Hannah Marshall

In her latest comment piece, Eleanor Jolliffe reflects on the themes shaping her practice as she prepares for the year ahead. Drawing from her growing collection of architecture books and her recent experiences in conservation work, Eleanor highlights the increasing importance of reuse, education, and a repair-led approach in the profession. Eleanor notes the growing focus on retrofit and refurbishment in light of carbon-cost pressures. Her recent completion of the RIBA Advanced Conservation Course and her ongoing journey toward Conservation Architect accreditation have deepened her appreciation for the slower, scholarly discipline required in this area. She observes: “Carbon cost-focused development is already increasing calls for more retrofit and refurbishment; a more restorative, repair-led approach seems likely to become an essential part of any architect’s professional toolkit.” Eleanor is also set to attend The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings’ Repair of Old Buildings course in 2025, which she describes as an opportunity to learn “by hand” from craftspeople practising traditional repair techniques daily. This hands-on approach, she argues, could address the increasing gap between architects and the process of building. Eleanor also looks ahead to Farshid Moussavi’s curation of the RA's Summer Exhibition in 2025. For the first time, architecture will be integrated into the broader art exhibition rather than confined to its own space. While intrigued by the concept, Eleanor expresses concern about the ongoing “fetishisation of architectural images” and its potential to distance architects from the craft of building. As she looks ahead to the challenges and opportunities of 2025, Eleanor anticipates a continued focus on reuse, skill development, and education across the profession. Her insights encourage architects to embrace these themes to adapt to a changing built environment. https://lnkd.in/eKp_3sjS #architecture

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Amidst global concerns of exceeding the Earth’s capacity, upcycling has gained prominence as a solution, driven by conscious consumption and the circular economy’s principles. Upcycling helps reduce the amount of waste that would have made it to the landfills and repurposes items that would have been discarded, giving them a second life without degradation. It facilitates two out of the three Rs of recycling: REDUCE and REUSE.

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Decolonising Play, Strategy 4-Understand Play needs and Environments 🌲 role in cultivating play 1 way to-Co-design with children and the environment throughout the design ✏ and building process ⚒ A few weeks ago we released our co-designing with children reflective guide. Its less of a toolkit and more of a reflective practise that can help you to understand the many wonders and considerations to account for when co-designing with children. The document attached provides a preview, you can download the full 20 page guide (yes i said 20 pages) via the link below. https://lnkd.in/dAmZ4Ci3 As a social enterprise, our methods are pretty key to us getting the work we need sustain our business/impact buuuuuut if we all don't share knowledge we hold, we become stagnant and inequalities persist. So we decided to share these guidelines publicly and for free 😀 'As co-design continues to gain more traction, I look forward to a time when equity, love and brotherhood prevails and co-design will cease to exist…instead it will just be called design' pg 16 Please feel free to use it, share them and take them to really reflect on how the 7 concepts can impact your work. Of course, please reach out to me if you would like to collaborate to co-design a more equitable and playful future 😁 #knowledgetransfer #codesign #play #equity #inclusion #plurality #socialimpact Christopher Martin Krystina Castella Jessica Oddy PhD. Centering Equity in Design for Social Impact Camilla Siggaard AndersenCamille Kramer-Courbariaux

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How do you convey the impact of extraction on biodiversity in a way that really hits home? That’s what UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) were keen to explore. They’ve done some amazing work on Embodied Ecological Impact but sharing a report wasn’t high on their agenda for the Leaders Network event with 50+ c-suite business leaders. We wanted to be bolder. So, what did we do? Well, working with artist, activist and talented musician Ian Bruce (former front man of The Correspondents and member of the HardArt collective) we started to examine the link between the powerful human sense of grief with that of biodiversity loss. This kicked off a conversation about how an individual story of loss can sometimes help us connect with the bigger picture. Research led us to the complex story of Lough Neagh and the campaign by Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland. It was a location far closer to home than we imagined. As ever, it’s not one place, one supply chain, one material that’s the problem. But we need to be better aware of our impact on nature and that goes far beyond the site of a specific building. UKGBC have set out a mitigation hierarchy to reduce the need for extraction, this coupled with improved supply chain transparency and embracing emerging science based frameworks will go some way to putting nature on the agenda for the built environment. You can read more about the project here: https://lnkd.in/e4gX35fX This project stemmed from a convo with Julie Hirigoyen, Kai Liebetanz, Hannah Giddings and myself. With bags of support from Smith Mordak, Elfrida Hamilton-Russell, Simon McWhirter who encouraged us to push boundaries yet keep our message high-level. Hopefully it hits home. Thanks to Kiran Pereira, Tommy Greene, Christopher Hackney, james orr and local resident Mary McGuiggan who gave insight into Lough Neagh and the global story of extraction. And to Shruti, Hadar and Scarlet for helping to deliver this mad event. SEE FULL VERSION HERE with insight from Kiran Pereira, author of Sand Stories: https://lnkd.in/eQQY3aFu #eei #embodiedecologicalimact #nature #biodiversity #builtenvironment

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Still basking in the bliss of #ClimateWayfinding with the The All We Can Save Project… I’m now headed to the Regenesis Institute for Regenerative Practice for an intensive in #RegenerativeChange… one of the many joys in being apart of these cohorts is connecting with a wide range of people all working to transform our future. This work is hard and we can’t do it alone. Both of these groups have also emphasized the importance of humans relationships in building our capacity to change. https://lnkd.in/gWDriU-7

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Today is #circularmonday. Here's what I did: 1. Unsubscribed from all emails advertising their "black Friday/week/month". 2. Took the survey on ClimateHero's carbon footprint. 3. Based on the survey result, I pledged to a 0.6 ton CO2 offset per month in a project that meets the gold standard of renewables. (It's 120 kr/month for me, and it offsets 200% of my impact.) 4. To compensate for the 120 kr/month I canceled a streaming service. (Perhaps that also negates a bit of my data center energy and water footprint, which I think should be part of the survey.) Read more about the campaign here: www.circularmonday.com And take the survey you too!

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Exploring “Leaky Practices” at Dutch Design Week with ‘The Leaky Bodies Archives’ Yesterday at Dutch Design Week, our collective BLOB, in collaboration with the researchcentre WhatArtKnows, presented an artistic experiment titled ‘The Leaky Bodies Archives’. This project emerged from a desire to rethink how we perceive our bodies—not as isolated entities but as porous intersections between self and environment. In our society, there’s often an emphasis on maintaining boundaries: “know your limits” or “protect your space.” While boundaries are essential, we risk ignoring the subtle ways in which our bodies “leak” into their surroundings and vice versa. Through our project, we aimed to document these “leaky practices” and cultivate a deeper understanding and enhance articulation of how our bodies engage with the world around us. Visitors at our installations were invited to challenge their perceptions of physical boundaries. Interactive experiences like Leaky Savours explored the idea of taking in the external world through something as simple as drinking substances with known effects on the body—showing how everyday acts contribute to our constant exchange with our environment. This project has reminded us of the importance of embracing these subtleties and finding new, expansive ways to relate to ourselves and the world. In collaboration with WhatArtKnows, we’re continuing to explore and document these hidden interactions in an evolving archive. Have you ever felt that your body is not a closed entity, but in constant interaction with your surroundings? 💭 Share your reflections below! #DutchDesignWeek #ArtAndDesign #LeakyBodies #BodyAndIdentity #InteractiveArt #DesignThinking #WhatArtKnows #BLOBCollective #ArtisticExploration #Boundaries #ConnectedWorld #Innovation #ArtResearch #DDW2024

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At a recent exhibition, I saw this piece awkwardly positioned in front of a pilaster. Due to its position in one of the gallery’s transitional spaces, this sculpture could have been easily missed or overlooked. I remember being caught off guard and was immediately struck by its power and energy despite its less-than-ideal setting. Because the space was uncomfortable, I snapped a quick photo so I could spend more time studying it later. Personally, I find this work incredibly powerful in its simplicity. It quickly became one of my most admired works that this well-known artist has ever produced. Five found objects. A bent green steel pipe that emerges from a field stone base. A manipulated car part, painted white, is mounted at the bend of the pipe. The white car part is capped with a what appears to be a piece of an industrial rake and accented with a single black sphere. Perfectly and asymmetrically balanced, yet clearly anthropomorphic. I have had the privilege of studying hundreds of works by the renowned 20th century artist Joan Miró. I have written about Miró’s work before and find that it still holds great gravity today. He seems to have struck a timeless chord, which he would likely describe as the primitive spiritual origins of art itself. Miró was a prolific artist, producing over 2,000 painting, 400 ceramics, 5,000 drawings, 1,000 lithographs and 500 sculptures. Although one senses themes and common threads that weave through this body of work, it is still difficult to fully comprehend his life’s work. Most major exhibitions have, at most, a handful of his sculptural works, and these works are usually over-powered by his paintings, drawings or lithographs. For this reason, it seems that Miró’s sculptural works tend to draw less attention; yet sometimes it is these hidden gems that delight us the most.

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This is a great study demonstrating the benefits of cultural heritage on the creative economy. No one says it better than Jane Jacobs: “Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.” Thanks for sharing Adala Leeson! #culturalheritage

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Yesterday I read an article by Hamed Nilforoshan, Wenli Looi and Emma Pierson in "Nature" challenging a big assumption about cities and diversity. We’ve often thought that large, cosmopolitan cities naturally mix people from different backgrounds, but this research shows that might not be the case. Using mobile phone data from 1.6 billion interactions, the study found that larger cities like NYC or LA actually have 67% more socioeconomic segregation than smaller cities. Instead of bringing people together, big cities might offer more ways for people to self-segregate. One interesting takeaway: thoughtful urban design could counter this trend. The study suggests that central public hubs—like plazas or shopping centers—can bridge gaps if placed near diverse neighborhoods, encouraging interaction across socioeconomic lines. US elections showed that society today is probably polarized more than ever. With the polarizing effects of growing urban populations and social media, I feel like dealing with polarized society is becoming an added challenge for urban planning.

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Normally an architecture competition results in a design concept, but a project with the sensitivity and complexity of the British Museum’s Western Range requires a fundamentally different approach. This is why the Museum is running a competition to find a team, not a scheme. The Western Range encompasses more than a third of the Museum’s gallery space and houses some of the most significant displays in the collection. In total this is around 15,000 sq m of space in a group of ten buildings, each with unique physical conditions, and a complex set of challenges, not least the heritage significance of the built fabric itself. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the Museum to do something truly extraordinary and it’s been fascinating to work with Colander Associates Limited to devise a competition that provides a beginning to the process of reimagining our buildings, rather than a conclusion. When entry to Stage 1 of our competition closes on 21 June, we will begin the process of selecting a shortlist of five architect-led consultant teams that will complete a charette process and ITT through the second half of 2024. During this process we will assess which team best demonstrates both the design vision and practical ingenuity to work with the British Museum on an ongoing basis, to guide our approach over the life of the project. We’ll be awarding a contract during early 2025 and we look forward to introducing our selected team to the Museum’s network of staff, stakeholders and colleagues to begin this vital work. The British Museum’s Western Range masterplan has many years of consultation, collaboration and creativity in front of it before we’re able to bring forward design proposals. It’s fascinating to be part of the competition process that will help identify the team we will work with on this unique set of projects. You can access all the competition information here: https://lnkd.in/gmiWJhRH And download the documents from the Delta Portal here: https://lnkd.in/gPeWsWt5 The drawing below by George Scharf shows the original construction of the British Museum’s West Wing, 1828 © Trustees of the British Museum. Building the original quadrangle took decades, so an apt historic reference.

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This is great to see. Northern City regions however are so far from this it is really quite something. Especially given the stark contrast in quality that we see. I’m pretty confidently going to predict that not all boroughs have a design officer let alone host their own design review panels. In my view (and experience) areas of market stress and challenging conditions need more creative input not less. We need a step change (levelling up?!) in approach and investment in capacity/skills to at least give northern communities a chance of seeing better quality development.

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This is the opening of a piece I published last week in Placemaking Resource in the UK. It's about 'levelling up' and my worry an incoming Labour government won't be ambitious enough to really have a 'rebalancing' impact on the very spatially/economically divided UK. We need not to rob London BTW but enable 'Paul' (the regions) to grow again and be more productive. 'Spoiler alert! Take the children out of the room. I’m going to tell you the ending to Animal Farm. At the end, it was impossible to tell the difference between the pigs and people. I read that Labour accepts the term and much of the thinking behind Levelling Up. So I have this slight worry that we won’t be able to tell the difference between the two but this time with feeling and in a Northern accent - and thus Animal Farm is back on the agenda. This would be a little disappointing as Levelling Up 1(the Tory version) did not provide a serious analysis of what has caused spatial inequity as between the regions and London, a serious strategy for redressing the imbalance or serious resources to finance a proper programme of renewal'. Levelling Up 2 needs to do all that to be effective - and by 'serious resources' I mean have a look at what the unifying Germany invested in East German in its levelling up. The strategy needs real financial and policy oomph not a few more under-funded 'city challenge' type contests with town centre tarting-up at the sad core of the strategy. #britain #renewal #northsouth. BTW I talk a bit about strategic urban renewal in an upcoming Grimshaw Cities podcast with a practitioner of it at a high level, one Tom Riordan CBE, the CEO of Leeds City Council.

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🌿🌳 Demystifying Mindful Regeneration: Biodiversity Offsetting 🌴 Biodiversity Offsetting is a practice aimed at compensating for the impacts of development on biodiversity and habitats. By investing in habitat restoration, protection, or management, developers can achieve net positive outcomes for urban ecosystems and wildlife. But I confess that I have battled in my head about whether offsetting this is a good or bad thing… Examples of Biodiversity Offsetting initiatives include: 🦜 The Biodiversity Offsets Scheme in New South Wales, Australia, which requires developers to offset impacts on threatened species and habitats through land management or conservation actions. 🪲 The UK's Biodiversity Net Gain policy, mandating a minimum 10% net gain in biodiversity for new developments. 🦎 The Forest Protection Project in Cujubim, Brazil, enabling developers to purchase credits from approved habitat conservation projects to offset impacts. But is Biodiversity Offsetting always the right answer when it comes to urban redevelopment? 🌴 Ensuring premium grade Biodiverse areas are protected and enhanced for the future of the land and species within it. The greater mass being more enriching than several small areas. 🌲 There is a fear that Biodiversity Offsetting essentially “lets developers off the hook” from looking how to enrich their own developments and sites 🌳 There may be new opportunities for partnerships between developers, conservationists, and local communities in managing and protecting urban ecosystems. 🧩As with all these ideas, they may be a part of the puzzle for how we improve our schemes using Mindful Regeneration. 💡 Next up: Eco-literacy. We'll explore the importance of environmental education and awareness in promoting sustainable lifestyles, informed decision-making, and community engagement for urban regeneration. #BiodiversityOffsetting #MindfulRegeneration #NetPositiveImpacts #UrbanBiodiversity #HabitatRestoration #ConservationPlanning The Mindful Regenerist Lisa Fairmaner Alison Barnes FRSA FLI Emma Toovey Harley Pope Oliver Riley Pepper Barney FRSA FIPM Will Sandy FLI FRSA Mike Henderson Andy Chalmers Tristan W Robinson

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Goodbye to 2024 and one last published paper that tries to help to analyse the role of cultural heritage in brownfield redevelopment. 👉Title: A Metamodel-Based Scoping Tool for the Assessment of Cultural Significance in the Redevelopment of Brownfield Sites (STASH) 👉Thank you Sebastian Daniel Christer Gustafsson and Chris De Sousa for the great collaboration on this, and Cezar Morar for the Invitation to the NATO Workshop in Oradea. 👉Part of the Springer Nature Book Series NATO Science for Peace and Security Series Sub-Series C. Environmental Security 👉 The redevelopment of brownfield sites is a multi-layered and complex process in which a large number of various aspects and stakeholders interact with each other. 👉 If cultural heritage is viewed from a systemic perspective, it is often a vital component of such redevelopment processes. 👉The aim of this paper is to develop a prototype for a tool that can be used for screening and scoping brownfield sites to understand if and what kind of cultural heritage is relevant in a specific case. 👉Based on a metamodel for heritage-based urban development that reflects a holistic new heritage approach, the tool is developed using a Design Research Methodology (DRM) approach. 👉The tool can also be used to collect information, assess the role of cultural heritage in specific brownfield projects and support the related decision-making and prioritisation processes. Potential use cases are also briefly explained. Here you can find a free preprint version: https://lnkd.in/dna4QrKV #heritage #nato #brownfield #sdg #sustainability #urbandevelopment #icomos #undp Plácido González Martínez Dennis Rodwell Prosper Wanner 🤔 Roland Bernecker Zachary M. Jones Bénédicte Selfslagh Nils Scheffler Vanessa Ziegler Bernd Paulowitz Kurt Luger Dr Mechtild Rössler International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) UNDP Paula Cordeiro Friederike Hager Hakan Shearer Demir, PhD Melanie Piser Claus-Peter Echter Dr. Ege Yildirim Alessio RE Stefan Hartman Stefan van der Spek Rajdeep Routh, Ph.D. Dr. Sushobhan Majumdar Giulio Verdini Daniel Lückerath Aitziber Egusquiza Ortega Christa Reicher Rohit Jigyasu https://lnkd.in/dTezDtqk

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NEW RESEARCH: How can metro mayors transform England’s towns and cities? With 'brownfield first' at the top of the government's golden rules for planning, urban regeneration will be key to delivering the target of building 1.5 million new homes. Mayors have a wide array of powers to drive urban regeneration and can play a leading role. New Institute for Government research sets out lessons for how they can do this, drawing on case studies from across the country. Key findings include: 🏗️ Mayors should set a bold and persuasive vision that can bring stakeholders together and attract public and private investment. 🏗️ Regeneration isn't one size-fits-all and interventions should be designed to meet the needs of a local area. 🏗️ MDCs can turbocharge regeneration, bring benefits of legal powers, streamlined decision making and insulation from political cycles – but getting oversight and accountability right is key. We also set out recommendations for how central government should support mayors in these ambitions, such as by strengthening powers to create spatial development strategies and MDCs, and offering greater support for capacity building within combined authorities. Thanks go to Balfour Beatty plc for supporting this research, and to everyone who shared their insights along the way. https://lnkd.in/dR5-6_JH

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Now that the exhibition is over, a lot of people are asking what my next steps are, here is a quick breakdown: - Secure a Part 1 role - post thoughts, reflections and lessons here on Linkedin (similar to what I post on my instagram, ARCHIVE 7) - Plan WMASN’s next steps (look forward to the next exhibition!) - optimise my workflow, as being involved in different projects at the same time can be challenging at times. In this last quarter, for me it is really just about setting myself up for the year ahead in the best way possible. I wonder if you have similar goals?

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This insightful article from edie written by Steff Wright sets out the clear need for cross party consensus on the detailed, science based policy for low carbon, climate responsible housebuilding. Pleased to see our Building for 2050 report is referenced as a good example of this: "Without scientifically proven, agreed solutions, businesses are very much left in the dark to explore their own solutions via trial and error, which many will not be able to afford to do. Research such as the Building for 2050 Report highlights concerns from housebuilders around a lack of knowledge required to develop effective solutions and uncertainty about future requirements. If politicians can at least agree on the science, they can then consider ways to empower businesses and communities to work on the solutions." https://lnkd.in/eXx5kj3H

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