Daniel Mahony

Imagine this: a concrete superstructure poured in seven parts, across two floors each stepped in five places, with 150 service penetrations per floor and 60 different upstand details, supporting 47 mixed-tenure timber-frame houses with 47 podium gardens and 70 podium parking spaces… When I joined Studio Egret West in 2016, I quickly realised that the Studio’s commitment to pushing boundaries in the pursuit of quality placemaking and progressive thought were not empty words.

That first phase of housing at Erith gave me the opportunity, as project lead, to develop and test the construction principles of a unique ‘groundscraper’ typology, ensuring a car-free public realm across the Erith Quarry masterplan – itself a brave commitment to the remediation of a steeply sloped infill site and an example of our landscape-led design approach. At the Mayfield Depot in Manchester, our early activation of the previously underused, undervalued, and deteriorating Gatehouse showed how, through close client collaboration, ‘meanwhile’ can become ‘worthwhile’, and how the Studio’s speed of thought and process can be of benefit at the earliest stages of placemaking and regeneration. And at the Plus X innovation hub in Brighton, I had the opportunity to work on a commercial building at the forefront of design, one of the first in the country to achieve the combination of BREEAM ‘Excellent’, Wired ‘Platinum’, and WELL ‘Platinum’. At SEW we are always learning.

Studio Egret West and I are also deeply committed to 'Design for Manufacture & Assembly' (DfMA) and modular systems. By incorporating DfMA principles, we can streamline construction processes, enhance quality control, and reduce waste, all while maintaining our high standards for innovative and sustainable design. This approach and innovations in manufacturing will continue to be integral to our design considerations, allowing us to deliver complex builds with efficiency and precision. Modular systems, in particular, enable us to create flexible, scalable, and adaptable spaces that meet diverse project needs, further supporting our mission to create people-first places.

It’s this constant drive to know more, and the Studio’s emphasis on collaboration, that I enjoy the most. I believe in honest, clear communication as we work together with our clients to maximise opportunity and create people-first places, increasingly with a sustainable agenda at their heart.