The design trial, which Gbolade Design Studio; Farrells and Exterior have been appointed to for Southwark council, addresses climate, energy and biodiversity. Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) will research the design codes in England and how they can contribute to the government’s net zero target. In partnership with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the research focuses on promoting nature recovery.
Read the BD article HERE
Paradigm Network, co-founded with Gbolade Directors Tara and Lanre, is amongst some innovative architecture collectives who gain strength from numbers. Working together with those who share their ambitions and goals has led to greater achievements in tackling systematic issues. RIBA’s 2021 Guerrilla Tactics theme is “collaboration” as they look to the future, in which we all achieve more together.
Read the Riba Journal Article HERE
United Nation’s “code red” report means architectes must face up to the Carbon Footprint of their work. With support from government and courage to act, technology that is available can help. Director Tara Gbolade sits on the steering group for Architects Declare (AD) who is asking their signatories to redouble their efforts in response to the 11 AD pledges before the Built Environment Summit later this year.
Read the Architects Journal Article HERE
Eagle Creek Wildfire in Columbia River Gorge, Or
An article in Wallpaper Magazine detailing the integration of the extension to a house in Chistlehurst, Kent. Conveyed as an example of integration and functionality which improved the sustainability, functionality, and over-all lifestyle of the owner.
Read about it HERE
Tara Gbolade with the client in the Chislehurst Timber House, Kent
Director of Gbolade Design Studio, Tara Gbolade was invited to participate in the 50th anniversary series, in which leading architects talk about their favourite buildings for Building Design Online. She nominated Kéré Architecture’s Benga Riverside community project in Mozambique for “taking the long view”.
Read the full article HERE
We’re delighted to be able to announce our Co-Founding Director, Lanre, has been selected to be amongst twelve judges who are overseeing the exciting new Building [Re]Design competition, the Stratford Design Challenge!
Leading names in architecture and influential clients, will be scrutinising entries for the competition which invites participants to identify an urban issue found in Stratford, and to apply some creative and visionary design thinking to it.
Stratford is a place Lanre is very familiar having worked with L&Q, who have headquarters there, for over 5 years to date; so he’s looking forward to seeing what innovative solutions are proposed to address urban challenges seen in the old town centre.
Other members of the judging panel include:
Pam Alexander, urban regeneration specialist, director of London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) and Connected Places Catapult, chair of digital community engagement company Commonplace.
Phil Askew, landscape and placemaking director at Peabody working on £8bn Thamesmead regeneration. From 2008-17 he led on the landscape and public realm transformation of the Olympic Park into the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Kay Hughes, director of design at HS2 Ltd and the former head of design at the Olympic Delivery Authority and senior project sponsor at the Foreign Office.
Leanne Tritton, founder and managing director of ING Media, the built environment communications specialists, and incoming chair of the London Society.
Keith Waller, development director of Costain and programme director of the government’s Construction Innovation Hub, working with government, academia and industry to transform construction.
For more information and how to apply, please see the press launch here.
Lanre Gbolade writes for Building Design on the need for adaptive and responsive design after the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests and the resulting socio-economic shifts.
Read the full article HERE
Lanre Gbolade
As part of their newly launched Systemic Design Framework, Design Council has published research report Beyond Net Zero: A Systemic Design Approach; providing key recommendations on how designers can better respond to the climate emergency. The Design Council reached out to a number of experts working towards net zero including Gbolade Design Studio’s very own Co-Founder Tara, who was interviewed for the report.
Key elements of the Systemic Design Framework include:
Six principles for systemic design which can be used to help people to develop or adapt new design methods and tools from their own practice. The principles are: people and planet centred, zooming in and out, testing and growing ideas, inclusive and welcoming difference, collaborating and connecting, circular and regenerative.
Four key roles for designers to play when tackling systemic issues: system thinker, leader and storyteller, designer and maker, connector and convenor.
Types of design activities. These are: exploring, reframing, creating and catalysing.
The enabling activity that goes ‘around’ the design process, including orientation and vision setting, connections and relationships, leadership and storytelling, continuing the journey.
Our Co-Founder Tara is excited to have been a contributor for the newly launched book Now You Know, published by Sound Advice, addressing discrimination in the built environment.
The book has gathered thoughts and reflections of more than 50 architects and urbanists of colour in an extraordinary compendium of essays, poems, interviews and, advice on how to address discrimination baked into our built environment.
Now You Know is available from Tate Modern Terrace Shop, South London Gallery, AA Bookshop, Koenig at Serpentine Gallery, and magCulture.
images by Timi Akindele-Ajani
In January, our Co-Founder Tara joined a panel of speakers on an episode of the podcast Coaches On The Couch. Bringing together the voices of more than 40 built environment leaders, the podcast has now been turned into a book; Coaches On The Couch: Learning From Lockdown.
For this book Tara contributed personal reflections on the lasting impact the pandemic had on her as well as the way it has shaped Gbolade Design Studio.
All proceeds from the sales of the book will go towards the cost of production of future series of the podcast which to date has been self-funded.
Sankofa Book Launch Video by Chibundu Onuzo
Chibundu Onuzo’s Good Soil video which launched the publication of her latest novel, Sankofa.
Co-Founders Tara & Lanre were delighted to support award-winning author Chibundu Onuzo as she launched her latest book, Sankofa, with the awesome and inspiring music video - Good Soil. The book is a funny, gripping and surprising story of a mixed-race British woman who goes in search of the West African father she never knew. It’s now out in the UK now.
The Gbolade Design Studio Co-founders were invited to be amongst a host of UK black African professionals and entrepreneurs making an impact across their respective industries.
UK’s top emerging practices reveals plenty of style and wit alongside a desire to prioritise diversity, the climate crisis and housing shortages over wealthy clients. This publication relates to New Architect 4 published last month.
Read the Full article HERE
The unfolding facade of Unknown Works’ Scotts fish and chip shop in Chengdu, China.
Office S&M’s redesign for Mo-tel House, London.
Gbolade Design Studio has won a competition to redevelop the Lloyd Leon Community Centre, Brixton.
See Full article HERE
Gbolade Design Studio wins Brixton community centre contest
Gbolade Design Studio working with Urban Symbiotics and Green Tea Architects , defeated four unnamed rival bidders to win the contest backed by local authority Lambeth Council.
Read the Article HERE
In this Wallpaper article, Gbolade Design Studio and The Paradigm Network are featured amongst a number of other dynamic and pioneering networks, initiatives, and campaigns created by and for people working within the built environment.
Read the Full Article here
Gbolade Design Studio are one of 109 British architectural practices profiled in the Architecture Foundation’s recent publication ’New Architects 4’ - a major publication highlighting the best British architectural practices established in the last ten years.
The publication is the fourth in an influential series featuring practices within architecture, urban design, public realm and other related areas from recent years.
The publication is out now and you can read more about the book here.
Here, we provided some advise to the readers of Homebuilding & Renovation on the Passivhaus Planning Package.
You’ll need to subscribe to the magazine for this one… Link Here
Lanre Gbolade, our Studio Co-founder, has been appointed to the Oxford Design Review Panel which was set up in December 2020 in partnership with Oxford City Council to provide pre-application design advice to applicants and Oxford City Council.
Lanre joins a list of renowned industry design experts across architecture, sustainability, urban design, conservation, access, landscape design and engineering. Panel members will visit sites, review emerging developments and advise on proposals.
As a studio and through Lanre’s participation in DRPs, we look forward to positively shaping the future of development in the city and helping to create better buildings, streets and public spaces for the inhabitants of Oxford.
Some snippets from the Architecture Magazine… Full article here.
WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST MEMORY OF DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE?
Growing up in the north of Nigeria, I remember my family home well. It was large and featured a compound (courtyard) which led to a generous veranda that wrapped across the front of our home. It acted simultaneously as a formal and informal welcome, and due to its orientation and form, protected us from the suns’ intensity and the rains’ ferocity through a large overhang – this architectural response was typical of many homes in this part of West Africa at the time.
While other parts of our home were typical of any home, it was the veranda I loved the most as I felt that it documented well the happenings of real life. Raised about half a meter above the ground to avoid flooding, I’d play with my siblings on its’ large smooth concrete base; I’d stand here in awe and stunned into silence as the downpour of rain that followed the dry harmattan season released the distinctly beautiful scent of the dry sand being beaten; I’d eavesdrop on my parents and their friends as they had a chinwag the on wick chairs that adorned it. Our veranda was complete with 2no. exquisite life-sized bronze leopards (Nigeria is famed for its’ exquisite bronze art) that terrified any guests who weren’t used to our home – it made me chuckle every single time someone screamed upon noticing them. It had all manner of planting surrounding it; from wild purple hibiscus to midsummer nightingales whose velvety red colours attracted butterflies during the day and released the sweetest scents at night. It was this typical west African architecture of the compound and veranda designed as a social terrain that enabled daily life to thrive which formed my early thoughts of defining ‘home’ as beyond the boundaries of the four walls we are so often used to.
LEAF Review Extract (page 12 onwards)
Inspired by recent events, such as the tragic death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, the architectural industry is making much-needed steps to finally acknowledge and address its diversity problem. Nana Biamah-Ofosu speaks to these striving to bring about radical change within the industry, including Neba Sere and Umi Lovecraft BP, founders of DECOSM, and Tara Gbolade, co-founder of Gbolade Design Studio, and asks how manifesting these desires in the profession can bring tangible changes.
Access the full article HERE (page 12 onwards)
