Mikhail Riches

The Open Studio calendar is filling up quick! 📅 Our next Open Studio, hosted at Mikhail Riches invites Part 1 students and graduates to present a selection of their work and gain feedback and support with their applications. Additionally, you will be able to network with and learn more about the practice. 📅 Wednesday 9th April 2025 16:00 pm - 18:00pm 📍 17A Newman St, London W1T 1PD 💼 Bring your sample career portfolio, printed, physical copy (max 10 pages) Towards the end of the month, another Open Studio will be hosted at RDA Architects for Part 2 students and graduates. This will involve in-depth feedback and a chance to speak with architects and designers at the practice. 📅 Wednesday 30th April 2025 16:00 pm - 18:00pm 📍 16 Forest Hill Road, East Dulwich, London, SE22 0RR 💼 Bring your sample career portfolio, printed, physical copy (max 10 pages) Details to sign up will be announced soon, keep an eye on our social media or for exclusive access, sign up to the newsletter → https://lnkd.in/eWN35JxG — #architecture #design #community

“While disadvantage communities routinely put up with poorly designed housing developments it is not a given. Through presenting twenty stories which illustrate ten routes to success from across England, this study demonstrates that if the will is there, we can routinely deliver well designed new housing developments in even the most challenging location. The economic, social, environmental and health benefits that flow from this will be substantial” - Matthew Carmona, Jingyi Zhu and Wendy Clarke of The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL   We are honoured that our project Goldsmith Street for @norwichcitycouncil has been identified as a key success story, in the report titled “How High-Quality Housing Can Be Delivered in Less Well-off Areas”. Goldsmith Street is highlighted as an exemplar of how the public sector can tackle inequality through long term economics that maximise whole-life value and deliver for the long-term as well as and making use of the competitive design process. The report outlines ten routes to success in tackling inequality in housing design quality: 1. Creating place and value through design 2. Building a market through architectural innovation 3. An entrepreneurial public sector, sharing the risk in partnership 4. Utilising under-utilised public infill plots in high value but deprived locations 5. Cross-subsidising affordability and design quality 6. Simply public sector vision, leadership and funding 7. Shifting the economic equation 8. Economics of scale (across multiple sites) 9. Cutting costs through continual design interrogation 10. Leveraging community ambition Read more via this link: https://lnkd.in/e5pGFsBH Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London | Place Alliance Urban Design Group | Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) | Civic Voice

Earlier this month myself and others at Mikhail Riches attended a Coaction Training CIC Passivhaus course - thank you Sally Godber and the team for delivering it and for all the great resources! Looking forward to continually build on this knowledge and applying it to projects in the office. 

Perhaps the most substantial and urgent intervention into the policy landscape surrounding design we've seen for years! Huge day with the publication of the Design Council Homes Taskforce's ten policy recommendations for the future of UK housing! This has been months of work with roundtables bringing together some of the brightest minds in housing design, development and refurbishment to develop strong ideas to support the government in delivering its ambition of creating more sustainable well designed homes. In a nutshell the report, titled "Design for Neighbourhoods", argues that significantly improving UK housing design quality is the only way to deliver 1.5 million homes without using up Britain's carbon budget. It lays out not only ten key policy recommendations to achieve better housing design but five urgent questions which government and industry must urgently develop new research to answer. Use AI to summarise it if you want to. DM me for the PDF if you need one. Shout about it on socials, but please take a moment to engage with this document. https://lnkd.in/e3AVvV5w Many thanks to my colleagues on the Design Council Homes Taskforce for steering this work and especially to Matilda Agace Head of Net Zero at UAL who co-authored the report with me and without whose tenacity and creativity it wouldn't have been possible. CC some of the many contributors to the report: Amy Burbidge Anna Rose Annalie Riches Becci Taylor Charlie Edmonds CIVIC SQUARE Chris Vince MP David Rudlin David Bickle Dr. Deb Upadhyaya Deborah Nagan Edward Hobson Emily Darlington MP George Clarke Gideon Amos OBE MP Graham Thomas BSc (Hons), MRTPI, DMS (Dist) Holly Lewis Jonathan Falkingham MBE Jonathan Smales Kathryn Firth Leanne Cloudsdale Luke Tozer Mark Latham Matt Hawkins Nick Raynsford Oliver Coppard Peter L. Peter Maxwell Roger Madeline of British Land Ruth Lang Professor Sadie Morgan OBE Selina Mason of Lendlease Simeon Shtebunaev Sowmya Parthasarathy of Arup Sunand Prasad Tom Copley Deputy Mayor for Housing Yemi Aladerun Yolande Barnes Amandeep Kalra Paul Monaghan Claire Bennie Farshid Moussavi James Binning Summer Islam Astrid Smitham Russell Curtis Sonny Malhotra Josephine Ryan Gill Flora Newbigin and others I couldn't fit on here.

Fantastic milestone to get to… looking forward to seeing it progress on site

Are you a Part 1 and don’t know where to begin with your portfolio? Join us on April 9th where we’re hosting an Open Studio in our London office. Open Studio is a collaborative workshop by :scale, designed for architecture students seeking to develop their career, learn new skills and access expert mentoring. Creating a portfolio can be a daunting experience, but Open Studio offers a great opportunity for Part 1 students and graduates to gain feedback and support on their applications, as well learning more about our practice. Organised and hosted by Sana Tabassum from :scale, the workshop will be attended by some of our Architects; Henry Wootton, Sophie Cole, Chloe Clacy and Matthew McCallum as mentors. To book a place or learn more about the event, click the link: https://lnkd.in/es-2cEFF

Have you heard about our newsletter? Sign up now to keep up to date with current events in the practice as well as our insights into the world of art, design and film. Use the link below to sign up now in time for our March newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eigda_9R

This Thursday, our Associate Director Amy Waite will be speaking at the Sustainable Development X Urban Conservation Conference in Bath, alongside Alex Ely of Mæ Architects and Sharanjit Leyl. A collaboration between Bath Preservation Trust, University of Bath and Bath & North East Somerset Council, the conference will explore innovative approaches which demonstrate how urban conservation and sustainable development can work in harmony to improve places for people and planet. For more info on the event or to book a ticket, click here: https://lnkd.in/eq7u4xbm #architecture #bath #lecture #sustainability #builtenvironment

It was great to be on site this week to visit our net-zero carbon passivhaus projects for City of York Council, currently being delivered by Caddick Construction Limited.   Scaffolding is coming down, revealing brickwork with lime mortar and arrow-head tiles from Crest Brick Slate & Tile Ltd, windows by Idealcombi UK and cast-stone canopies and sills by Cast Stone.   Part of the UK’s first Zero Carbon Housing Delivery Programme, the scheme will deliver 600 homes across 7 sites. The City has set the ambitious target of not only Certified Passivhaus, but Net Zero CO2 in-use.   Team: BBUK Studio | LEDA - Certified B Corp | Warm: Low Energy Building Practice | Civic Engineers | Tibbalds | ImaginePlaces | Passivhaus Trust | Turner & Townsend | Shape Homes York #passivhaus #netzero #architecture #housing

Our Associate Director Amy Waite recently visited multiple shortlisted projects in the North of England as part of the RIBA North East Awards Jury for 2025. 1. The Ad Gefrin Anglo Saxon Museum and Distillery by Elphick Associates uses repurposed oak and stone to contrast with galvanised steel, referencing the utilitarian elements of the brewing process. 2. The Farrell Centre, is an ‘urban room’ for discussions about the built environment designed by SPACE Architects and elliott architects. It blends period details with modern interventions, including a colourful staircase and a new lift shaft for accessibility. 3. Rocket House by NAPPER ARCHITECTS sensitively restores one of the few remaining rockets houses in the UK into a holiday home. Craftsmanship is clear, with original whinstone now revealed on the exterior, while interior reconfiguration provides comfortable and adaptable accommodation. 4. Sundersea Sunderland by Tonkin Liu is an expansive sea-inspired artwork which encases a car park, creating rippling patterns through a perforated aluminum screen. 5. Teesside University Bios by FaulknerBrowns prioritises using durable materials and commits to whole-life carbon emissions in its new facility for Health and Life sciences. 6. Whitburn Coastal Conservation Centre by MawsonKerr is a community hub for nature conservation in the setting of the Souter Lighthouse. Recycled plastic tiles clad the exterior which highlight the damage to the coast from plastic and landfill sites. RIBA