Mikhail Riches

Last month we had the pleasure of celebrating 10 years of TOWN. and their track record on purpose-led and high quality sustainable developments. We are proud to have worked with TOWN and Mole Architects on Love Wolverton – a mixed-use urban regeneration of Wolvertown town centre in collaboration with Milton Keynes City Council and Willmott Dixon. The regeneration project will move into full construction in 2025, with completion anticipated in 2027. Once finished, the scheme will deliver 115 homes, eight shops and the Still Green cohousing community. We look forward to seeing what TOWN accomplish over next 10 years and you can read more about their journey at https://lnkd.in/eVB4bxHm

In November, we attended the unveiling of London Legacy Development Corporation's new handbook, 'Creating Places that work for Women and Girls'. LLDC has been practicing gender-informed urban design and planning since 2021. The knowledge and good practice have been compiled into a handbook providing practical steps that urban planners, developers, architects, and other stakeholders can take to ensure a gender-informed approach is applied in the planning, design and decision-making process, from the inception of any project through to delivery and long-term management. We will be exercising our consolidated knowledge of gender-informed urban design and planning over a large number of up-and-coming projects.

Last week, we attended the Pollard Thomas Edwards 'Happy Homes' launch. Happy Homes communicates what residents experience as positive in the design of their homes, with information from architects and multidisciplinary teams, and translates the information into a usable form. We look forward to seeing the next stage of the project, the Happy Homes ‘toolkit’, which aims to help design teams to embed ‘social value’ into their designs at the earliest stage. Image credits: Pollard Thomas Edwards #happyhomes #socialvalue

Dinah Bornat's work on child-focused design absolutely accords with our own, and so its a privilege to be working with you again Dinah Bornat

This month, Annalie Riches participated in the Design Council Homes Taskforce roundtable on urban regeneration and renewal at Park Hill, Sheffield. The roundtable was part of a series of engagements hosted by the Design Council Homes Taskforce to support Government to create a housebuilding programme which leads to well designed, sustainable homes and places. Brilliant policy ideas were shared with the Design Council which will be developed with Government and other partners. We look forward to seeing the new policy report in the new year. Thanks to Phineas Harper FRIBA Harper for organising the event. Image credits: Design Council and Sonny Malhotra

It was great to take part in The Architecture Foundation's 2024 Housing Summer School at Caruso St John's St Pancras Campus, London. The focus of the Summer School was to develop new housing solutions for Camden, London. The Summer School consisted of collaborative studios between students, practitioners, and leading architects from London and Europe. The studios explored an adjacent site through collective model making and cross-studio dialogues. Annalie Riches was part of the discussion and delighted to engage and inspire alongside other guest lecturers and tutors of the Architecture Foundation: Adam Khan, Astrid Smitham, Florian Summa, and Dirk Somers. Image credits: Architecture Foundation.

Last week, our collaborators ZCD Architects launched their Family Voices Toolkit with the support of the Van Leer Foundation. Family Voices is a simple toolkit designed to help involve parents and carers with children aged 5 and under in the planning, design and management of family housing. The toolkit is a free-to-download resource, offering the chance to engage with a crucial group of people whose family needs are easily ignored when it comes to planning for housing. https://lnkd.in/eub6vu6i ZCD ARCHITECTS LTD | Van Leer Foundation | Photographer: Tim Crocker

Having admired the work of David Mikhail and team for many years, bidding together and falling just short, how apt and special that our first collaboration will be in our home city for Manchester City Council This City. Running start led by Kevin Redhead Sophie Parker-Loftus 😊👍🏻

NEWS: We're happy to announce that we've been selected to work with Mace and This City to deliver 1,000 homes in Manchester. Partnering with Mace, Planit, Buro Happold and ZCD Architects, the projects includes a 700-home masterplan for Monsall in North Manchester, a further 150 homes in Grey Mare Lane in East Manchester and another 150 at Hyde Road close to the National Speedway Stadium. A fifth of the 1,000 proposed homes will be capped at the Manchester Living Rent. Mikhail Riches director David Mikhail shared that "Manchester has long been a city that does things differently and we are delighted to have been chosen for such an exciting project. The council is planning to deliver their homes at speed, focusing on low energy bills for their residents while making high-quality new neighbourhoods" The market and affordable housing delivered through This City will contribute to Manchester City Council’s wider housing strategy to build at least 36,000 homes by 2032. This vision includes 10,000 ‘genuinely affordable’, council and social homes – of which at least 3,000 will be in the city centre. Mace | Manchester City Council | Planit | Deloitte | Buro Happold | ZCD ARCHITECTS LTD

Our Favourites this month is.... Property Developments We're sharing our favourite property developments from other studios, showcasing innovative designs and creative urban solutions. Josh - The Gouse by Marta Nowicka - A private sanctuary on a small plot, balancing privacy and natural light beautifully. Image credit: Voytek Ketz. Elena - Sidney Close by ZCD ARCHITECTS LTD - A stunning example of affordable, community-focused design. Image credit: ZCD Architects. Alan - 15A Clerkenwell Close by Amin Taha + GROUPWORK - An architectural marvel in load-bearing stone with minimal carbon footprint. Image credit: Alan MacDonald. Paul - Idlewild Mews by vPPR Architects - A medium-density development that balances privacy and space with thoughtful design, offering affordable homes in Croydon. Image credit: Will Scott and vPPR. Zoe - Goldsmith Street by Mikhail Riches - Passivhaus homes with optimized energy efficiency and community-friendly design. Image credit: Tim Crocker and Mikhail Riches. ------------------- If you want to find out more about these perfect Property Developments, then check out the blog post on our website. Link in the comments. #UrbanDevelopment #PropertyInnovation #SustainableHousing #AffordableHousing #ZeroCarbonLiving #BacklandDevelopment #EcoFriendlyBuilding #AdaptiveReuse #FutureOfHousing #DesignForCommunity #PropertyInvesting #SustainableUrbanDesign #GreenDevelopments #UrbanLivingSpaces #ModernProperty