Co-founder of Neighbourhood, together with John Nordon and Duncan Blackmore. Neighbourhood is an award winning research, innovation and development management company, established in 2020.
BACKGROUND
Neighbourhood is a space for conducting research, piloting ideas, building collaborations and generally looking to find new ways of doing things. Much of our work centres around addressing what we see as today’s biggest challenge in property: finding ways to develop that can balance the needs of nature, society, businesses and individuals.
RECENT PROJECTS
The work we do is varied and involves drawing together a wid range of skillsets across various disciplines. In recent times we have worked on housing design initiatives that look at courtyard housing in suburban Los Angeles and back-to-back housing in Liverpool.
We explored what a circular future in Tallinn’s largest residential district might look like and we have re-imagined the harbour district in Oslo. We have considered the role of the street-side kiosk, looking to create equitable spaces for trade and exchange, and we are currently in the process of building a coalition to support a charity focused on helping homeless people in the North West of England.
GROW-RISE: Courtyard housing for the healthy, productive and sociable densification of suburban Los Angeles
BACK TO BACK: Revisiting back-to-back housing’s potential for adaptable urban density set in a communal landscape in Liverpool
UNFINISHED CITY: An entry for 2022 Tallinn Architecture Biennale’s ideas competition imagining a circular future for the soviet-built district of Lasnamäe
FINDING A NEW WAY
Despite what are often good intentions (from developers, planners, architects, and others), the competing interests of different stakeholders, the way land is valued, the planning system, the financial markets and the structure of land ownership in the UK has created a culture which is resistant to the scale of change many feel is needed.
We think the way to solve this is through collaboration and innovation. We work to build teams and create projects that consider all stakeholder needs to find the best solutions – whether that’s ideas for mixed-use developments, innovative ways of looking at social housing, opportunities to use development to help nurture creativity and local economies within neighbourhoods, or finding ways to bring life back to the land or to the high-street. No two projects we work on are the same, we are always looking to innovate and find new people to work with and new ways of working. Challenging ourselves and everyone else to find better ways.