Stage 1 concept sketch for the ‘The Thick of It’ by OMMX + Forms of Living + Sal Wilson.
Following many fantastic proposals, six teams have been shortlisted for the ‘Eco Home Pavilion’ competition organised by The Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects (WCCA) in partnership with the London Festival of Architecture.
Given the global context of the climate crisis (and acute national energy crisis), such a project has never been more apt. There were over eighty strong submissions from architects and students of architecture, engineers, landscape architects, designers and artists.
The six shortlisted teams all presented a bold vision with a practically resolvable solution for tackling the climate crisis in our domestic spaces. All coming with different expertise, the selected projects provide not only a prototype for the future of sustainable living, but also a successful concept for a temporary pavilion that will engage a public audience on the challenges that we face today.
The shortlisted teams are:
Andre Kong Studio with Ecovative, SD Structures, Westgreen Construction and Bill Wilson
Stage 1 concept sketch for ‘Homegrown’ by Andre Kong Studio with Ecovative, SD Structures, Westgreen Construction and Bill Wilson.
Established in 2016 by the Portuguese-born British architect Andre Sampaio Kong, the emerging design and architecture studio explores how material tradition, context and technological innovation can be unexpectedly combined to alter the way we develop fun and elegant solutions for sustainable buildings, objects and experiences.
Rich in concept, contrast and detail, they approach each project in an innovative way, as a direct response to exceed the expectations of each unique brief. Through a thorough process of iterative ideation that blurs the boundaries between design disciplines, they are committed to delight and inspire through design.
OMMX + Forms of Living + Sal Wilson
Stage 1 concept sketch ‘The Thick of It’ by OMMX + Forms of Living + Sal Wilson.
OMMX, Forms of Living and Sal Wilson are architects, teachers and writers who have come together to build on their shared experience of living and growing in the UK. OMMX are architects. They promote alternative approaches to building that aren’t just about how a neighbourhood looks and feels, but also who and what it stands for. Forms of Living is a design and research practice that explores the relationship between life and form as expressed in architecture, the city and the landscape. Sal Wilson is a technical design lecturer and tutor at the Bartlett School of Architecture and the Architectural Association. She is also co-founder of HEAL (Home Energy Action Lab) a community-based action group in Hackney that is focused on accelerating the fabric first low carbon retrofit of homes. She is a BREEAM and WELL Accredited Professional.
Rana Begum (Begum Studio), Webb Yates Engineers, The Stonemasonry Company
Stage 1 concept sketch ‘Eco Home Pavilion’ by Begum Studio, Webb Yates Engineers and The Stonemasonry Company.
A collaboration of industry leading and award winning individuals; joining together an artist, a craftsman, and an engineer, in a constellation of mutual curiosity and respect:
- Rana Begum, Artist, Begum Studio: A London-based artist who distils spatial and visual experience into ordered form. Through her refined language of Minimalist abstraction, she blurs the boundaries between sculpture, painting and architecture.
- Steve Webb, Director, Webb Yates Engineers: Co-founder of Webb Yates Engineers, Steve is passionate about combining imagination with technical rigour to create artful and inventive structural designs.
- Pierre Bidaud, Creative Director, The Stonemasonry Company: A stonemason for over 30 years, Pierre is a strong advocate for the pivoting of the stone industry and believes in a new generation of carbon neutral hybrid construction through the use of stone.
With a track record of working together to produce striking and innovative installations, the trio believe the world’s problems will be solved by multilateral understanding and cooperation.
Studio Biocene, in partnership with Price & Myers and B-MADE
Stage 1 concept sketch ‘Biocene House’ by Studio Biocene, in partnership with Price & Myers and B-MADE.
Co-founded by Architect Prof Marcos Cruz and biochemical engineer Dr Brenda Parker, Studio Biocene has an interdisciplinary approach to architectural design. Shaped by biotechnology, computation and data-driven technologies along with socio-cultural dynamics and participation, the practice and the wider research team at UCL Bio-ID enables new critical solutions that define a more sustainable vision of a future human habitat. Bio-integrated design focuses on novel solutions such as bioreceptivity, bioremediation, and biomineralisation of construction materials. Previous work was exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, London Design Festival, and their collaborative work was shortlisted for Beazley Designs of the Year. Structural Engineering of the Biocene House will be supervised by Tim Lucas, Partner of Price & Myers, who has a long track record in pioneering structurally innovative systems using digitally crafted manufacturing methods. Fabrication the Biocene House will be led by Peter Scully, Director of the Bartlett Manufacturing and Design Exchange (B-MADE), who has 25 years of experience delivering complex and ambitious projects for the public and private realm.
THISS Studio with Format, Scotscape and Millimetre
Stage 1 concept sketch ‘Breathing Room’ by THISS_Studio.
THISS Studio is an interdisciplinary architecture and design studio founded by Tamsin Hanke and Sash Scott.
They strive to develop unique and exciting projects that consider the ecology of craft and technology in their making. Their interdisciplinary practice sits within the realms of architecture, sculpture and landscape where we use each project to explore our evolving relationship to a wider contextual hinterland. By using carefully selected materials and low-impact methodologies, they enjoy making and testing ideas that challenge our material presence in the world.
Alongside the assembled team of Format Engineers, Scotscape landscape specialists and Millimetre designers and makers, they are a pioneering group with a proven track record of delivering some of the UK’s most ambitious projects in the creative realm.
Thomas Randall-Page and Lucas Facer with support from Smith Mordak, Barbara Jones, New Architecture Writers, Phineas Harper and Buro Happold
Stage 1 concept sketch ‘Straw in the Wind’ by Thomas Randall-Page and Lucas Facer with support from Smith Mordak, Barbara Jones, New Architecture Writers, Phineas Harper and Buro Happold.
The team behind ‘Straw in the Wind’ bring together a huge range of skills and expertise not only from the fields of architecture and design but also those of structural engineering and sustainability, natural and carbon negative construction, cultural curation, critical writing, education and events. Thomas Randall-Page 2022 finalist in The Architectural Review for the Emerging Architect Award; Architect and set builder Lucas Facer formerly of Haworth Tomkins; Smith Mordak director of sustainability and physics at Buro Happold; straw-building expert Barbara Jones Founder of the School of Natural Building; Phin Harper chief executive of Open City and founder of New Architecture Writers. Central to our proposal’s content is New Architecture Writers, a free program focusing on people of colour who are under-represented in design and urban discourse.
The judging panel for round 1 consisted of:
- Anna Beckett (Associate Director, Symmetrys)
- Chris Dyson (Master, WCCA; Principal Architect of Chris Dyson Architects)
- Gonzalo Herrero Delicado (Director, EcoCity Summit)
- Nigel Ostime (WCCA; Delivery Director Hawkins\Brown)
- Rosa Rogina (Director, London Festival of Architecture) – Chair
‘’ We were bowled over by the number and quality of the submissions from a diverse range of practices, designs and feasible methods of installation. It has been a real pleasure honour and a challenge to bring the shortlist to these 6 entries and we look forward to the next stage of the competition and realising the project. Now more than ever there is an urgency to tackle climate change and this pavilion has the potential to demonstrate how that can be done for everyone. ‘’ ~ Chris Dyson
At the next stage, up to three additional panel members will be appointed to judge the final submissions, in which the shortlisted teams develop their overall design concept and approach, as well as quantify costs. A winning team will be confirmed in February 2023 and, subject to additional fundraising, will be given the opportunity to build the ‘Eco Home Pavilion’, which will be installed on a temporary basis in the City of London during the summer of 2023.
