Practices, including Bond Bryan, Grimshaw and Assemble discuss how they support charities, community groups, social enterprises, and action groups through pro-bono work and charitable giving.
Creating a just space for people
Responses were assessed by Architecture Declare’s Alasdair Ben Dixon, Mandy Franz, Mark Goldthorpe, Tom Greenall and Mitakshi Sirsi, with input from Regenerative Architecture Index ambassador Immy Kaur – social and civil activist, and co-founder and director of CIVIC SQUARE.
Practice Question 3
Does the practice support charities, community groups, social enterprises, action groups and others through pro-bono work, charitable giving or in-kind donations?
Front-runner
Bond Bryan
We are dedicated to supporting the wider community through education and industry outreach. Guided by the UN Development Goals, National Social Value Standard, and National TOMs, our social value strategy emphasises sharing our time and skills. We collaborate with local groups like Talent United, Barnsley.
A key initiative is the Bond Bryan Academy, which helps prepare the next generation of architects, architectural technologists and interior designers by connecting students with industry professionals. Through lectures, workshops and mentoring, we offer real world insights and pro bono support to bridge the gap between education and practice.
Our efforts include establishing academies at Bradford and Barnsley Colleges, our University Outreach programme, and partnerships with charities, such as Yorkshire Children’s Charity and Shine Cancer Support. We also run a mentoring and work placement scheme, all with the goal of creating a stronger, more inclusive future for built environment professionals.
Runner-up
Grimshaw
In addition to supporting a variety of charities, we established the Grimshaw Foundation to further our social impact. This focuses on increasing access to architecture and design careers for young people, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds. Through workshops, mentoring and educational resources, it addresses gender, social and economic equity by helping students explore creative career paths and navigate routes into further education. This reflects our wider commitment to using our platform and resources to drive positive change beyond the built environment.
Ones to watch
Assemble
This is predominantly done through projects where we constantly work to create social impact. We have a dedicated company: Assemble Studio CIC, set up to enable these. We run a project called House of Annetta in Spitalfields, which is dedicated to social justice and systems change. Through this we support a number of community initiatives and campaigns in the Brick Lane area, as well as offer space for researchers working in a variety of disciplines at the intersection of spatial and social justice.
Another example is our Assemble Play project, which offers free-to-access, loose parts play across London. This supports children and their carers and families in these communities, such as the recent Grenfell Play project, which ran for a year at the base of Grenfell Tower, or the current work we are doing at Mudchute City Farm.
Atelier Ten
A few of our initiatives are listed below:
• In 2008, we established the Atelier Ten Foundation to channel our skills and influence toward empowering others to improve the built environment globally. We reinvest a portion of our profits into initiatives that allow our people to apply their expertise in ways that help meet humanitarian needs.
• One of the core pillars of our Sustainability Charter is People. As part of our annual sustainability week, Regenerate, we dedicate a day to philanthropy – supporting local businesses and inviting staff to vote for a charity to receive a financial contribution from Atelier Ten.
• To mark Black History Month, we celebrate local black-owned businesses by supporting Dark Sugars, a female-owned chocolatier based in Brick Lane.
• In 2024, we proudly sponsored the PedElle charity cycle ride for women in real estate, supporting Coram, a charity that champions the rights and welfare of children.
HLM Architects
As part of our Give-Every-Child-A-Chance programme, we’re Ambassadors for the local authority ‘See-it-be-it’ programme; going into primary and secondary schools to help pupils understand the different career paths open to them. We hold year-long design competitions, monthly skills workshops, and help students prepare CVs. We tutor and sponsor student awards and protect 50 per cent of work experience placements for schools in low social mobility areas.
Community bonds are important to us. We carry out pro bono design work, grant employee’s paid volunteering days, and match fund employee fundraising activities. Our Connect Days focus on supporting local action groups. Spare office furniture and equipment is donated to charities. In 2000, we co-founded a Charity Construction Ball, and have raised more than £400,000 to date for charities, including the Sheffield Childrens Hospital, St Lukes Hospice, and Cash For Kids. Last year, 55 per cent of our employees were involved in outreach activities with more than 4,100 hours invested.
Howells
Over the last year we have supported numerous charities, including Feedo Needo, LandAid, Birmingham Hippodrome, B:Music, Open City, and Ikon Gallery, through donations of time, membership of Boards, requested items, and by raising money through charitable events. Our Charity of the Year in 2023 was Smart Works, an organisation we have brought into our home in Birmingham, and who help women in need get back into work. Our 2024 Charity of the Year is LandAid, and we have already organised a Sleep Out event and football tournament to raise funds for the charity.
Every year we hold a Summer Design School in Birmingham to demonstrate what a creative, fulfilling, and exciting career choice architecture can be. The event is for students aged 14-18, many of whom go on to have successful careers in design, and return to us throughout their academic journey for work experience and guidance.
RSHP
RSHP’s constitution is based on a charity ownership. We allocate 20 per cent of pre-distribution profit to charity organisations. RSHP has given over £20.2m to charity since 1993, supporting more than 2,000 registered charities. Members of staff also regularly participate in community outreach programmes and volunteer time with enterprises that aim to increase social mobility – often providing careers mentoring to young people from underrepresented backgrounds. We maintain strong links with Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, a school RSHP completed 20 years ago. The office contributes time to the school’s architecture club, while two members of staff are co-opted governors, and one is a trustee of the Mossbourne Charitable Foundation.