From Peterhead to Pakistan: practising beyond Scotland, learning from London and building links globally
This issue of RIAS Quarterly was edited by Tamsie Thompson (RIAS). The Autumn 2023 edition of the RIAS Quarterly focussed on practices working outwith the Scottish context and the lessons that can be learnt from international working processes. The following article was written for this issue by Becca Thomas and Marc Cairns.
New Practice is an architecture practice with offices in Glasgow and London established in 2019. Being embedded in both cities has allowed our small team of ten to be part of the projects and wider design teams working on some of the largest (re)developments happening across the UK and, importantly, engage with the built environment industry across both cities to build a practice of collaboration and shared decision-making.
We have worked together since 2011 throughout Scotland, and globally prior to the establishment of New Practice. Projects often presented themselves as ‘international introductions’ through festivals and gatherings of multiple voices. We presented work at 13th Venice Architecture Biennale (Italy, 2012); World Design Capitals (Finland, 2012 and South Africa, 2015), European Creative Hubs Network (from Belgium to Vietnam, 2015-2018), Lahore Biennale (Pakistan, 2016) and Kosovo Festival of Architecture (Kosovo, 2017).
Our “from Peterhead to Pakistan” approach has built community within a global audience, these projects stretched the skills and knowledge of our team and broadened our understanding of ‘creativity, community and culture’ beyond white western perspectives.
Critical Dialogues, representing Scotland at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2012), ‘Banchetto’ (Italian for Banquet) was an event which highlighted the ongoing struggles of Venice to share an authentic sense of identity where both locals and visitors can enjoy the place as equals. Banchetto questioned the impact of the Biennale on a hyper-local population living and trading within the historic Castello neighbourhood. Structured as a performance for the community, it was presented as a ‘theatrical’ open air dinner in the neighbourhood, Visitors and locals including artists, architects, bar owners, curators, sex- workers and activists ate, drank and discussed the future of Venice late into the night. Banchetto reinforced our understanding in the value of everyday cultural exchanges to improve understanding and knowledge of the wide ranging perspectives that exist when societal transformation and significant change begins or takes place.
Rooted پیوستہ (Paivasta) is a piece of public artwork delivered for the Lahore Biennale (2016), made in collaboration with Lahore based artists Unum Babar and Matt Kushan. The central piece, taking the form of an Islamic star, acts as a guide to the exploration of the gardens. Seven points of the star lead to seven non-native trees, planted by the colonial British Empire. At each of these trees a marble stool offers a place for rest and contemplation. Understanding the shared histories and Empire as the backdrop of both Glasgow and Lahore started bold and beautiful conversations within our collaborative team, which have continued into later projects.
Over the past four years, our practice has focused on providing creative, dynamic and responsive approaches to public facing interventions and programmes for projects addressing high street and town centre recovery and transformation across the UK. Although this focus has formed in a mostly organic way we have also been impacted by Brexit, lessening ease of access to EU markets, and also by the collapse of the supportive capacity within international development and trade organisations, including the British Council.
Today, our practice continues to be part of a small group working and delivering projects on the ground outwith Scotland. We strongly believe that lack of cross pollination between Scottish practices and the rest of the UK is of detriment to the industry of architecture in Scotland. It creates an inward looking perspective, somewhat parochial, that does not capitalise on the benefits of learning from best practice in other places, or acknowledge where and when processes are potentially being delivered better elsewhere, such as Manchester or London, or many of the other regions of England led by mayoral approaches that centre ‘good growth by design’.
In particular, we have found that opportunities in London, where we work in collaboration with leading British architecture practices and under the eye of officers for the Mayor of London, Greater London Authority and Transport for London, has brought us into contact with excellent examples of public sector strategy and thinking for place-based-practice. This grants us proximity to contemporary forms of practice who are pushing both design-led thinking, and what it means to operate as architects and urbanists today.
Our work in Northolt is built on many scales of collaboration, Firstly, with an excellent client, who understands how visioning can help to unlock funding and set in motion much larger processes. Secondly, with expert peers, bringing skills and global learning to specific local urban challenges. Thirdly, commissioning of creatives ensuring outcomes are reflective of local cultures, heritages and identities. This is hard but rewarding work, building skills and capacity for lasting outcomes. Finally, working in a generous spirit of collaboration with local people as the basis for great urban development. The projects covered here are testament to this, starting with Visions for Northolt (2021) - a commission to understand how people understand their place by identifying challenges and aspirations for the town centre - with further exploration through Thriving Northolt (2022) and Connecting Northolt (2023), all of which expand capacity and deliver a vision that is reflective of Northolt.
Visions for Northolt was a programme of cultural engagement activity, supporting Maccreanor Lavington's design and mapping of a 20-minute Strategic Neighbourhood Plan. We worked with RESOLVE Collective and illustrator, Alaa Alsaraji, to support the creation of vision, steer future investment and pave the way for participation. The outcomes of Visions for Northolt have become the basis of additional infrastructural investment in the area. We continue to work with Ealing Council to deliver further projects which contribute to shaping the long-term future of the place, support a flourishing artistic community, and engage in rapid roll-outs of capital investment for comprehensive active travel infrastructure:
Thriving Northolt addresses key aspirations identified through Visions for Northolt and re-engages stakeholders through iterative workshops, resident-led site walkarounds, creative engagement with young people through local primary and secondary schools, and innovative digital surveys delivered while pandemic restrictions remained in place, significantly impacting in-person events. Thriving Northolt culminated in area-wide findings that expand the reach of Visions for Northolt.
Connecting Northolt continues the work through three additional workstreams: Levelling Up Funding; Art Stops and Public Art Strategy.
Levelling Up Funding of £7.2million is focused on improving active travel in the Borough by 2026. Engagement focussed on key transport corridors and the implementation of quick-win interventions addressing some of the issues identified by communities.
‘Art Stops’ is a pilot for new community-led artworks. Conversations during Visions events revealed a growing community of creative practitioners and mapped locations that would benefit from public art. Building on these insights, four local artists were commissioned to develop proposals for specific locations in the ownership of TfL, Ealing Council and key community organisations. The process has involved supporting these artists, new to public art, with the aim of empowering and sharing knowledge, and trialling approaches for the delivery of art in the Borough. Artworks were installed in Summer 2023, with accompanying celebratory events and art trails.
The new interventions also feed into the ‘Community and Public Art Strategy’ for Northolt, which aims to curate temporary and permanent place-based interventions over the next two years. This strategy explores how community and public art can support both emerging and established creative talent through the delivery of four projects -- a comprehensive community engagement programme, piloting art interventions, high street signage, and the development of a community art strategy - which inform and inspire each another.
Northolt is an excellent example of how open, trusting and genuine connection with communities can identify new opportunities and co-design the future of neighbourhoods through community-led strategy, as opposed to top-down delivery of unwanted or unneeded change. This is possible when the system supports public sector officers to work in a more nimble way and appoint practices outside proscriptive procurement approaches to achieve the best outcomes for the places they are ultimately responsible for. This is generative work which centres a strong drive to engage more diverse audiences, and keep people at the centre of place-based change.
Working in London highlights for us where the professional culture in Scotland is failing its remarkable talent. We see London-based procurement frameworks that focus on collaboration and intercultural learning - with the requirement in procurement processes for collaborative team structures with large practices commissioning micro-enterprises, social enterprises and diversity-owned (people-of-colour, women, disabled and queer-led) businesses - while here in Scotland we battle restrictive tenders that the majority of the time favour lowest-price, isolationist and competition, more progressive tenders are few and far between.
We want to see more investment north of the border in community-led placemaking and especially in community-led housing. Too often in Scotland we see poor quality, tick-boxing, consultation driven by lacklustre procurement. In London, the social value and quality of conversation are more often the driver for this consultancy, and give our team space to embed inclusion, accessibility and youth engagement through commissioning, greater depth of discussion and in spending more time with communities to deliver on their ambitions. With this learning, we have been lending our voices to wider advocacy in Scotland for braver briefs and better procurement, and have found that sharing examples, like Northolt, with public sector organisations across the country helps broaden their definition of quality and social value.
Outwith London and Scotland, we continue to find bold and brave local authorities with a strong drive to do better and build good growth. A recent series of commissions in Newark will span town centre strategy and involve local creative communities in the co-design of new lighting, wayfinding and market stalls for town centre. This constellation of works, like with Northolt, are small stepping stones towards a much more nuanced and holistic regeneration and rethinking of city centres, town centres and high streets for the future… our hope is that we see more of these approaches heading north.