Building a Practice to Design the Cities of the Future
Oliver Lowrie is a Director at Ackroyd Lowrie. In this article, he shares some of the ways their company adds value to their architectural practice.
In the heart of East London, fast-growing architectural practice Ackroyd Lowrie is attracting attention. Delivering imaginative, sustainable and award-winning schemes that hold real commercial value, the firm is adamant about offering more than just good design.
“From the outset, our intention was to do things differently,” explains director and co-founder Oliver Lowrie. “After more than a decade each in the industry, my co-director, Jon Ackroyd and I realised there was a genuine opportunity to start a practice that would work smarter, emphasise collaboration and reimagine what architects could offer their clients, including how this could improve the cities they create. We wanted to better utilise technology and bring our environmental expertise to the forefront, encouraging mainstream developers towards more sustainable thinking without compromising on value, design or the end-user experience.”
From humble beginnings delivering schemes of just three or four units, Oli and Jon have grown Ackroyd Lowrie to a team of 30, working on residential developments in excess of 100 units as well as major commercial and educational projects including the unique Alva Coachworks film and photographic studio and the conversion of the Royal Academy of Dance into a secondary school for Thomas’s Day School.
Oli added: “Our initial ambition was to focus on urban, brownfield sites: places we could reuse, revitalise or retrofit to build the cities of the future. Happily, this has really become what we’re known for, and the majority of our current work involves regeneration. We put people at the heart of our design to create healthy and sustainable environments that will encourage a return to town centres and high streets.”
100 new industrial-inspired apartments have been designed by Ackroyd Lowrie to regenerate an underused brownfield site on Dudley Road, Wolverhampton.
Whilst this design-led approach is crucial, Oli believes what sets Ackroyd Lowrie apart is the firm’s ability to seek other avenues to add value. “Most architects focus heavily on the design proposal, sometimes overlooking the wider property development process. We take a more holistic approach. By concentrating on the client and other gatekeepers such as planners, local politicians or estate agents, we can ensure that we not only achieve the optimum planning consent, but that the product is appropriate for the local market. Engagement of this level also helps negotiate potential obstacles, and we find this leads to faster realisation of a site’s maximum value,” he said.
One of the ways this engagement is achieved is through Virtual Reality (VR) technology. On every project, Ackroyd Lowrie uses VR headsets to present a unique, first-person perspective. This, the firm says, not only helps promote its ethos of putting people at the centre of design but also enables planners to understand a proposal from street view rather than in elevation.
“We’re always careful to design our proposals so they sit comfortably in context, and VR allows us to take planners on a journey,” explains Oli. “By walking them through an urban environment and then around our high-quality design proposal, it enables them to feel comfortable with how we’ve handled the design in its context. Invariably this leads to faster understanding and helps the client unlock maximum value from the site.
The award-winning Alva Coachworks film and photographic studio, designed by Ackroyd Lowrie to retrofit and repurpose a former Victorian tram repair depot in North London.
“Actually, our 150-bed aparthotel in Lambeth, a partnership with Qandor member Evan Maindonald, is a great example of this. We set up the VR headset in Lambeth Council’s office for the pre-application and walked the Head of Design and Conservation through the conservation area in the headset. We explained the features that we thought were characteristic, and how we had reimagined them in our design proposal. We managed to propose that our building be a storey taller than its listed neighbour because the Head of Design and Conservation was able to test out the views from key points and was comfortable that the extra height was not visible.”
Ackroyd Lowrie’s use of VR isn’t limited to just optimising design. More recently, the firm has been using the technology to create VR walkthroughs, videos and website content to support developer sales collateral. “Our involvement isn’t limited to design and delivery; it’s very much a start to finish process. The limitations imposed on us throughout the lockdowns meant we had to innovate even faster, so we developed a VR walkthrough that can be accessed via a QR code from the comfort of a potential purchaser’s home.
“One of our first projects to utilise this was for fellow Qandor member Phil Howard on his Perfume Factory development in Hanwell, where a number of off-plan sales have already been secured. In addition to using the virtual walkthrough, we also used VR to unlock further value for Phil. We were appointed after planning was granted, so were limited in the overall building envelope that could be built. However, by scrutinising the 3D model, we were able to achieve an additional 108m² net saleable area in a nine-unit development which effectively equates to an additional unit.
An impression of how Ackroyd Lowrie proposes to convert the Royal Academy of Dance into a secondary school for Thomas’s Day School.
“I think of all this in terms of marginal gains. When Olympic athletes compete, they make a series of small adjustments – choice of equipment, clothing, diet, etc. that cumulatively add up. It’s the same with development. First, we need to ensure the best planning result by knowing the politics and policy of an area, and making the planners believe we’ll deliver a scheme that adds to its context. Then we need to analyse and understand the market, then optimise layouts to maximise the net to gross, then produce the best and most eye-catching marketing material. Adding up each of these elements typically results in faster returns for our developers, who are then more likely to release the capital for a new project,” said Oli.
This added value approach extends well beyond client relationships, and Ackroyd Lowrie has invested heavily in creating a welcoming office for its growing team. As employers in the post-COVID world, Oli and Jon feel a responsibility to provide a working environment that engenders interaction, including a variety of different spaces for work, socialising and relaxing.
“When the alternative is only a few footsteps from your bedroom, the office has to work much harder to compete, so we’ve spent considerable time redesigning our three-storey former warehouse to encourage staff back to work. New layouts inspire different styles of working; we’ve added Zoom rooms, designated spaces for VR reviews, a roof terrace, hundreds of hanging plants to improve air quality, and our meeting room wall has been built to fold into three different configurations, one of which accommodates a ping pong table.
“As mental health and wellbeing has become even more important post-pandemic, we wanted to create somewhere our team can enjoy spending time, feel included, ask for help and be active,” added Oli.
Ackroyd Lowrie has used VR technology to generate sales collateral like this QR code and external render to help promote The Perfume Factory, Hanwell, a collaboration with Qandor member Phil Howard.
The redevelopment of the office is only the beginning for Ackroyd Lowrie as the firm has just embarked upon its first development project, a regeneration one of course. Oli said: “We’ve recently bought a brownfield site in Harlow town centre that we’re proposing to regenerate with a 12-storey building of around 50 new homes. We’re currently working with our planning consultants to finalise the designs and submit an application later this year. I like to think this is another way we’ll stand out from our peers; we’re really putting our money where our mouth is! In all seriousness, though, by acting as architect and developer, we hope to demonstrate a greater depth of knowledge and give clients further confidence that how we work for them will be replicated on our own project.”
So, what else does the future hold for this ambitious young practice? “I think first and foremost it’s about consolidating and growing the team. Over the next few years, we’d like to build to around 50 staff, with the five-year plan being to have 100 people. If this is the case, we’d obviously need to find a bigger studio so perhaps this could be a future development project for us.
“In the short-term, it’ll be interesting to see how we learn to live with COVID. It’s certainly changed the way people live and work, but this isn’t necessarily negative. I personally believe it’s fast-forwarded trends we would have eventually adopted. The acceleration of online, the renewed emphasis on green space, demand for co-living/working are all ways of living we can embrace. The architectural challenge will be to deliver these new spaces creatively and sustainably, and it’s one our practice wholeheartedly accepts,” concluded Oli.