May 28, 2020

SEW joins LHC/Southwark Architect Design Services Framework

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Plans submitted for the revitalisation of Digbeth

We have been appointed to two lots on Southwark Council's ground-breaking new £10.5 million architectural services framework, selected for the Masterplanning and Feasibility category as well as Conservation and Heritage.

Southwark Council's Architect Design Services (ADS) framework – administered by framework procurement specialist LHC and accessible to any contracting authority in London – will be used to procure approximately £10.5 million-worth of Southwark’s design services every year to 2025.

We're looking forward to having the opportunity to work on schemes arising from the framework, with our multi-disciplinary way of working and extensive track record of designing high quality places helping to support Southwark in meeting their Fairer Futures Commitments. Authored in 2018, these commitments centre around 8 themes and aspire 'to create a fairer place to live where all residents have the opportunity to fulfil their potential.'

At Studio Egret West, we will actively seek to support these 8 themes in the following ways:

A place to call home
Densifying land enables us to build more homes for all, and our response to this is to ensure that higher density living is balanced with a higher density of community assets. As masterplanners SEW are at the forefront of place creation and are well placed to talk to communities and explore their needs in any new neighbourhoods.

When we increase density, it’s fundamental we maintain the highest standard of homes, so we craft efficient floorplates that not only provide more homes but maximise daylight and provide well-organized layouts that are as energy efficient as possible. Furthermore, we integrate a sense of community through careful consideration of public realm, entrance lobbies, communal spaces and amenity spaces, including roof gardens and allotments.

Birch House

A place to belong
The future of urban living rests on the creation of flexible and resilient neighbourhoods that are committed to mixing uses more profoundly than the current emphasis on residential development allows. We’re always investigating how projects can positively affect the environment in which they sit, working to discover ways of including ingredients in developments that are needed by the community, and finding design solutions for light industry, fabrication spaces, homes, schools and retail to cohabit. Enabling living and working environments to be intrinsically linked must be designed from the outset, both with new framework planning projects and the regeneration of existing places.

Clapham One

A Greener borough
We are committed to forwarding the growth of the circular economy, a consideration which is embedded into our designs, construction, use and end of use lifecycle of our buildings and places. Through the use of innovative and modern methods of construction, we strive constantly to reduce waste, reduce carbon emissions while increasing speed and safety on-site.

Enriching increasingly dense and complex mixed-use urban developments with ecology enables the careful balance required for urban living. Reintroducing nature to the city as a priority takes many different guises in our practice.

A full employment borough
SEW have a Social Value policy that supports employment and education within each borough that we work with the aim of empowering the broadest possible range of people to find work. SEW have a longstanding programme of paid work placements and longer term employment for residents of the boroughs in which we work.

Caxton Works

A great start in life
Play is a vital part of growing up, helping children learn about their environment, relate to others and to keep active and healthy. With all our projects, we design ‘playable’ spaces, whether more formal play spaces such as playgrounds, or more informal places where imagination becomes vividly engaged. We carefully design these to be safe, encouraging material use that is less prone to vandalism as well as podium play which benefits from natural surveillance and the added security of access control to buildings.

A healthier life
Densifying land with well-designed schemes reduces urban sprawl, and by facilitating mixed use we reduce car dependency. Furthermore, we adopt TfL’s Healthy Streets approach across all of our design work, which includes, amongst many principles, design provision of considered public realm and communal spaces in buildings, regardless of sector.

Bromley Town Centre

A safer community
We want to empower people; by doing so, we can establish a sense of belonging and comradery, which can assist to providing a safer community through increasing a sense of ownership and pride in the built environment. To do this, its integral we create a meaningful forum in which to hear the voices of local community groups and individuals; allows new development to be understood and influenced by existing residents, giving local communities a feeling of ownership of their projects through detailed and iterative consultation events, meetings and exhibitions.

A vibrant Southwark
In all of our design work, we seek to establish solutions that embrace and promote a places individuality. By telling and visually interpreting stories through the places we create, we crafting a rich story about the streets, buildings and spaces that people live within allows the architecture to become part of each person’s own story. This creates characterful places for vibrant communities.

The Old Vinyl Factory

The borough of Southwark has about 285,000 residents and covers large areas of post-industrial and suburban inner London. It has one of the highest proportions of social housing in the country and more than 40 per cent of the borough has been earmarked as a regeneration zone, including parts of Elephant and Castle and Old Kent Road, which are expected to receive up to £4 billion-worth of investment in a range of developer-led schemes.

At least 50 new jobs – including infills, rooftop schemes and large sites suitable for new estates – could be brought forward by Southwark Council over the next two years. The inner London local authority has pledged to deliver 11,000 new environmentally friendly council homes by 2043.