’ into a project as an architect in practice, actively modifying reality within the given constraints, to go beyond the brief and the rigid definition of a codified ‘profession’?
Where was the need to behave responsibly, to instil entrepreneurialism and an awareness of ethics?Above all, where were the people?"Share: -
12.07.2016
Maeve, our Uber-inspired LSA student, featured on the RIBA Journal
In an article for the RIBA Journal Hugh Pearman discusses 'SWARM: A new mode of practice for the sharing economy era' – the project developed by our Maeve and her colleagues as part of the LSA’s Design Think Tank modul. SWARM envisages a pro-active way of working, co-authoring designs for sites they find using technology familiar to us from Uber cabs and Airbnb. The SWARM app flags up sites and SWARM architects and planners jointly develop a scheme.Pearman says: "Their presentation was slick, convincing, witty [...] In summary, the SWARM septet rejects the present mode of practice and cheerfully waves goodbye to the RIBA institutional model in a tongue-in-cheek separation letter (‘It’s not that we don’t love you… we know we’ll keep learning from each other…honestly, it’s not you, it’s us’). But to me it seems that ideas such as theirs are very much the kind of thing that should interest the Institute."Share: -
08.07.2016
Corner House wins NLA award for Best Built Housing Scheme
The annual awards is organised and hosted by New London Architecture to celebrate the best architecture and development recently completed or in design across the capital. From a shortlist of 136 projects, each scheme was selected by a prestigious international jury advised by London-based experts for having both the highest design quality and most positive social and economic impact for London.Share: -
04.07.2016
Davenies and Corner House finalists at the World Architecture Festival
DSDHA's Davenies School and Corner House have made it to the shortlist for the World Architecture Festival 2016.
The 343 strong shortlist includes projects from 58 countries across 32 categories. All finalists will go on to compete at the World Architecture Festival in November. Join us in Berlin!Share: -
01.07.2016
Unit 11: The CASS Summer Exhibitions 2016
Friday 24 June – Thursday 7 JulyDSDHA's students at The Cass School of Architecture, who have been researching London's Cultural Infrastructure have launched their end of the year exhibition at the Cass. Unit 11 has studied London’s cultural ecology, asking whether development can still coexist with creativity or if our Capital is handing over its role as a centre of cultural production to cities like Birmingham, Berlin or Brussels.
Concentrating on the area of Vauxhall, we have developed strategies to counteract the generic character of the Global City which, expanding from Nine Elms, threatens the distinctive cultural specificity of this peculiar district.Read more about DSDHA's Unit 11 here.Share: -
23.06.2016
DSDHA twice winner at the RIBA National Awards 2016
Fantastic News: our Corner House and Davenies School have both been awarded the 2016 RIBA National Award – the most rigorous and prestigious awards for new buildings in the UK. The projects are now being considered for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the UK’s best building of the year. Stay tuned!Share: -
21.06.2016
CYCLOPATHS: Transport Tribes & Beautiful Everyday Journeys
Date: 25 June 2016Time: 5:00 to 7:30 PMGathering point: Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens’ entrance SE11 5HYLove them or hate them, cyclists are changing London’s public space and the experience of moving through the city, and DSDHA are asking if this change is for the better.Whether you are a committed cyclist or an absolute novice, come and have your say at CYCLOPATHS – our exciting urban treasure hunt on two wheels; where participants will compete to make the most beautiful journey through London, culminating in an urban picnic and ride-in cinema in Broadgate.This LFA event is part of our 2-year Research Fellowship in the Built Environment, awarded by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. As recipients of the 2016 Fellowship, DSDHA are exploring the notion of 'The Beautiful Everyday Journey’, with the aim to make cycling a more pleasurable, exciting and accessible mode of transport.Places are free, click here to registerShare: -
16.06.2016
Building Healthy Communities: Schools and Education
Museum of ArchitectureDate: 20 June 2016Time: 6:30PMLocation: The Building Centre, 26 Store St, London WC1E 7BT DSDHA Director David Hills will be part of a panel discussing innovative education projects that seek to dissolve the gap between education and the environment, promoting an awareness of health and wellbeing at an early age. This is one in a series of Museum of Architecture's talks focusing on how creative thinking and innovative design in particular building typologies are contributing to collective health and wellbeing.Book tickets hereShare: -
16.06.2016
DSDHA's West End Project featured in Re/making The Street exhibition
Date: 17 June - 29 July 2016Location: The Building Centre, 26 Store St, London WC1E 7BT Re/making The Street looks at how urban streets are much more than just roads. They are remarkably individual, rich environments that make, shape and support communities and society.
Curated by The Built Environment Trust and part of the 2016 London festival of Architecture, this exhibition features as its centrepiece an interactive installation that deconstructs the design and planning behind London's street as well as a video that illustrates DSDHA's urban strategy for the Tottenham Court Road area.Share: -
24.05.2016
Mimar Sinan Exhibition Opens at the Building Centre
19 May to 10 June 2016
The Building Centre
26 Store Street, London WC1E 7BT
Entry is free
DSDHA’s beautiful model and drawings of Mimar Sinan’s Istanbul townscape are on show in the first London exhibition dedicated to the Turkish master.
Curated by former AJ editor Rory Olcayto, the show (and the recently published book Mimar Sinan: The First Starchitect) is the product of an 18-month mission to raise awareness of Sinan – who is less well-known than he should be in the UK, despite his historical significance as an influence on structures such as St Paul’s Cathedral and even on the work of modern masters, including Le Corbusier.
Deborah Saunt and Ellen Hadden have led this research project for DSDHA; their work is featured in the exhibition along with that of other five UK-based architectural practices: Ian Ritchie Architects, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Reiach and Hall Architects, Sam Jacob Studio, Bureau de Change.Read more about the exhibition hereShare: -
18.05.2016
DSDHA-led OurVauxhall Campaign Challenges TfL’s Plans for Vauxhall Gyratory
Following public consultation, TfL's planned changes for Vauxhall have been put on ice until summer. The decision follows a ground swell against TfL's proposal to demolish ARUP's iconic bus station and replace the gyratory with a 'safer' two-way flow of traffic.OurVauxhall – an association of volunteers, led by DSDHA and comprising local residents, businesses, engineers and architects – has been challenging TfL's plans, and has devised an alternative proposal for this busy traffic interchange.The ambitious, yet viable, scheme places people and sustainable travel at the fore. It promises to improve Vauxhall's public realm by creating two major new public spaces for central London which would connect Vauxhall Park with Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, extending the green route planned between Battersea and Nine Elms.Share: -
17.05.2016
Join DSDHA
Are you interested in working at DSDHA?We are currently looking for talented Part I, II, and III individuals to join our studio and work on a range of exciting new architectural and public realm projects.For more information please contact careers@dsdha.co.uk.Share: -
16.05.2016
Blossom Street Project Update
There has been positive news for our project at Blossom Street, a masterplan developed by DSDHA, AHMM, Duggan Morris Architects, and Stanton Williams, aimed at the revitalization of the site in Spitalfields, east London. Following a judicial review, the High Court has upheld the Mayor of London’s decision to take over the planning applications to redevelop the area, which he has subsequently approved.Share: -
05.05.2016
Triple Success for DSDHA’s Projects at the RIBA AWARDS 2016
We are pleased to announce that three of our most recent projects have been awarded the prestigious RIBA Regional Award. These are:Corner House – our beautiful mixed-use brickwork building for Derwent London, defined by the judges as an "exemplary of how apparent ordinariness can be lifted to an enjoyable and delightful piece of townscape and equally a place to live in Central London."Davenies School – our sensitive, yet "uncompromisingly contemporary" extension for this school in Beaconsfield: “a robust and joyful scheme which challenges the notion of what education buildings are and can be”.Covert House – our experimental, semi-underground concrete cottage in South London, which offers a “brilliant response to planning issues, providing a model for sensitive densification, and achieving a very good-looking house.”Share: -
03.05.2016
Double nomination for Corner House
DSDHA and Derwent London’s mixed-use new brickwork building in Fitzrovia has been shortlisted for the London RIBA awards 2016 as well as for the Housing Design Awards 2016.Click here to learn more about the project.Share: -
30.04.2016
DSDHA’s Roberta Marcaccio Speaks at the SAH 2016 Annual Conference
Society of Architectural Historians Annual Conference
Thursday 6 - Sunday 10 April 2016
Pasadena Convention Center
Los Angeles, CA 91101
Earlier this month Roberta presented her research at the prestigious SAH Annual Conference in Los Angeles. Responding to the theme “Exhibitions as Models: theorizing architecture in the gallery space” her paper analysed Milan’s Museum of Ancient art at the Sforza Castle, looking at the way in which this permanent exhibition, designed by BBPR in 1956, acted as a medium to push forward a precise set of ideas about architecture and city making.The spatial experiments carried out within the Sforza Castle postulated a parallel between the museum and the urban fabric; inviting one to consider the city as a collection of architectural “pieces” in time; which demanded a careful restoration and curation on the part of the architect. In this sense the castle’s museum becomes the perfect setting to ‘present’ the particular idea of history that Ernesto N Rogers and the BBPR hoped to re-introduce within the discourse of the Modern Movement.Share: -
29.04.2016
Success for Davenies School: DSDHA’s latest educational project wins RIBA South Award 2016
DSDHA’s design for a major redevelopment of Davenies School, builds on its holistic approach to learning, based on engaging the children with nature and maximising their connection to the world around them.The RIBA judges defined DSDHA’s new intervention as “uncompromisingly contemporary without being harsh”, saying that its “change in materials references the old, breaks down the scale and mass of the new and helps the building to recede and the landscape to come forward.”Davenies School, they added, “is a robust and joyful building which is at the same time calming and nurturing” and one that "challenges the notion of what education buildings are and can be, and which will stimulate the wider public to think about the power of architecture."Click here to read the whole commentaryVisit the project page hereShare: -
27.04.2016
DSDHA Explores the World of Mimar Sinan
'Sinan: the First Starchitect' Book LaunchThe Royal Academy of ArtsPiccadilly, London W1J 0BDOver the past few months we have been busy researching the work of Mimar Sinan (1489-1588), the distinguished Turkish Architect and Civil Engineer, whose designs span from elegant interiors through to mosque complexes and urban infrastructure.Last November Turkishceramics and the Architects' Journal took DSDHA’s Deborah Saunt and Ellen Hadden on a research trip to Istanbul, along with a group of leading and emerging contemporary British architects as well as expert writers. The aim of the trip was to study Sinan's work and gather thoughts and material for the book 'Sinan: the First Starchitect’ – which will be launched this Thursday 28 April at the RA – and its related exhibition opening in May at the Building Centre in London.Click here to learn more about the project.Share: -
25.04.2016
Design Research (in) Practice: DSDHA's Grounded Research Agenda
DR_SoM: Design Research, Series on MethodFriday 22 April, 9.30am to 6.30pm
New School of Architecture at Reading University
Reading, UK
Last week architect Nicola Ibbotson from DSDHA took part in the DR_SoM symposium focusing on Research Methods used by architectural practitioners. Building on her own work,Nicola's presentation focused on DSDHA's techniques of 'grounded research', allowing us to reveal concerns, aspirations and trends that often remain hidden to the generic gaze of statistics.
We embed ourselves in our projects to record people's existing movements and study the way they employ technology – particularly wearable and handheld devices – as a tool to navigate their surroundings as well as to record and share their personal experiences. Our aim is to map and establish how individual narratives collectively relate to broader urban morphologies and employ them to speculate on future scenarios within the settings we design.Share: -
02.03.2016
Housing London: Visions for the Future
Thursday 3 March, 6pmArchitectural Association (AA)Lecture Hall36 Bedford Square WC1B 3ESDSDHA Associate Director Tom Greenall will join David Cohen, Emily Gasson and Ed Watson, in a panel discussion chaired by Joanna Chambers to speculate on our visions for the future of housing in the Capital.The series brings together architects, politicians, planners, developers and commentators to propose new inspiration for what housing in London could be like in the years to come.Tom’s presentation will focus on spatial and policy paradigms that seek out new ways of coping with London’s current housing shortage.Click here for more information about the eventShare: -
01.02.2016
Join DSDHA
Are you interested in working at DSDHA and available right now?We are currently looking for a talented Part I to join our studio and work on a range of exciting new architectural and public realm projects.For more information please contact careers@dsdha.co.uk ASAP.Share: -
25.01.2016
Concrete Elegance: at Home with Concrete
Tuesday 26 January 20166.30 – 8pmThe Building CentreStore StLondon WC1E 7BTDSDHA director David Hills and concrete expert Anthony Thresh from Whiterock Engineering will discuss the challenges of designing and building Covert House: a discreet and beautiful family home, set partially into the ground and entirely made of cast in situ concrete.Chaired by Elaine Toogood, the event will celebrate the use of concrete in domestic interiors, presenting, alongside Covert House, two other inspirational contemporary homes: Ingersoll Road, by McLaren Excell, discussed by Luke McLaren, and Studio Gil’s Concrete House, introduced by Pedro Gil and by Isaac Tucker from Solid State.See full programme here.Share: -
20.11.2015
Freedom and Creativity Symposium
Saturday 28 November 201511am – 6pmRoyal Academy of ArtsBurlington HouseLondon W1J 0BDTickets: £24 / £12 (Adults / Concessions)DSDHA will present their ongoing research on the relationship between risk and innovation in architecture at the one-day symposium 'Freedom and Creativity' organised by the Royal Academy of Arts.Focusing on how architecture is practiced, Director Deborah Saunt will explore the troubled nexus between the architectural necessity of risk-taking and a building environment predicated on the minimisation of risk; she will demonstrate how risk aversion challenges the core ambition for innovation in the discipline, and will speculate on possible new routes and alternatives.See full programme here.Share: -
18.11.2015
The Mansion on Marylebone Lane is Starting on Site
Designed using analytical diagrams, 3D modelling and kinetic movement drawings, DSDHA’s proposal for this new residential block on Marylebone Lane sensitively relates to, and even amplifies, the qualities of its historic and urban setting, which is close to Grade I Listed Stratford House.A bespoke range of ceramic profiles is being developed that will feature a series of subtly toned, self-coloured terracotta, echoing the architectural characteristics of Marylebone.Read more about the project here.Share: -
16.11.2015
DSDHA + London’s Newest Architecture School
DSDHA are proud to be part of London’s newest architectural school The London School of Architecture (LSA). The school is founded on a newly established pedagogical network that offers an alternative route through the profession while providing an answer to the crisis affecting British education: expensive and out of touch with the realities of working in a practice, as well as with the urgencies of the world outside of the academy.As one of the LSA's founding team, Deborah Saunt (DSDHA Director) is the Inter-Practice Director, questioning how design research can be a critical component of innovative practice and agency within architecture.Read more about the LSA here.Share: -
12.11.2015
Neal Street Wins Planning Permission
DSDHA’s ‘jewel-like’ proposal for the refurbishment of a poor quality warehouse set within Seven Dials has just won planning permission and Conservation Area consent.The project aims to set a new benchmark for the sustainable adaptation of historic buildings, as it creates contemporary spaces behind a refined brick envelope that resonates with the unique characteristics of Covent Garden. A new lightweight pavilion, clad with precious hand crafted metal shingle tiles, offers a contemporary reinterpretation of the local roof mansard typology.Share: -
10.11.2015
My House My Practice
Thursday 12 November 20156.30pmThe Twentieth Century SocietyTickets: £8 / £10 / £5 (Members / Non-Members / Students)‘My House My Practice’ lecture series invites a number of distinguished architects – among which Sarah Wigglesworth, Richard Burton, Bill Dunster and Richard Murphy – to discuss houses they designed for themselves. Often acting as a manifesto as well as a home, the case studies presented convey as much about the individuals as their architectural practices.Deborah Saunt will present Covert House – DSDHA's recently completed experimental house in Clapham Old Town, which offers a template for much needed urban densification.Share: -
04.11.2015
Guerrilla Tactics 2015: Client Perspectives
Tuesday 10 November 20159.00am - 5.00pmRoyal Institute of British ArchitectsDeborah Saunt of DSDHA will offer her insight into understanding the client’s perspective on making architecture as part of the mentoring event organised by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). This two-day conference will reenergise small and medium sized practices to engage with the particular needs and wants of today’s diverse clients.Book tickets or find out more about the event here.Share: -
03.11.2015
DSDHA Monday Lunches
We love the fact that our new studio in Vauxhall has a large kitchen! It is the centre of DSDHA’s social life (which sometimes also migrates to the pub next door) and every Monday our team take turns cooking for each other. We are tweeting our recipes regularly, so do not miss out on DSDHA's cooking tips!Share: -
02.11.2015
Cultural Infrastructure: A Talk by Rory Hyde
Rory Hyde, Curator of Contemporary Architecture and Urbanism at the Victoria and Albert Museum, joined us at DSDHA to discuss his recent exhibition ‘All of This Belongs to You’ and to speculate on the role of cultural institutions within our contemporary urban realities. The event is part of a series of talks organised in conjunction with DSDHA’s postgraduate research unit at Cass. This year the course seeks to challenge and define London's cultural infrastructure – the spaces and networks that allow the arts to be produced and disseminated within our cities.Read More about DSDHA’s Unit 11 here.Share: -
23.10.2015
DSDHA Out and About: Corner House
As part of our monthly Out and About, where we explore new architecture together, the whole team at DSDHA headed to Fitzrovia to visit Corner House: a beautiful six-storey mixed use city building that we have just completed for Derwent London. Corner House comprises one commercial, nine private and two affordable residential units. As good neighbour it engages in an active dialogue with its immediate context, from its well-mannered, highly articulated elevations to its crystalline rooftop pavilions that bring delight to the city skyline.Share: -
15.10.2015
Home Works Lecture Series: Between Intimacy and Infrastructure
Tuesday 27 October 20156.30 - 7.30pmThe Cass School of ArchitectureAs Unit Leaders at The Cass School of Architecture, DSDHA Directors Deborah Saunt and David Hills will reflect on their research both within teaching and practice, which has always spanned extraordinary scales between intimacy and infrastructure. They will ask how this has informed recent projects from their designs for bespoke individual buildings, like Davenies School in Beaconsfield and Corner House for Derwent London in Fitzrovia, through to macro-scaled urban strategies such as the redevelopment of the area surrounding the Royal Albert Hall and Albert Memorial and their emerging masterplan for Central Somers Town.Read more here.Share: -
14.10.2015
London School of Architecture Show & Tell: Crafting the City
Tuesday 20 October 20157.00 - 8.30pmDesign MuseumTickets £12 / £9 / £6 (Adult / Students / Members)The London School of Architecture (LSA) kicks off its inaugural lecture programme where leading figures in Design reveal the research and methodologies that underscore their work. This October, Architect and Urbanist Deborah Saunt (Founding Partner of DSDHA) and Planner David West (Founding Partner of Studio Egret West) discuss the crafting of cities.Deborah is also Inter-Practice Director of the LSA focusing on bringing architectural education to a broader audience and bridging theory and practice.Share: -
30.09.2015
DSDHA Featured in London Burning
London Burning portraits the city’s most important contributors to creativity and innovation. It introduces a broad spectrum of people in the public eye and behind the scenes, among them Nicholas Serota; Antony Gormley; Gilbert & George; Alan Yentob; Guy Ritchie; Matthew Slotover; Alexandra Shulman; Jackie Wullschlager; Grayson Perry; Hans Ulrich Obrist; Edmund de Waal as well as DSDHA.Share: -
07.09.2015
Open House London: Come Visit DSDHA's New Studio
Saturday 19 September 20151.00 - 5.00pmRegular Tours (first come basis)Max 20 per tourHaving joined forces with Open House London festival, this year DSDHA will throw open the doors to our quirky new studio in Vauxhall. Converted from a Victorian perfume works, and set within an oasis-like urban yard, filed with planters and building samples, our building is accessed down a narrow alley next to a pub. Do not miss the chance to poke around the drawings and project models that populate every space of our studio, and to hang out in our generous and homely kitchen, which is the very centre of DSDHA’s social life… even though it sometimes also migrates to the local pub next door!Share: -
07.09.2015
100% Design: What is Wrong with White?
Thursday 24 September 201512.15 - 1.00pmDSDHA’s Director David Hills, will join designer Morag Myerscough and contemporary artist, David Batchelor in a provocative discussion focussing on colour in architecture. Chaired by Peter Murray, this talk will examine how colour is used in architecture. Do architects suffer from chromophobia - the fear of colour, with many avoiding it, or applying it as an after thought?Learn more about 100% Design seminar programme here.Share: -
03.09.2015
ETH Zurich: The Future of Open Building
Wednesday 9 - Friday 11 September 2015Zurich, SwitzerlandDSDHA's Associate and RCA PhD candidate John Zhang, will present a lecture on Vesta House: our gateway residential tower built for the 2012 London Olympic Village, and now at the heart of East Village. John will discuss how DSDHA's research methodology allowed the practice to achieve a multilayered sense of openness – social, environmental and programmatic – in the design and delivery of this highly complex project. The conference will bring together a distinguished group of academic and practitioners – including N. John Habraken, Lacaton & Vassals, and Urban Think Tank – to critically consider what the notion of 'open building' continues to offer within broader international contexts.Learn more about the event here.Share: -
03.09.2015
Further Award Nominations for Covert House
Great News! DSDHA’s experimental house has been shortlisted Best Non-Public Use for the Blueprint Awards 2015. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on 22 October.Read more about the project here.Share: -
14.08.2015
DSDHA Out and About: Studying Broadgate
As part of our monthly Out and About organised by the practice, the whole team at DSDHA headed off to British Land’s Broadgate Estate to conduct in-depth, ground-based research on this very particular area of the City of London. DSDHA set out to identify latent opportunities which could inject new energy into Broadgate, link it at an urban scale with the diverse local neighbourhoods such as Shoreditch and Spitalfields and evolve its identity as an exciting piece of city.Share: -
13.08.2015
A Short Film About Norton Folgate and Blossom Street
The Blossom Street project team – DSDHA, AHMM, Stanton Williams, Duggan Morris Architects – has created a short film about the architectural, social and economic aspirations behind the masterplan for the area. Featuring an interview with DSDHA's director David Hills, the film explores how the development will provide much-needed space for the tech and creative sectors, particularly for SMEs, while bringing vacant and underused buildings back into active use.Watch the film and find out more about the scheme here.Share: -
13.08.2015
DSDHA’s Designs to the Test of Virtual Reality
DSDHA are always looking to integrate emerging technologies with our design methodology. We are currently collaborating with visual artist Alex Lambert to trial the use of the Oculus Rift VR goggles as part of our 3D modelling process. This virtual reality head-mounted display will allow us to look and walk around our designs before they are built, literally stepping into our proposals and experiencing their spatial and urban qualities in an unprecedented immersive manner.Share: -
23.07.2015
DSDHA Out and About: Davenies School
As part of the regular Friday Out and About organised by the practice, DSDHA recently visited the construction site of their project for Davenies School in Beaconsfield. An independent school set in the context of a beautiful listed building on the edge of the town centre, DSDHA’s design delivers a dynamic group of modern buildings to create a new Lower School, to cater for boys aged 2-8.Share: -
22.07.2015
HS2 Chairman's “Depressing" View of Design Slammed
In a recent article appeared on the AJ, DSDHA’s Director, Deborah Saunt, has attacked David Higgins’ comments on the £40billion rail link. She said: ‘Having spent last year researching the design aims of HS2 with our post-graduate students we can see that HS2, like many current infrastructure projects, may rely on using a “one size fits all” kit of parts in order to apparently make the most of economies of scale, but this is a misguided approach upon further enquiry. HS2 appears to be applying a cookie cutter approach to infrastructure, which carries with it the huge detriment to the routes and villages severed by the new route but to the landscape too. It is the antithesis to the approach Brunel used on the Great Western Railway, which now boasts several listed structures.’To learn more about the current debate around HS2 read here.Share: -
09.07.2015
DSDHA’s Vesta House to Air on Grand Designs Tonight
Grand Designs - Living in the City
Thursday 9 July 2015
8.00pm
Channel 4
The former London Olympic Village takes centre stage in a new episode of Grand Designs. Part of a special series about urban design and living, the programme will feature DSDHA’s Director, Deborah Saunt, talking about their project for Vesta House – the tallest building in Stratford’s East Village. The Grand Designs team filmed Vesta House’s main entrance, the atrium and the interior of an eight floor flat, where the owners, Frank Da Silva and Gianna Fanti, had the surreal experience of watching McCloud drink coffee in their kitchen during filming in February enjoying views across the new Queen Elizabeth Park.Read more about the project here.Share: -
29.06.2015
LFA On Site at Abell & Cleland
Monday 29 June 20156.30 – 8.00pmDSDHA and Berkeley Homes hosted an exclusive tour of Abell and Cleland construction site as part of the London Festival of Architecture 2015. The participants had the chance to admire the raw structure of this impressive new residential complex in the heart of Westminster, ahead of its completion in May 2016, and to get involved in a conversation with DSDHA’s Director, Deborah Saunt and Berkeley Homes’ Angus Michie, about the creative challenges of introducing contemporary design into a historic residential neighbourhood.DSDHA’s scheme replaces two ex-government buildings on the site and provides a mix of private and affordable housing arranged around generous landscaped gardens along with over £1m of new public realm improvements. The design is informed by a rigorous analysis of the existing context resulting in a contemporary scheme which embodies high quality design and craftsmanship.Read more about the project here.Share: -
29.06.2015
Topping Out Ceremony in the Heart of Westminster
Monday 29 June 2015Deputy leader of Westminster City Council, Cllr Robert Davis, Berkeley Homes founder, Tony Pidgley and DSDHA’s Director, Deborah Saunt ‘topped out’ the final floor of Abell House – the first of two buildings along with Cleland House - at our largest new central London development to date – in front of 40 key officials from Westminster, the Greater London Authority and Community Working Group.Read more about the project here.Share: -
26.06.2015
Unit 11: The Cass Summer Exhibitions 2015
Friday 26 June – Saturday 4 July 2015DSDHA's students at The Cass School of Architecture, who have been researching 'Above and Below: Architecture and Underground Infrastructure' have launched their end of the year exhibition at the Cass. Do not miss the chance to explore the future of London’s underworld where the future role of architecture comes to a critical juncture - as infrastructure meets intimacy and the realms of engineering and personal space collide.Read more about DSDHA's Unit 11 here.Share: -
18.05.2015
Art, Design, Architecture and Fashion
Talks programme at Art15 London's Global Art Fair
In association with Wallpaper* Magazine
Thursday 21 May 2015
4.00pm
Art15 Olympia
Olympia Way
London W14 8UX
Moderated by DSDHA’s Director David Hills, this talk explores how the industries of Art, Design and Fashion influence and converge with one another, with a direct influence on Contemporary Art Practice. Speakers include: Daniel Hopwood (President, British Institute of Interior Design), Sebastien Montabonel (Art Advisor and Founder of Alaska Editions Photography Publishers), Janet Laurence (Artist) and Osman Yousefzada (Fashion Designer).Share: -
18.05.2015
Reclaim the Street: Designing the Urban Commons
Reclaim the Street : Designing the Urban CommonsClerkenwell Design WeekThursday 21 May 2015
4.30 - 5.30pmChaired by Peter Murray, this talk will see DSDHA’s Deborah Saunt, Renato Benedetti, Niels de Bruin and Kathryn Firth presenting their own approaches to public realm design and discussing their active efforts to restore open space to civic centres and improve the collective life of the city.Share: -
18.05.2015
The Changing Role of Risk in Architecture
The Changing Role of Risk in ArchitectureNational Architecture Conference 2015Thursday 14 - Saturday 16 May 2015
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
1 Convention Centre Place
South Wharf VIC 3006
AustraliaThe National Architecture Conference 2015 will bring together a range of keynote speakers from around the world to discuss what is the current role of risk in architecture. In one of the sessions DSDHA’s Deborah Saunt will discuss the way in which her practice engages risk as a productive element within their work.The premise of the conference is that no one wants to be a safe architect. Safety assumes the conventional and the predictable. Who wants that? Unless of course you want to stay in business – because few builders, developers or government departments aspire to risk-taking, just as few EOIs require a respondent to demonstrate a capacity to take a risk and challenge an assumption. This event will explore the troubled nexus between the architectural necessity of risk-taking and a building environment predicated on the minimisation of risk.Share: -
14.05.2015
Covert House Shortlisted for RIBA Award
Great News! Covert House has been shortlisted for the prestigious RIBA London 2015 Awards. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on 18th May.
Built as a testbed for ideas on sustainability and domesticity under restrictive conservation area planning conditions, Covert House in an unorthodox, semi-underground house that challenges what it means to design a contemporary home. The project also acts as a case-study on the potential for unlocking backland sites to create architectural opportunities that, by subtly densifying our residential areas, respond to the urban necessity of building more houses close to the city centre.Read more about the project here.Share: -
14.05.2015
Ten Years of Public Space Delivery: Lessons for the Next Decade
Tuesday 19 May 2015
9.00am - 1.00pm
New London Architecture (NLA)The Building Centre
26 Store Street
London WC1E 7BT
This NLA half-day conference speculates on what the city needs to do over the next decade to ensure it continues to design, deliver and maintain quality spaces for all. Nicola Ibbotson from DSDHA will present the Studio’s Urban Design Proposal for the rejuvenation of the West End Public Realm: a major project commissioned by Camden Council (due for completion in 2018), which is currently on display at the NLA’s Public London exhibition.Share: -
01.05.2015
Lecture at Ravensbourne
Thursday 7 May 2015
6.00 - 8.00pm
Ravensbourne
6 Penrose Way
Greenwich Peninsula
London SE10 0EWDSDHA's Director David Hills will be speaking at Ravensbourne, a specialist Design and Digital Media University based in London. The lecture will present research carried out within the DSDHA Studio, and explain how this has informed recent projects including designs for Greenwich Peninsula.The scheme, which is currently on site, comprises a community hub for the whole neighbourhood in addition to three residential buildings. The event is part of a series of lectures organised by The Institute of Ideas.Share: -
24.02.2015
De-Sanitizing the City: What is Public Space?
The Future Cities SalonTuesday 3 March 2015
7.00 - 8.30pmTickets: £5 / £3 (students / concession)DSDHA’s Director Deborah Saunt will be in conversation with Anna Minton, Jack Self, Claire Mookerjee and Alastair Donald. Chaired by Michael Owens, the debate will assess the status of public space in our cities. From the London Eye to the Westfield Shopping Centre, from Vinoly’s “Sky Garden” to Heatherwick’s and Lumley’s proposed new “Garden” bridge over the Thames – there is no doubt that much public space is privatised; as a result the public right to access it has become a fashionable concern. The invited speakers will question the implications of this apparent segmentation of the erstwhile “public realm” and propose ways of rethinking civil engagement in the public arena.Share: -
23.01.2015
Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
DSDHA is delighted to be one of three teams selected for the second stage of the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard Competition, along with Caruso St John and Latz+Partner.
The project will provide an overarching redevelopment for the hard landscape setting of the expanded Dockyard and to better integrate the buildings on site, both old and new.
In view of the nature of the site, its waterfront, its buildings and historic vessels, the combined goal of the collaborative approach between visual artists and winning architect is to engage a broad public in the current life, unique integrity, spatial qualities and history of the Historic Dockyard. We will be collaborating with the acclaimed artist Nathan Coley and the landscape consultants LDA on our proposals.
The overall masterplan is set to complete in 2017.
Tags: Architecture DSDHA masterplan urban regeneration urban design landscaping landscape design Portsmouth Harbour Portsmouth Historic Dockyard artists visual artists urban Competition nathan coley LDAShare: -
08.12.2014
David Hills and Edmund de Waal in Conversation at Royal Academy
Monday 8 December 2014
6.30 - 7.45pmTickets: £12 / £6 (students / concession)The lecture will focus on the ongoing conversation between Architect David Hills and acclaimed Artist, Edmund de Waal, which has led to the creation of his two studio spaces in London, and the design of The Silver Building in Westminster, projects that combine the practices of art and architecture.For more information, please click here.Share: -
06.12.2014
Monumentimals
Monumental Masonry Exhibition
Saturday 6 December 2014 - Saturday 24 January 2015
10.00am - 5.00pm13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
London WC2A 3BPThe exhibition was the result of a collaboration between Sir John Soane’s Museum and Bompas & Parr, who together launched an open call for architects and designers to 'create epic monuments in a magnificent celebration of death.'Tags: news Monumental Masonry 3D Printing Exhibition Funerary Architecture Maggie’s Cancer Charity Soane Museum DSDHA Monumental Masonry Exhibition Sir John Soane Museum Auction Competition Arts and Culture Arts Bompas and Parr Charity Auction MonumentimalsShare: -
27.11.2014
Santo Domingo - Design Capital of the Caribbean
With its eight schools of architecture, Santo Domingo leads the way for design in the Caribbean. DSDHA has reached the final stage in an international design competition to design the masterplan of the historic city centre of Santa Domingo in the Dominican Republic, and more specifically for the consolidation of the ruins of a colonial convent to create a new cultural building and an archeological complex.David Hills will also be speaking in the Dominican Republic on 2 December 2014, as part of two-day International Conference on Contemporary Architecture in Historic Centres at UNIBE, alongside Rafael Moneo, Cristobal Valdez and Gonzalo Byrne.Share: -
22.11.2014
Unit 11 at The Cass
This year, DSDHA's Unit 11 at The Cass is exploring 'Above and Below', a brief that questions how infrastructure and building beneath, as well as above and around us, can influence design and how we live.The Unit field trip, led by Deborah Saunt, David Hills, Nicola Ibbotson and Matthew Lambert, took students to The National Gallery Scotland, where this photo of Dixon Jones' first-floor light-well was taken.Share: -
15.11.2014
Deborah Saunt and Tom Greenall on 'Why Architecture Must Never Stand Still'
Thursday 20 November 2014
6.00pmArchitectural Association School of Architecture
36 Bedford Square
London WC1B 3ESTwo of DSDHA's Directors will present a lecture on the Practice's search for new forms of beauty through active design, research and agency. They will talk about projects spanning from macro-scaled urban strategies and infrastructure studies, such as the redesign of the area of Camden's West End in which the AA sits, though to individual, crafted buildings which celebrate materiality and the act of making within architecture, such as Alex Monroe’s Studio in Snowfields and the recently completed Covert House (pictured, photograph by Hélène Binet).Share: -
29.10.2014
South Molton Street Shortlisted for Best New Place to Work Award
The London Planning Awards has unveiled South Molton Street as one of the contenders for the Best New Place to Work Award. London Mayor, Boris Johnson, stated that these awards promote 'good quality planning to ensure London remains the best city in the world to live, work and visit.'Read more about the project here.Tags: South Molton Street awards London Planning London Planning Awards mixed-use residential work officesShare: -
24.10.2014
DSDHA Out and About: Wardour Street Visit
For this month's Out and About, the practice visited Wardour Street, a residential project in the heart of bustling Soho, London.Collins Contractors showed us around the building's stripped interior with its industrial structure exposed in all its glory. Original steel beams, columns and brickwork could be seen throughout the site. Spread across five levels, including a small rooftop space, the scheme will build on the local character of semi-industrial workshops and warehouses. The existing architectural detailing, such as the brick facades and original metal-framed windows to the front elevation will be retained and refurbished to enhance the qualities of the existing building.Read more about the project here.Share: -
22.10.2014
Alex Monroe Cover Feature in Homes & Property
Alex Monroe Studio was dubbed a 'Gem of a Workplace', in The Evening Standard's Homes & Property supplement. The project was described as a versatile 'shop-cum-workshop-cum-home that is delicate yet robust, charming yet practical.'Read more about the project here.Share: -
16.10.2014
Alex Monroe Studio Featured in Baumeister Magazine
We are delighted that Baumeister has featured the Alex Monroe Studio in this month's issue. Commending the design for its craftsmanship, they say: 'The narrow pilasters are hollow and handmade, corresponding to the intricate handiwork of the jewelers within.'Read more about the project here.Tags: Alex Monroe Studio Alex Monroe Snowsfield Southwark Studio jewellery studio press News article featureShare: -
03.10.2014
Award Triumph for Alex Monroe Studio at World Architecture Festival
On the concluding day of the World Architecture Festival 2014, held in Singapore, DSDHA's Alex Monroe Studio won the Wood Excellence Award.The World Architecture Festival is the world’s largest festival and live awards competition dedicated to celebrating, and sharing architectural excellence from across the globe.Visit the award page here for more information.Share: -
02.10.2014
Join DSDHA
We are currently looking for talented and experienced individuals to join our studio. Positions are available with the opportunity to work on a range of exciting new architectural and public realm projects.For more information please see the recruitment section at the bottom of the Contacts page, or click here.Share: -
23.09.2014
HAB Housing Wins CPRE Award
DSDHA's HAB Oakus housing project in Cashes Green has been given a CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) Award by its Gloucestershire Branch in recognition of the project's outstanding contribution to the environment and to the communities in the local area.We weren't just interested in somewhere to live, but a place where the community would work together. We used to have it when we grew up, wanted it back again and Applewood has it. That sense of community. The individual bits - the houses, the allotments, the green space - all add up to something bigger than the parts. We're lucky to have the best of everything here - between the countryside and the vibrant, creative stuff going on in Stroud.- Sarah, Crockett & Rob, working couple and student son, Applewood - StroudVisit the HAB Oakus Applewood website here to find out more.Share: -
09.09.2014
Further Award and Nominations for Alex Monroe Studio
DSDHA's Alex Monroe Studio has received the International Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design. In addition, Alex Monroe Studio has been shortlisted for a Wood Excellence Award at the 2014 World Architecture Festival, as well as the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize 2014.Read more about the project here.Share: -
01.07.2014
Davenies School Site Webcam Goes Live!
A live webcam has been installed on site at Davenies School, where DSDHA's proposal for a new school building will begin construction shortly this summer, with completion envisioned in 2015.Share: -
10.06.2014
Camden Council Launches DSDHA's West End Public Realm Project
DSDHA's major urban design proposals for Camden’s 'West End Project – Transforming the Tottenham Court Road Area' have been launched.This hugely significant project completes the final part of a giant jigsaw puzzle to rejuvenate the West End. Camden wants to make central London streets safer and boost business ahead of the opening of a new Crossrail station in 2018.Share: -
10.06.2014
DSDHA's Covert House Photograph Takes Part in the RA Summer Show
DSDHA participates in its 9th RA Summer Show, this time showing Hélène Binet's photograph of the 'Covert House' The project lies hidden from view in Clapham Old Town, in the heart of a conservation area, just two miles from Parliament Square and London’s West End. Hélène Binet was invited to photograph its construction, recording the newly cast structure of what she termed the “concrete cottage”. Her images to capture the hybrid characteristics of both light and mass, of carved concrete forms, and of time passing, within a free-standing house which engages with nature with windows on all sides.See project page here.Share: -
10.06.2014
DSDHA@Venice 2014
DSDHA have been out in force in Venice for the Biennale to be participate in the international conference 'Perspectives', run by the Italian architectural magazine 'The Plan', and to see two of our projects, St Anne’s Colchester and Christ College Guildford, in an exhibition of nominations for the EU Mies van der Rohe European Prize for Architecture.Share: -
03.06.2014
David Hills to Speak at Block Magazine LFA Event
Monday 17 June 20146.00 - 8.00pmRIBA BookshopRoyal Institute of British Architects66 Portland PlaceLondon W1B 1ADAs part of the London Festival of Architecture, David Hills will be speaking at an event organised by Block Magazine, entitled 'Cities of Exchange: Exploring the New Urbanism and Landscapes of Commerce.'Read more about the event here.Share: -
02.05.2014
Kristien Ring to Visit DSDHA
We're excited to have Kristien Ring, Architect and Curator, visit the Practice on Monday the 12th May to talk to us about her new book 'Self Made City.'Kristien will also be talking to Parliament the on the 13th May about Collective Custom Build.Read more here.Tags: Self Made City Berlin DSDHA Studio Talks Unit 11 Kristien Ring Collective Custom Build ParliamentShare: -
29.04.2014
Unit 11 Launches HS2 Manifesto and Online Petition
DSDHA's students at The Cass School of Architecture, who are researching 'beautiful infrastructures' have launched their online Parliamentary Manifesto and Petition entitled: HS2, WE DEMAND BEAUTY. Check out their full manifesto here.Share: -
14.04.2014
David Hills Visits Mendrisio
In Mendrisio on Tuesday 15th of April? Join David Hills at the Architecture School as he lectures on DSDHA's creative processes.Share: -
01.04.2014
DSDHA Has Moved
DSDHA has moved to its new studio!Share: -
25.02.2014
Deborah Saunt Confirmed as Guest Speaker at Forthcoming RCA Architecture Research Symposium
Wednesday 5 March 201411.00am - 4.00pmDyson Lecture TheatreRoyal College of Art (Battersea Campus)DSDHA Director Deborah Saunt will be a guest speaker at the forthcoming Royal College of Art School of Architecture Research Symposium, entitled 'Out of Practice'.Deborah will introduce the PhD she recently completed as part of the RMIT Practice Research Programme. She will be discussing the role of the ‘PhD by Practice’ as a new paradigm in architectural research, in which a retrospective analysis of the researcher’s own past practice informs the intellectual and design agendas of the practising architect.Share: -
25.02.2014
DSDHA Marylebone Lane Proposal Wins Planning Permission
DSDHA have won planning for a residential development for 21 apartments on Marylebone Lane, Westminster.Design seeks to build on the qualities of the area whilst providing a contemporary, sustainable building that engages with the public realm, and embodies high quality design and craftsmanship.Read more about the project here.Share: -
14.02.2014
DSDHA's Valentine's Day Visit to Vesta House, East Village.
As part of the Studio's Out and About programme, the Practice visited Vesta House, DSDHA's London 2012 Olympic Village housing project, now in its legacy phase and occupied by tenants of what is now named East Village.The practice was accompanied on their visit by Tony O'Reilly of Get Living London, who provided a guided tour of the building's interior, from the generous atrium, to the two marketing apartments, as well as the communal roof garden.Read more about the project here.Share: -
06.02.2014
DSDHA Double Winner at Surface Design Awards 2014
At the Surface Design Award 2014 ceremony held today at the Business Design Centre in London, DSDHA's South Molton Street Building, and Alex Monroe Studio were double winners in the category Retail Exterior Surface.The judges said that they 'couldn't separate the two finalists', and both DSDHA projects were given the award.The Surface Design Awards are a part of the Surface Design Show, championing the innovation in building materials, facades systems, and construction techniques.Share: -
28.01.2014
Edward Simpson from DSDHA Takes Part in BSR Fine Arts Show 'Friday 13th'
DSDHA's Edward Simpson, holder of the Rome Prize in Architecture 2013-2014, recently took part in the British School at Rome's Fine Arts Show 'Friday 13th'.The show showcased the works of current residents including our very own Edward Simpson. His work in Rome considers housing projects built during the period 1895 - 1982, and specifically the form and detail of shared and circulation spaces that connect the home to the street. Central to these studies are the resident's individual experience of this journey and the spaces within which residents are able to socialise.Visit The British School at Rome website here.Or Edward's personal blog here.Share: -
28.01.2014
Mock Up Facade Assembled for Abell and Cleland
As works progress on site for DSDHA's Abell and Cleland buildings, a facade mock up was assembled to evaluate the quality of the materiality, facade system, and the finishing details. This is a critical part of the process to ensure that the visions set out in the original design intent are realised and protected.Share: -
17.01.2014
DSDHA Out and About: The Slip House
As part of the regular Friday Out and About organised by the practice, DSDHA recently visited the Slip House by Carl Turner Architects.Share: -
16.01.2014
DSDHA's Olympic Village Design Story on Beyond2012.
As part of the effort to champion the creative minds behind the success of the 2012 London Olympics, the Design Council created Beyond 2012, an online platform that documents and records the journeys and legacies of all the designers and architects involved with the Games.Read DSDHA's own Design Story here.Share: -
14.01.2014
Deborah Saunt One of Guardian's 10 Women in Architecture to Watch in 2014
DSDHA Director Deborah Saunt was one of Guardian's 'Ten Women in Architecture to Watch in 2014.' The online article forms part of the Guardian's Women in Leadership feature section.Read the article here.Share: -
09.01.2014
DSDHA Wins Stockwell Public Realm Competition
DSDHA has won a competition to redevelop the public realm around Stockwell centre, in South London.The proposal will seize the opportunity to create a dignified setting at the heart of Stockwell, to rebalance the public realm in favour of pedestrians and cyclists as much for traffic, and to consolidate the investment being made in the War Memorial Gardens.Read more about the project here.Tags: Stockwell public realmShare: -
06.01.2014
DSDHA's Alex Monroe Studio Featured in Detail
DSDHA's Alex Monroe Studio was featured in this month's Detail magazine. The building is one of eight case study projects profiled in this latest issue, all with an innovative use of timber construction. The building was Highly Commended in the Small Projects category at the recent Wood Award 2013, and has also been shortlisted for a Surface Design Award.View the online Detail article here.Share: -
03.12.2013
Artwork Proposed for Vauxhall Pleasure Garden Columns
A new design for artworks to be placed on top of the entrance columns at Vauxhall Pleasure Garden has been proposed.The columns, designed by DSDHA, has planning permission for two statues to be erected on top. The proposal, two silhouette figures by the Artist Paola Piglia, is out for public consultation.Share: -
26.11.2013
Alex Monroe Studio Receives Highly Commended Mention at Wood Awards 2013
DSDHA's Alex Monroe Studio received a Highly Commended mention in the Small Projects category at the 2013 Wood Awards, held on the 19th of November.The judges said 'this beautiful building [makes] amazing use of a very tight site', 'They particularly liked the satisfying pairing of high-end jewellery with a simple building.'View the RIBA Journal's special Wood Awards feature here.Share: -
25.11.2013
DSDHA Projects Shortlisted for Surface Awards 2014
DSDHA's Bosideng Store at South Molton Street, London, and Alex Monroe Studio at Snowsfields, London, are finalists in the Surface Awards 2014.South Molton Street is finalist in both the Commercial Exterior category, and the Retail Exterior Category.Alex Monroe Studio is also competing in the Retail Exterior Category.Visit the Surface Awards 2014 website here.Share: -
21.11.2013
DSDHA Celebrate Deborah Saunt's Completion of Practice Research PhD
This week DSDHA celebrate our Director Deborah Saunt's completion of her RMIT Practice Research PhD with the presentation of her work at the Practice Research Symposium in Barcelona.Share: -
19.11.2013
Link Primary School Proceeds to Tender
The designs for DSDHA's Link Primary School in Beddington has gone out to tender, with a view to secure a contractor and start construction on site in early 2014.DSDHA were first appointed in November 2010 to undertake a feasibility study for the future development of their co-educational special Primary School and Secondary School sites on Croydon Road in Beddington.
The vision for the Link Primary and Secondary Schools is that their premises should secure their future as leading centres of specialist expertise, outstanding practice and professional development within their field.
The redevelopment of the Primary School will be the first phase of a long-term strategy for the two schools.
Read more about the project here.Share: -
19.11.2013
DSDHA's Davenies School Wins Planning Consent
DSDHA's design for the extension to Davenies School for Boys in South Buckinghamshire has won planning consent. The proposal will provided much needed new teaching space that is embedded in the beautiful wooded natural surroundings on site.Read more about the project here.Share: -
12.11.2013
Edmund de Waal on BBC's Imagine...
DSDHA's long standing client and collaborator Edmund de Waal was the topic of the latest episode of 'Imagine...', the seminal BBC Arts TV programme. His new studio in South London, designed by DSDHA, was featured in the episode, now available on BBC iPlayer.Read more about Edmund de Waal's studio here.Share: -
09.11.2013
DSDHA to Work on Royal Albert Hall Public Realm Improvement
The Royal Albert Hall's South Steps was renamed the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Steps, the Queen herself attended the occasion to unveil a new commemorative inlayed stonework. This marks the beginning of a wider project to 'improve and revise the public space around the Royal Albert Hall'. Deborah, holder of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Fellowship in the Built Environment, will lead DSDHA in developing proposals to carry out this work.Read more here.Share: -
01.10.2013
Edward Simpson from DSDHA Wins 2013 British School in Rome Prize
DSDHA says good bye this week to our colleague Edward Simpson, who has won the British School in Rome Prize for 2013. Edward will be carrying out his research into Italian modernist housing based in Rome as part of a six month long sabbatical, concluding in a written thesis.Share: -
01.10.2013
DSDHA's John Zhang to Undertake Doctorate Studies at Royal College of Art
John Zhang from DSDHA has embarked on a 3 year doctorate programme at the Royal College of Art to pursue a PhD in Architecture, starting this October.Retaining his ongoing role at DSDHA, John's research will be focused on the identity of contemporary Chinese architecture and the future role of international practices in the changing professional paradigms in China.Share: -
02.08.2013
Royal Academy of Arts 2013
'Fitzrovia Composition Study II' is the 8th project by DSDHA to have been chosen for inclusion in the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition.
This year's submission - a series of fine, small-scaled timber study models – demonstrates our commitment to innovation. Each maquette explores an option for a new roof form designed to crown a locally-listed Victorian warehouse on Whitfield Place that is to be converted to affordable housing in Fitzrovia. The proposed dynamic skyline was developed in close collaboration with Camden's planning department to create an appropriate contemporary response to compliment the robust simplicity of the existing brickwork building.
This follows our successful entry in 2012 named 'Fitzrovia Study', a metal etched model of our proposed residential development on Charlotte Street, for Derwent London.
Visit the RA website here.Share: -
01.06.2013
Three London Projects Shortlisted for Major Awards
We are delighted that our South Molton Street Building has been shortlisted for the RIBA Awards, RICS Awards and the New London Awards.In addition Alex Monroe's Jewellery Studio, Snowsfields has also been shortlisted for an RIBA Award, along with our residential building for London 2012 Olympics - as part of the overall East Village masterplan submission.Meanwhile, our residential building for London 2012 Olympics has also been shortlisted for an RIBA Award - as part of the overall East Village masterplan submission.Share: -
28.05.2013
A Jewel Box
Alex Monroe's Southwark Jewellery Studio on Snowsfields is reviewed in Building Design:The building makes a picture of the world around it, drawing seamlessly irreconcilable parts into an artistically considered whole. In a London that grows ever more heterogeneous by the year, it is a strategy that carries continued relevance.Read the full review here.Share: -
23.05.2013
Crafting The City
DSDHA's crafted approach to scale and tectonics has revitalised South Molton Street...In a subtle duality, scale is suppressed from afar but expressed close up, an accomplished feat in DSDHA's first large urban building.- Felix Mara, Architects JournalRead the article on AJ Online here.Share: -
04.03.2013
DSDHA Studio Study Trip Rome, March 2013
As a design-led Practice, we value how much we can learn from the great architecture and public spaces of the past.With this in mind, the whole team at DSDHA have just spent a full 3 days on a study trip to Rome to sketch, explore and investigate works ranging from St.Peter's to the Villa D'Este, Sant' Ivo to The Pantheon, learning how to tell the difference between Borromini and Bernini, the Renaissance and the Baroque and much else besides!Tags: StudioShare: -
04.03.2013
DSDHA Lecture, Biel, Switzerland
Deborah Saunt has been invited to be present a lecture on the architecture and urban design work of the studio DSDHA in Biel, Switzerland.The lecture will focus on our recent projects for the Athletes' Village housing for the London 2012 Olympics, our new South Molton Street Building and the Alex Monroe Studio in the shadow of The Shard.Tags: Switzerland London OlympicsShare: -
31.12.2012
New Logo
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