ZCD ARCHITECTS LTD

Happy Holidays to all from everyone at ZCD Architects! 🎄 It's been a great year for us, and we look forward to starting the new one with many great things, including our All to Play For book coming out in February. See you in the new year!

All to Play For 📚 Chapter 5 and the final post of the week. Similar to Chapter 4, but focusing on high density developments. Again case studies are from the UK and abroad, this example heat map is from Kings Crescent in Hackney by Karakusevic Carson Architects and Henley Halebrown. The challenge in high density schemes is how to make doorstep play work, the examples, all perimeter blocks, deal with parking in different ways, some buried, some at ground floor with podium courtyards and some with parking on the street. Some work better than others, again each includes a resident interview. And there we have it, the five chapters of the book, ready for you in the New Year. In the meantime, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and enjoy your festive breaks! Karakusevic Carson Architects Henley Halebrown London Borough of Hackney Kathy MacEwen Image Credits: ZCD Architects https://lnkd.in/e9HvyiMs

All to Play For 📚 Chapter 4 is the first of two chapters of case studies. By applying the heat map system from Chapter 2, alongside conventional site analysis, a pattern emerges about how to design child friendly low and medium density developments. But it is also about measuring site efficiencies, showing how to maximise open spaces and minimise space for vehicles, it becomes a win-win for play, ecology and sustainable transport objectives. The case studies are drawn from the UK and abroad, each one with a resident interview to give us the full picture of what its like to live there. Excerpts from this chapter were featured in a ‘Blueprints for Change’ article in Architects Journal earlier this year. https://lnkd.in/ejP2JkkP Architects’ Journal Peabody Image Credits: Madeleine Waller https://lnkd.in/e9HvyiMs

2024. It’s been a ride. 💟 Unanimous planning consent for two significant London schemes. 4.7 acres of best-in-class, ultra-urban, industrial & logistics in Bow. And 130,000 sqft of community-led PBSA in Elephant & Castle. Two very different projects, united by close engagement with the local community and world-class consultant teams. 🌳 Final works completed at the Atelier Gardens impact campus in Berlin. The central garden fully planted, a roster of new awards for HAUS 1, and the campus continuing to be the progressive event location of choice. Our biggest highlights – the Polyton Music Awards and The Nature of Cities Festival. 🍾 The Bottle Factory officially launched, with a community of makers, creatives and urban industry stalwarts in full swing. Gin distilling, coffee roasting, design showrooms and studios for start-ups, alongside pop-up exhibitions, fashion shows, shoots and flea markets. 🏢 Design-led retrofits and new leasings across our Soho portfolio at Rathbone Street, Newman Street and D’Arblay Street. 💬The privilege of working alongside our community and charity partners: helping out at the amazing #WalworthGoldenOldies' weekly lunch; getting crafty with Inspire Walworth's youth and craft clubs in Elephant & Castle; plotting a game-changing new Community Kitchen with Pembroke House and Circular Economy Hub with Hackney Wick & Fish Island Community Development Trust; cartwheeling and friendship-bracelet making at BROMLEY BY BOW COMMUNITY ORGANISATION LIMITED's holiday sports camps; and celebrating Bromley-by-Bow FC holding their league and cup titles for another impressive year! Huge thanks to each and every one of you who’s been on the journey with us this year. Especially the incredible Fabrix team 🫶. Lots more to come in 2025, with 1 million sq ft of new projects commencing, and some seriously exciting announcements that we can’t wait to share. Watch this space 👀 Howells I Haworth Tompkins I Harris Bugg Studio I MVRDV I White Red I HS-ARCHITEKTEN PartGmbB I Gardiner & Theobald LLP I Arup I Gerald Eve I Quod I Knight Frank I BH2 I Elliott Wood I Heyne Tillett Steel I Turner & Townsend alinea I Ikon I Whitepaper I HBS Construct I Thames Distillers Ltd I Hej Coffee I Drees & Sommer I CHP I PATRIZIA SE I eb7 ltd I Van Leer Foundation I ZCD ARCHITECTS LTD I USP London I Levy Real Estate I Eastdil Secured I Savills I Town Legal LLP [more below in comments] #2024RoundUp #Impact #RealEstate #Repurpose #AtelierGardens #Awards #Community #TheBottleFactory #MakeGoodThingsHappen

All to Play For 📚 Chapter 3 is all about engagement with children and young people. As you know we take engagement seriously, so this chapter is about our work in practice and how we do it. It also looks at a couple of case studies from Sweden. Over the last ten years we have developed creative techniques and processes to make sure that what we, our clients and design colleagues hear at sessions really makes its way into housing design. Engagement is a really key piece of the jigsaw puzzle for designing child friendly housing and we think it should be essential for every development. The Earls Court Development Company Van Leer Foundation https://lnkd.in/eA6ytEJt Image Credits: ZCD Architects

All to Play For 📚 Chapter 2 delves into our research over the last 10 years, showing how observational research underpins our heat mapping system, at ZCD Architects. It is an accurate predictor for what works and what doesn’t work for play and social use. We also look at a couple of 20th century schemes and hear from residents about what its like to live there. One is the brilliant Highgate New Town by Peter Tábori, in a piece written for the book by Rachel Stevenson and Jo McCafferty. https://lnkd.in/e9HvyiMs #alltoplayfor Levitt Bernstein Image Credits: Rachel Stevenson

All to Play For 📚 There are five chapters in the book #alltoplayfor, with some strong graphics. So we thought we’d post one chapter per day this week, to give you a taste. In chapter one we explore the history of a streets based approach to urbanism and look back at housing in the UK, alongside emerging radical landscape architecture in the post war period. In reading through lessons from the past, we pick up on ideas about childhood within urbanism, instilling some observations from the likes of Jane Jacobs, Bill Hillier and Jan Gehl. Within their work lie some key points that relate to children, overlooking, doorstep play, the exploring of space through movement and of course the car, missing from this photograph and the single greatest reason for the end of street play. Image Credit: Homer Sykes https://lnkd.in/eA6ytEJt

There are five chapters in the book #alltoplayfor, with some strong graphics (thanks RIBA Publishing, we love them). So I thought I'd post one chapter per day this week, to give you a taste. In chapter one I explore the history of a streets based approach to urbanism and look back at housing in the UK, alongside emerging radical landscape architecture in the post war period. In reading through lessons from the past, I pick up on ideas about childhood within urbanism, instilling some observations from the likes of Jane Jacobs, Bill Hillier and Jan Gehl. Within their work lie some key points that relate to children, overlooking, doorstep play, the exploring of space through movement and of course the car, missing from this photograph and the single greatest reason for the end of street play. Image Credit: Homer Sykes https://lnkd.in/eA6ytEJt

And to end the year, here it is at last! All to Play for is a book about housing design. It is a book that captures 10 years of research and practice into child friendly design, including 10 case studies from the UK and abroad. It tries to make sense of housing layouts, what works and what doesn’t from a child’s perspective, but also for other people, and importantly how this might intersect with residents’ own experiences. We are absolutely convinced that if we are going to get housing design right, then we need to think just beyond the adult perspective. This book sets out a case for why and how. The evidence it includes is the bedrock of our practices’ work, and is something we are confident works. The book is available to pre-order now from the RIBA, with first copies arriving soon. https://lnkd.in/eA6ytEJt

There is a lovely piece in The Developer and Festival of Place about our Family Voices Toolkit. Now that it has launched I'm excited for next year and where the work might lead us. To start with, I think there is huge opportunity to bring in conversations about housing need to the debate about the 1.5 million homes we are being asked (I hope we are being asked?) to design and build. A combination of rigorous research and listening to a broad and inclusive range of local people should be central to understanding planning need. This should be part and parcel of good community engagement, not just ticking boxes for planning consent. There are groups out there who support parents and carers of young children, (newsflash it's a challenging time in people's lives) they know first hand the horrors of poor housing and even homelessness. There are developers and design teams who want to do better and local authorities too. This toolkit supports the bringing together of these groups to hear the voices of parents and carers, in settings where they feel comfortable enough to tell you what you need to hear. More on the way next week, as we gear up for the publication of the book All to Play for. For now, have a quick read, and feel free to dip into the toolkit, or even download it if you fancy. Enjoy