Submission by Feilden Fowles Architects.
Being a good ancestor
Practice
1. Does the practice have a clearly stated purpose aligned with the planetary emergency? We are looking for a bold ambition here, and a practice culture which recognises the need for long-term thinking. For example, a strong mission, a theory of change, or a sustainability roadmap.
Feilden Fowles is known for its low-tech approach, advocacy of passive environmental design, and affinity with local construction traditions and vernacular architecture. We integrate renewable energy strategies into our projects, and harness the natural attributes of a site to minimise carbon impact. This is embedded in our culture as a practice, our own studio operations are certified net zero, setting a benchmark for all our work.
A low-tech model is a response to decades of contemporary architecture being synonymous with exuberant forms, technology-driven processes, and ‘futuristic’ materials, the time has come for a necessary reset. If we are to embrace sustainability, we must embrace simplicity. At Feilden Fowles, we call this approach ‘low tech’.
Low-tech seeks to re-balance the relationship between building and technology. It is a philosophy rooted in leanness, fewer components, a preference for natural, low-embodied carbon materials, reduced reliance on technology, robustness and flexibility, in essence, simplicity.
2. Does the practice have a clear succession plan, which passes on ownership and protects the values and legacy of those who built and contributed to the practice? For example is the practice an employee owned trust.
We are a young practice of 21 members with an evolving structure. While succession is a topic of discussion, the oldest member of the practice is more than 25 years from retirement. In the meantime, we are strengthening our leadership team to ensure resilience and provide the experience needed for continuity. This supports our strategy of slow, sustainable growth, ensuring we are well equipped to continue delivering high-quality, sustainable, and socially responsible projects.
Our values centre around openness, communication, and community. Our studio culture, with its relatively flat hierarchy, reflects and promotes these principles. We maintain transparency in our operations, holding monthly forums with all staff to discuss finances, future bids, and project progress. This encourages staff engagement, supports professional development, and draws on the wealth of collective knowledge within the studio. In parallel, we mentor and support individuals through regular one-to-one check-ins, ensuring that everyone has a voice.
3. Does the practice share research and knowledge for the benefit of society and the wider world? For example, you regularly carry out post occupancy evaluation and share information with others.
We are a relatively small practice that aims to make an impact through research. Our studio is organised into working groups that explore materials, sustainable construction, net zero operations and our low tech agenda. This has led to innovations such as our passive ventilation strategy at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where unfired clay brick is used to regulate gallery temperature and humidity. We share our findings through our website, publications, lectures and events held at our barn in Waterloo.
We monitor embodied carbon on all projects, building on the excellent work of Structural Workshop and their carbon calculator. This informs many of our design decisions, and we actively share the results. We also strongly advocate for post occupancy evaluations, working with our mechanical and electrical partners to create comparable data sets that support learning across projects. We will be undertaking a post occupancy assessment of Homerton Dining Hall later this year.
Project
1. Does the practice advocate for long-term thinking at the outset of projects? Do you initiate projects with long-term thinking and challenge the client on design life? Also, can the practice demonstrate that this approach has worked – with a shorter or longer design life, or an innovative approach to financing or payback period?
All projects start with understanding their purpose, their place and the people they will serve. We initially look wider than the project to understand how it fits within a community, society and how it may adapt in the long-term to serve changing needs. We push our clients, such as Oxbridge Colleges and National Museums, to support a longer-design-life, often 100 years or more, balancing this with embodied carbon, whole life and operational carbon calculations. Given many of our projects are publicly funded, we sometimes seek Salix financing to support carbon-saving measures.
Some projects have short-design life in their current setting, such as Waterloo City Farm and Feilden Fowles’ own timber-frame studio. We have therefore designed these structures with circular-design principles, so they can be dismantled and moved to new sites, which is currently underway.
2. Do your projects take account of the future climate and the need for resilience? For example, do the projects demonstrate flexibility, design for adaptation, design for disassembly, non-deterministic solutions, or demountable structures.
Designing for a lifespan of over 100 years places future climate resilience at the heart of our work. We adopt a fabric first approach across all projects, reducing energy demand by ensuring airtightness and thermal efficiency. We focus on low carbon, natural materials such as timber, rammed earth and stone, balancing their qualities to create beautiful, adaptable and thermally comfortable spaces.
Many of our projects follow circular economy principles. This is demonstrated in our own studio, where we have designed our office and farm buildings to be demountable and easily reconstructed on another site. This reduces reliance on virgin materials and extends the life of the project beyond its current location in Waterloo.
Our approach is responsive to context. Across our projects in Cambridge, we are working with the local authority to achieve BREEAM Outstanding ratings by reducing potable water use and maximising rainwater retention in the landscape.
3. Do the majority of your projects go beyond mitigating negatives and towards optimising positives? For example, are they meeting or exceeding the RIBA 2030 Challenge.
We benchmark all our projects against LETI carbon targets and the broader RIBA 2030 Challenge targets. Our latest projects in Oxford and Cambridge are currently projected to meet LETI Band B, aligning with the RIBA 2030 Challenge. We achieve this by holding workshops with our clients at the earliest possible stage, setting out clear and ambitious goals to which we all subscribe, and holding ourselves accountable at every stage.
Our own low-tech principles underpin each of our projects. These include orientating buildings appropriately and embedding renewable energy systems throughout. Our projects take a passive approach to their siting, form, and operation where possible. Through these simple principles we have delivered some exceptionally sustainable projects including one of the lowest operational carbon galleries in the country, the Weston at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Co-evolving with nature
Practice
1. Does the practice use biophilia within the office or regularly host meetings and retreats in natural settings? For example do you have extensive planting within the office or rely on natural patterns and imagery for stress relief or quiet areas.
Yes, our self-built studio is conceived as part of a wider walled-garden in Waterloo where we have equal indoor and outdoor space. The garden provides a visual connection to nature throughout the days and seasons, and we use it for meetings, lunches and celebrations. Our work is often landscape-led, and we believe it’s important our studio reflects our values and interests. We have fruit trees, seasonal planting and celebrate and use the run-off from the studio.
The studio is designed around natural and low-tech principles, optimised to harness direct light and warmth from the south, with an asymmetric pitched roof generating a clerestory window offering diffuse north light deep into the plan. The beams cantilever outdoors, forming a covered walkway, doubling to shade the south-facing glazing in summer months. Slight angling of the northlights creates a small zone between the glass and north wall, to stimulate passive and cooling cross-ventilation.
2. Can the practice share examples where it has considered nature in decision making? For example by having a nature proxy to encourage eco-centric decision making, using natural systems as inspiration for the company structure, recognising the seasonal nature of people’s capacity and workload or celebrating equinoxes and solstices together.
Our office and studio culture are closely connected to the seasons. Our outlook over the gardens provides a natural rhythm to the year, from the stillness of winter to the growth and colour of spring and summer. As a team, we gather monthly for seasonal vegetarian lunches, often using produce from our city farm when available.
In recent years, we have rethought our working methods and patterns to offer greater flexibility and support a better work life balance. Since April 2022, Feilden Fowles has adopted a nine day fortnight, giving full time staff an additional day off every two weeks. During this time, staff have consistently met their work commitments while reporting improvements in mental health and wellbeing. Through the summer months, our team often come in early to take advantage of focus time in the cooler mornings, then leave the office mid-afternoon to enjoy the long summer evenings.
3. Is the practice supporting nature locally and nationally? For example, does the practice support local gardens, gardeners, planting programmes, rewilding programmes or advocate for changes in legislation to protect nature.
Nationally our projects take a landscape-led approach. We have worked with clients such as the National Trust at Studley Royal and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. In both instances we have sympathetically placed buildings within their historic landscapes and focused on using naturalistic planting in the surroundings and including wildflowers on the roofs, increasing biodiversity.
Locally we support two charities: Oasis Hub and Jamies Farm, both providing educational services around regenerative farming for communities in London and across the UK. We have supported the development of their farm at Waterloo, taking a strip of wasteland in Lambeth and turning it into a thriving resource for teaching children about growing vegetables and caring for animals. We have also supported both charities by fund raising for them through running an office half marathon and supporting their events.
Project
1. Can the practice demonstrate projects which strive to match the performance of a mature ecosystem? As a minimum this would mean achieving biodiversity net gain.
We recognise that we are part of nature, within integral living systems, not separate from them. Our work actively regenerates ecosystems by learning from and working with natural processes. At the Natural History Museum, we collaborated with scientists to enhance local ecosystems within the museum’s wildlife gardens. Our sensitive transformation safeguarded existing flora and fauna, doubled the area of native habitats, and expanded the pond by sixty percent, significantly boosting biodiversity across the site. Listening and viewing funnels provide people with a closer connection to nature, hearing water move through tree trunks or beetle larvae feeding on decaying wood. Fifty monitoring points support ongoing research by scientists at the adjacent Angela Marmont Centre for UK Nature, who were closely involved throughout the project. Their expertise ensured that biodiversity was not only protected but meaningfully supported and expanded during construction.
2. Is the practice working on material stewardship? For example, evidence could be shown through repeated use of low carbon materials, extensive material libraries and research or publications supporting responsible use of materials and elimination of waste.
We collect data on the embodied carbon of all our projects, including projected lifetime carbon assessments. We work closely with our consultants on the embodied carbon and how we can reduce the use of steel, glass and concrete, especially in the foundations and frame design. We are also extremely conscientious about eliminating waste within our designs by setting out buildings to rational and efficient spans.
Within the studio, we have numerous samples, a materials library and data to support the decision-making on projects. We start all new commissions with the ambition of reducing the embodied and operational carbon to meet the RIBA 2030 standards or better.
Where possible, we customise our appointments with clients to reflect our sustainability ambitions, including commitments to environmental targets, embodied and operational carbon assessments as well as post occupancy evaluations and clear definition of the building lifespan.
3. Do the majority of projects demonstrate the use of biologically-inspired approaches such as Bioregionalism, Biophilia, Biomimicry, Ecomimicry (also referred to as Ecosystems Thinking, Industrial Ecology or Industrial Symbiosis) or BioTRIZ?
Our projects draw strongly from Bioregionalism values, often studying the local vernacular in terms of materials and form and referencing the principles governing how local architecture developed. We also draw strongly from Biophilia, with gardens and landscape playing a strong part in all our projects. Ecomimicry is also an important underlying principle in our masterplan work, creating and replicating diversity and enabling biodiversity and habitats to thrive alongside and within our projects.
Creating a just space for people
Practice
1. Does the practice have a progressive EDI policy and can you evidence many forms of diversity, which are welcomed and acknowledged, within the practice?
We have a structured EDI policy and are committed to equality of opportunity, providing a service and following practices which are free from unfair and unlawful discrimination. As an employer, Feilden Fowles is committed to creating an environment where individual differences and the contributions of all team members are recognised and valued.
As a young team of 21 employees, we actively encourage greater diversity of applications through our recruitment – using platforms like Design Can to promote opportunities. We recognise the need for diversity of thought amongst our employees, and are working to build a staff demographic that is representative of the communities it serves. Our management team is made up of 50:50 female to male employees, as is our wider team.
Growing alongside employees, the practice’s structure has changed to introduce greater flexibility around caring responsibilities and teaching opportunities, inspiring the next generation of diverse architects.
2. Does the practice operate a no overtime culture, meet the living wage consistently, and stipulate a fair salary ratio between staff of all levels?
Feilden Fowles have been operating a 9-day fortnight since 2022, taking alternate Fridays as ‘free days’. Contracts and salaries are unchanged, and the policy aims to improve efficiencies to counter time away from desks. On free days, staff are encouraged to partake in activities that boost mental and physical wellbeing, and we offer each individual an annual budget to spend on creative hobbies, classes and reading. Usually, we find this benefit counteracts the occasional late evening worked, but we regularly open discussion to staff forum to measure and improve its effectiveness. We also offer time off in lieu.
Salary bands are measured against – and often beat – industry standards and are shared transparently across the whole team. The practice meets the London Living Wage and over the last three years has not had a greater salary ratio than 3:1 between the highest and lowest paid staff.
3. Does the practice support charities, community groups, social enterprises, action groups and others through pro-bono work, charitable giving or in-kind donations?
Oasis Farm Waterloo is the collective home of Feilden Fowles’ studio and charities Jamie’s Farm and Oasis Hub Waterloo. The charities run programmes with local schools, supporting children at risk of exclusion through therapeutic interaction with animals, growing food and cooking produce. Feilden Fowles completed the 2014 masterplan and all design work pro-bono, prioritising economical and low-tech construction methods to build animal pens, veg plots and the barn, expanding use of the farm into colder seasons. We continue to support both charities by them with providing desks, meeting spaces and annual financial donations.
Through programmes like Open City, we work with primary schools to open the world of architecture to younger children, particularly those from socioeconomically underrepresented backgrounds. We engage with secondary and college students through a variety of programmes, placements and events, creating pathways to built-environment careers by working with universities and architecture schools offering paid placements and internships.
4. Does the practice publicly refuse to work with certain clients, suppliers or organisations on ethical grounds?
We have refused invited competitions and work in countries with poor human rights and environmental records. Our initial bidding process evaluates potential opportunities against their alignment with practice values, and any concerns about the social or ethical standing of a client, supplier or organisation would be grounds to reject that opportunity or refuse partnership to work alongside that organisation. This principle is upheld no matter the potential financial gain. We are very selective about working for end-users and only work with an ethical supply chain.
We are proactive in seeking clients who are demonstrating a positive value added to wider society and understand the impacts of taking on an unethical project on our reputation and portfolio of work.
Additionally, as the practice grows its reach beyond the UK, we are actively prioritising work in locations accessible by rail over air travel, in line with our sustainability values.
Project
1. Do the projects demonstrate deep engagement with local stakeholders and end users? For example, is there evidence that your project engagement goes beyond consultation towards co-design?
Community engagement is a priority at every stage, ensuring the long-term resilience of the result, with many projects securing awards for their exemplary social impact. Internal stakeholders’ involvement is essential to ensure our understanding of the brief, priorities and aspirations, and we prioritise ongoing engagement, gaining feedback and maintaining a sense of inclusion in the project development.
Our Natural History Museum project responded to urbanisation and biodiversity loss, transforming underused gardens into an urban oasis. We worked closely with museum scientists to sensitively develop a series of outdoor living galleries, providing opportunities to learn about and explore nature. The result was a complex balance of immersive visitor engagement alongside scientific robustness, representing an inspirational case study for repurposing urban spaces to increase biodiversity and provide urban cooling, offering recreational benefits and enabling scientific research to inspire people to develop a love for nature and become the naturalists of the future.
2. Do your projects create connected and resilient places which positively contribute to their neighbourhoods and allow equality of access? For example, do your projects create economic opportunity, retain value locally and generate social value?
Our work is unified by a deep-rooted commitment to social value. Every project is designed to have a net positive impact. We ensure any structure is sensitively woven into its setting, rooted in its community, and of lasting benefit to its users. This social focus transcends design into our practice culture as a whole.
Our Dining Hall at Homerton College, Cambridge, exemplifies this pursuit. Homerton’s mission to open Cambridge to students of educational disadvantage and minority groups inspired the resulting design, which has become “not a passive backdrop but an active participant in our social justice work”-. The design of the hall is symbolic of Homerton’s progressive character yet remains in conversation with the rich architectural heritage of Cambridge. The Dining Hall breaks down centuries-old barriers between ‘town’ and ‘gown’ by holistically bringing together employees and students as members of one community.
3. Do the majority of your projects promote equity in society, and consider all people, not only the building inhabitants? For example, do your projects show due regard for workers within the supply chain and take active steps to avoid modern slavery?
Projects that demonstrate wider, sustainable added value to benefit wider society will be more resilient and give back more to their respective communities in the long-term.
Many of our projects, such as at Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses, promote equity by serving the broader community, not just building users. This project created inclusive, flexible spaces that support education, volunteering, and events for people of all ages and backgrounds. Our participatory design process helped foster community connection and created opportunities for year-round nature-based activities on the site.
Our approach at Homerton inspired the college’s annual student sustainability conference where they discussed low tech architecture and green technology used to power the building. Our buildings become “a material object to teach with, not simply a passive backdrop to education”-.
Feilden Fowles have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and expect the suppliers, contractors and organisations we work with to hold similarly high standards.