Submission by MICA Architects.
Being a good ancestor
Practice
1. Do you have a clearly stated purpose aligned with the planetary emergency? We’re looking for a bold ambition here, and a culture which recognises the need for long-term thinking.
As a practice we build on over 40 years of environmentally responsible architectural practice. Our purpose is to create enduring, high-quality and durable architecture and landscapes that support people, communities and the natural environment while responding to the climate and biodiversity emergency. We are committed to long-term thinking, designing for adaptability, resilience and whole-life performance so buildings remain valuable for future generations.
Our work draws on decades of pioneering low-energy and Passivhaus design, including projects at the University of East Anglia, Keble College Oxford, East Ham Civic Campus, Chester Balmore and Lincoln’s Inn. This has shaped ourolistic Environmental Strategy, a live framework embedded across projects to measure operational and embodied carbon, biodiversity, wellbeing, resilience and social impact.
Aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals, RIBA 2030, LETI, WELL and UKGBC Net Zero, it is supported by MICA DeCarbon, our in-house toolkit helping clients assess carbon impacts and pathways to net zero.
2. Do you have a clearly stated purpose aligned with the planetary emergency? We’re looking for a bold ambition here, and a culture which recognises the need for long-term thinking.
MICA’s succession approach is rooted in continuity of values, leadership evolution, and long-term stewardship of the practice. The organisation was established through a planned transition from its predecessor Rick Mather Architects, ensuring continuity of culture, design ethos, and senior leadership knowledge. Since then, leadership has continued to evolve in a deliberate and transparent way.
We actively grow leadership from within, with colleagues progressing from Architectural Assistants through to Associate Director level, supported by structured mentoring, increasing responsibility, and involvement in practice-wide decision-making. This ensures future leaders are developed through lived experience of the practice’s values and methods, rather than external appointment alone.
We maintain open, practice-wide dialogue on future governance and succession models, considering how ownership and stewardship can best reflect fairness, continuity, and long-term resilience. This is supported by an internal mentorship programme pairing emerging staff with senior team members to strengthen leadership development beyond project delivery.
3. Do you share research and knowledge for the benefit of society and the wider world?
MICA actively shares research and practice-based knowledge to support wider industry learning, policy development and improved environmental and social outcomes across the built environment sector. We contribute to national forums, panels, research collaborations and publications focused on sustainability, education and urban resilience.
We undertook commissioned research for the London Legacy Development Corporation on the Urban Greening Factor (UGF), analysing high-density developments in London, the UK and internationally. This examined how urban greening can be delivered in constrained contexts including student accommodation, mixed-use schemes and infrastructure-adjacent sites, alongside developer priorities such as cost, maintenance and net zero drivers.
We contribute to industry dialogue through the NLA Retrofit & Conservation Expert Panel, Fabric (NLA), COBIS and Education Estates, sharing expertise on retrofit, education design and climate-responsive development, aligned with principles of the New London Agenda.
Project
1. Do you advocate for long-term thinking at the outset of work? Do you initiate work with long-term thinking and challenge clients? Also, can the organisation demonstrate that this approach has worked?
We pride ourselves in becoming ambassadors for our clients. Through these long-term relationships, an open dialogue is harnessed to challenge clients to think beyond immediate needs. We treat every project as a multi-generational legacy. At our project for Goodenough College, where we are refurbishing Grade II listed townhouses for student accommodation use, long-term stewardship has been inherent to our approach
Throughout early stages, we actively challenged stakeholders to prioritise long-term regenerative value over short-term expediency. This involved advocacy for sustainable material longevity and the preservation of historic fabric against modern pressures. When initial briefs favour cost reduction, we reframe the conversation around the total cost of ownership.
This approach is demonstrably successful and has resulted in a project which has balanced thermal upgrades with heritage, utilising ASHP systems and high-performance materials to significantly reduce operational carbon, ensuring the College remains a vibrant, sustainable home for students for generations to come.
2. Does your work take account of the future climate and the need for resilience?
Climate resilience is central to our design ethos. We proactively address future climate risks such as heat stress and extreme weather, by prioritising a fabric-first approach across all work. Our buildings and landscapes are designed not just for achieving low-carbon targets today, but to be robust enough to perform in future climate scenarios.
We advocate for adaptive reuse as one of the strongest forms of resilience, drastically reducing embodied carbon while creating flexible, enduring spaces. This is clearly demonstrated in our work at Goodenough College. Tasked with refurbishing five Grade II listed townhouses, we balanced heritage preservation with rigorous environmental upgrades. By integrating breathable internal wall insulation, enhancing airtightness, and transitioning to Air Source Heat Pumps away from gas boilers, we have future-proofed these historic structures, ensuring they remain thermally comfortable, energy efficient and resilient.
3. Does the majority of your work go beyond mitigating negatives and towards optimising positives?
We are committed to moving beyond the paradigm of simply “doing less harm” toward a practice that actively optimises positive outcomes. We define success not just by the reduction in carbon footprints but by the tangible enhancement of site ecology, social connectivity and human wellbeing.
Central to this shift is our in-house DeCarbon tool. Unlike standard lifecycle assessment instruments, this enables our team to interrogate design iterations in real-time, optimising for embodied carbon, material efficiency and, crucially, the potential for regenerative interventions.
These tools are used across all of our work, from the decarbonisation of multi-asset estates, to projects such as Goodenough College where this careful assessment of material upgrades was balanced with the introduction of renewable energy sources to offer the best possible results for the client and building occupants. By utilising these data-driven insights, we transform site constraints into opportunities to return real value and lasting social uplift.
Co-evolving with nature
Practice
1. Do you use biophilia within your premises and/or do you regularly gather in natural settings?
MICA embraces biophilia and its many benefits, embedding meaningful connections to nature across both our Camden High Street studio and our wider ways of working.
We support a culture that balances focused work with wellbeing and reflection. Weekly team meetings provide space for collaborative discussion and planning, while bi-monthly social hours during the workday help maintain connection and work–life balance. Seasonal away-days and CPD trips, including a spring domestic retreat and an autumn rail-accessible journey abroad, offer opportunities for learning, team bonding and exposure to different landscapes and contexts.
In addition, staff engagement in activities such as sponsored runs for the Architects Benevolent Society, local litter-picking, and outdoor lunchtime wellbeing activities continues to grow. Looking ahead, retreats to upcoming bucolic project settings, including Oxford and Cambridge, alongside research into natural materials, will further deepen our connection with nature.
2. Can you share examples of where you have considered nature in decision making?
MICA respond to flexibilities in studio member preferences of working, observances, and seek out ways for our practice to experience the natural world to subtly shape our ways of thinking and working. Many of our team members have families, and the school year inflects the seasonal change with members taking seasonal breaks and working remotely during holidays.
Our annual office trips have presented opportunities to spend time together as a practice outdoors. Whether as part of an architectural interest tour in a landscape setting, or rooftop dinner experiencing a late summer sunset, we all value the clarity and peace a different atmosphere can provide our minds in speaking with one another and thinking about our shared future.
We have recently invested in a new library of natural materials which is on display in our meeting room, ensuring that natural, recycled and circular materials are top of mind when making decisions.
3. Are you supporting nature locally and nationally?
MICA supports nature through both local action and national research that informs how landscapes and biodiversity are integrated into the built environment.
Locally, our team participates in litter-picking and environmental improvement activities in Camden.
Nationally and internationally, we embed nature-positive thinking through our design and research work. This includes masterplanning large-scale education and campus environments such as Takum International College, Wellington College Pune, and Alaro City. These schemes integrate landscape as a structuring element of their masterplans, with courtyards, topographical sensitivity, and sports and civic spaces embedded. The approach prioritises passive environmental strategies such as natural ventilation, daylight, and reduced earthworks, alongside village-style boarding clusters that reinforce wellbeing within a landscape-led setting.
We also contributed to the High Density x Urban Greening study for the London Legacy Development Corporation, exploring how urban greening can be delivered in dense development contexts and informing planning guidance and best practice across the sector.
Project
1. Can you demonstrate work that strives to match the performance of a mature ecosystem?
Our design ethos integrates the built environment into wider ecological networks. We have been at the forefront of policy briefing in relation to green infrastructure and net zero ambition through our work for the London Legacy Development Corporation to research Urban Greening Factor (UGF).
We apply these principles directly to our estate masterplanning and landscape design. We ensure that biodiversity, hydrology and microclimate regulation function alongside the ecosystems in which they are set. By maximising permeability and multi-layered native planting, our projects mimic the water-retention and thermal-regulation capabilities of resilient habitats. This approach moves beyond superficial “greening” to create regenerative sites that provide tangible ecosystem services, sequester carbon, and actively support the health of local species, ensuring that our estate projects contribute to the resilience and richness of the surrounding landscape.
2. Are you working on material stewardship?
We define material stewardship as using less to do more. Our in-house research interrogates conventional construction, exploring how precise specification can eliminate redundant layers typically mandated by rigid performance criteria. We prioritise achieving superior outcomes through fewer, more considered interventions.
This ethos is pivotal to our work at Goodenough College. Retrofitting these heritage assets required a delicate balance between preserving historic fabric and achieving modern performance standards. By stripping back redundant interior layers and favouring high-performing, natural materials, we significantly minimised waste. For new interventions, we specified bio-based elements such as wood fibre insulation and lime plasters that are compatible with the historic masonry and offer superior hygroscopic performance over synthetic alternatives. This approach honours the longevity of the College’s estate, proving that the stewardship of heritage is inextricably linked to the responsible stewardship of our material resources.
3. Does the majority of your work demonstrate the use of biologically-inspired approaches such as Bioregionalism, Biophilia or Biomimicry?
Our current practice is grounded in the fundamentals of bioregionalism, primarily expressed through a commitment to locally sourced and natural materials. By prioritising the use of timber, stone and lime, we ensure our work respects the geologic and climatic context of its site. While we do not yet apply explicit biomimicry to the majority of our portfolio, we view this material-led approach as the essential foundation for more sophisticated ecological integration.
We are making efforts to actively shift our design methodology to move beyond material selection toward deeper strategies. This includes applying biophilic design principles to enhance occupant wellbeing. By leveraging our research into urban greening, we are refining our process to ensure future interventions function not just in nature but as regenerative parts of their local ecosystem.
Creating a just space for people
Practice
1. Do you have a progressive EDI policy and can you evidence many forms of diversity, which are welcomed and acknowledged, within your company/organisation?
MICA has a progressive Equity, Diversity and Inclusion framework embedded across governance, recruitment, career development and culture, with policies including EDI, Anti-Racism and Recruitment reviewed bi-annually. We actively use data, annual surveys and our W Programme participation to monitor progress and identify areas for improvement, with findings reviewed through an internal Equality Forum representing staff at all levels.
Workforce diversity is actively tracked, with clear targets for improved representation across gender, ethnicity and disability.
Career progression is supported through mentoring, CPD, flexible working and transparent promotion processes, ensuring equitable access to leadership pathways. MICA also proudly continues a long-standing commitment to supporting LGBTQ+ inclusion and equality, including ongoing support for organisations such as Stonewall and related charitable initiatives.
We also support wider inclusion through affiliations including Blueprint for All, Social Mobility Foundation and the Paradigm Network, embedding continuous learning and accountability across the practice.
2. Do you operate a no overtime culture, meet the living wage consistently, and stipulate a fair salary ratio between staff of all levels?
MICA is an accredited Living Wage Employer, with compliance reviewed annually through external audit processes. We regularly review salaries and monitor our gender pay gap to support fairness, transparency and equitable progression across all levels of the practice.
We are committed to fostering a healthy working culture that prioritises wellbeing, sustainable workloads and long-term staff retention over a reliance on overtime. Time recording is used not to encourage longer hours, but to better understand project demands, improve future resourcing, and support realistic programming and fee planning. Managers actively monitor workloads and encourage open dialogue so that pressures can be identified and addressed early through collaboration, redistribution of tasks, or programme review.
We also undertake regular internal staff surveys to monitor workplace culture, including workload, wellbeing and attitudes towards overtime. Feedback from these surveys helps inform management decisions, resource planning and continuous improvements to working practices.
3. Do you support charities, community groups, social enterprises, action groups and others through pro-bono work, charitable giving or in-kind donations?
We are proud to be practice partners with the Architect’s Benevolent Society, supporting their work in promoting wellbeing, mental health, and financial support for individuals across the architectural profession. Through this partnership, we contribute to a culture of care and resilience within the built environment sector. In addition, our collaboration with Stonewall UK reflects our commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion and equality in architecture. By championing inclusive workplace practices and supporting education and mentoring opportunities, we aim to help build a profession that reflects and supports the diversity of the communities we serve. We also host work experience students from a range of backgrounds, with a particular focus on young people from the local Camden community, to inspire and support the next generation of architects.
4. Do you use an ethical framework to assess opportunities and/or supply chain partners and is them team consulted on these decisions?
MICA applies an ethical and values-led approach when assessing new opportunities, partnerships and supply chain relationships. We consider not only the commercial viability of a project, but also the wider environmental, social and cultural impacts associated with it. Key considerations include who the client is, how they operate, the origin and transparency of project funding, and how a project may positively or negatively affect its region, communities and environment over the long term.
As part of our B Corp certification, we are continually strengthening our governance, accountability and ethical review processes, including how we assess clients, collaborators and supply chain partners. The B Corp framework has helped formalise areas for ongoing improvement around transparency, environmental responsibility, social value and stakeholder engagement.
These discussions are not limited to senior leadership. Ethical considerations are openly discussed within project teams and across the practice, recognising that diverse perspectives strengthen decision-making and accountability.
Project
1. Does your work demonstrate deep engagement with local stakeholders and end users?
We advocate for our clients, stakeholders and end-users. While balancing these diverse perspectives can be challenging, we embrace it to deliver meaningful architecture. Our co-design approach is collective from the outset and we invest significant time in understanding our audience to foster genuine belonging.
At Goodenough College, this approach was essential. The College serves as a vibrant London home for postgraduate students from across the globe, requiring spaces that support both academic focus and community connection. The project involved navigating a delicate stakeholder landscape – we engaged closely with conservation department and the Bloomsbury Conservation Area Advisory Committee as well as the student body, to ensure our interventions were sensitive but transformative. The deep consultation process allowed us to rescue these townhouses which had fallen into a poor state of repair, rehabilitating them into beautiful, comfortable and uplifting homes that serve to enhance the quality of life for the international membership.
2. Does your work create connected and resilient communities which positively contribute to neighbourhoods and allow equality of access?
We believe that architecture must actively foster resilience and inclusivity. Our approach to creating connected communities begins with the understanding that high-quality, sustainable design is a right, not a luxury. This is evident in our work for Goodenough College but also in our Passivhaus and EnerPHit housing project in Didcot for Oxfordshire District Council – a mixed use scheme of affordable housing and Class E development on the site of an existing and derelict two-storey shopfront buildings on The Broadway. By achieving rigorous standards for energy efficiency, we ensure that operational costs are significantly lowered, addressing fuel poverty and providing equitable access to healthy, comfortable and stable living environments.
We reject insular design, prioritising frontages, permeable boundaries and generous public thresholds. By creating spaces that invite interaction, we ensure that our work contributes to the social fabric, encouraging connectivity and creating safer, more vibrant places to live, learn, work and enjoy.
3. Does the majority of your work promote equity in society, and consider all people, not only building inhabitants
As a certified B-Corp, MICA measures success by our impact on the wider community, ensuring our work promotes equity far beyond the individual building occupant. We recognise that our influence extends across the entire project lifecycle, and we hold our supply chain to rigorous ethical standards. We prioritise responsible material sourcing and fair labour practices, ensuring that the components within our buildings do not come at the cost of human dignity or exploitation elsewhere.
Our social value commitments are embedded in every procurement decision – we actively support diverse businesses and foster local economic resilience. At Goodenough College we supported connection with local education and apprenticeship schemes, working with the main contractor to provide opportunities to a wider community.