Enduring projects for a changing world

Forest Road

The Rock

55 Leroy Street

Oxford North

Best-in-class laboratory building for life sciences

Announcements

Major expansion of pioneering Girton College Cambridge

Announcements

Gort Scott is now a Certified B Corporation

Sustainability

Gateway West achieves a BREEAM rating of Outstanding

Awards

Unity Place shortlisted for RIBA Neave Brown Award 2024

Event

Mayor of London visits Three Mills Studios

Three Mills Studios

New creative spaces for iconic TV and film production studios in East London

Waltham Forest Town Hall & Assembly Hall

Flexible working and event spaces for Waltham Forest’s listed Town Hall and Assembly Hall

Sustainability

Read our Retrofit Manifesto, produced for London Festival of Architecture

Feature

A First Look at Bridge Avenue Mansions Retrofit

St Hilda’s Oxford

Transformative front of house development for St Hilda’s Oxford riverside site

The Rock

A private residence perched upon a rocky outcrop in Whistler

Feature

Integrated Technology Action Group

51 Hills Road

The greenest office in Cambridge

Feature

Planning consent granted for City of London retrofit scheme

Gainsford Road

Affordable starter homes on a site with an Arts and Crafts legacy

Studio

Read about our ethics, principles and our people, here.

Approach

Commitment to the Environment

Explore

Values-Driven Working

Explore

News

Forest Road recognised by 2024 Brick Awards judges for high quality and workmanship

Forest Road was awarded in the Medium Housing Development category at the Brick Awards 2024. The project was recognised by judges for its high quality and workmanship:

“Beautiful looking building, the wet cast stonework complemented the tint of the clay bricks. Excellently constructed brickwork especially the window surrounds and stone heads!” - Judges Comment

Designed for Pocket Living, Forest Road provides 90 affordable one-bedroom homes for local first-time buyers and makes excellent use of an under-utilised site, to provide 100% affordable homes. Inspired by the curved bay windows of the neighbouring William Morris Gallery, lintels are gently concave to catch soft shadows that animate with changing light. All precast elements are coloured to match the pink/red tones of Floren Vecchio brick. The material palette contains a mix of warm white, grey, plum, pink and red tones acknowledging the diverse colours of surrounding buildings, with a storey-height band of darker bricks - Floren Tartufo - forming a base to the building.

A special mention to brick manufacturer, Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC for supplying our bricks (Floren Vecchio, Floren Tartufo).

Work begins on site at locally listed Dome House in Spitalfields

Work at Dome House has begun on-site. Located at 48 Artillery Lane in Spitalfields, this project involves the adaptive re-use of a heritage asset to create flexible and low impact new workspace.

The building has a cranked roof with a glazed lantern atop to draw in natural light. A central circular staircase sits below the lantern and a domed ceiling. A modest rooftop extension will accommodate a new staircase leading to a plant enclosure and a roof terrace, with views over Artillery Passage Conservation Area.

A key aim of the project is to improve the building’s environmental performance. The strategy is to retain as much of the original building fabric as possible, whilst upgrading key elements to improve performance.

Director Fiona Scott speaking at Healthy City Design 2024

Director Fiona Scott will be speaking alongside Jaime Bishop in a discussion about the case for locating healthcare services on high streets and in town centres to maximise cross-cutting benefits both for the city and for peoples’ health. They will be at Healthy City Design 2024 at the Royal College of Physicians in Liverpool 15th-16th October.

Wednesday 16 October, 14:00
Session 29: ‘Locating health services in town centres: Applying urban design and data to maximise benefits’


Environmental Action Group attends UK Passivhaus Conference

Gort Scott’s Environmental Action Group attended the 14th UK Passivhaus Conference, held at the University of Oxford. The team were incredibly interested in the progress the University has made on their new Passivhaus Humanities building, which is set to be certified as the largest in the UK. A Passivhaus Masterclass was headlined by a number of key speakers from the project team and set out the comprehensive technical challenges associated with the project delivery. As well as providing a practical insight into how to achieve Passivhaus at scale, the Masterclass outlined the critical role of good design team communication, effective information exchange and rigorous project reporting. It also provided an insightful record of the University’s journey, from a small aspiration to design to Passivhaus standards, to an eventual commitment to achieve certification. The conference provided critical information for Gort Scott as we commence concept design stages for a large Passivhaus Standard University building in 2024.

During the second day of the conference the team heard from several public sector bodies, who are in the process of setting out a clear strategy, to improve Local Planning Policy in the face of the climate emergency. Michael Jones from York City Council introduced their ‘Building Better Places Guide’ which commits to developing all new build housing to certified Passivhaus Standards. He provided invaluable insight into the council’s new high-quality housing developments, currently in construction at Duncombe Square, Burnholme Green and New Ordnance Lane. He was followed by Lewis Knight at Bio-Regional who set out an excellent strategy to help Local Councils improve upon National Planning Policy.

As the conference concluded, we were particularly interested in the more all-encompassing energy strategies that were presented by Paul Cross, for Oxford University Estates and Barbara Hammond for The Low Carbon Hub. Barbara talked at length on the importance of preparing at all scales for a decarbonised electrical grid. She outlined that electrical services in new builds could require 4 times as much space than current best practice, so designing from the outset to low energy Passivhaus Standards will be critical to maintain spatial efficiency and viability in the future.

The UK Passivhaus Conference provided Gort Scott’s Passivhaus Designers with an excellent opportunity for ongoing training, as well as a much broader insight into Net Zero Carbon strategies emerging across the UK.

Many architects, through their work, create art and alter environments. A few, like Gort Scott, transform lives.

Private client, The Rock
Explore Project