US30 - A shared passion for great design is the bedrock of our relationship
We live well by design; creating homes, workspaces and communities across the country that raise the architectural bar. We achieve this through working with award-winning, talented design partners who share our vision and values. Among them is shedkm, a Liverpool and London-based architecture practice that’s helped us deliver schemes across the country; here, managing director Hazel Rounding tells us about shedkm’s role in our story.
It was back in the 90s that our Urban Splash and shedkm relationship began. Jonathan Falkingham – one of the co-founders of Urban Splash – was a former student in Liverpool where he met then tutor Dave King. The pair hit it off and got involved in some of the early schemes working on both residential concepts, we helped designed Collegiate in Liverpool, and commercial sites like Matchworks.
When I joined shedkm I soon saw the synergy between our two organisations; the bedrock of our working relationship. We each share an enthusiasm for regeneration and appreciation of the value of good, strong, deliverable design I still remember those very early meetings with Tom and Jonathan and the ideas we shared as we brought that areas of the city back into use.
Moving through to the 2000s and we undertook more great work. Matchworks as I mentioned was an art deco structure in much need of repair and re-invention. The vision really excited us – a chance to jointly create a brief and regenerate through bold transformative architecture, whilst respecting the original design. It was 26 years ago, long before anyone else was talking about retrofit or sustainability credentials. Urban Splash and shedkm did however sit up and champion regeneration – leading us to collaborate as client and architect to find a new use for buildings which had almost become known as ‘problems’ to cities rather than assets.
In the mid-2000s we took on more big schemes together. Fort Dunlop in Birmingham was a real highlight, and I fondly remember the days of driving up and down the M6, blaring out the Housemartins ‘Build’ – the energy resonating with me and the work we were doing.
With Fort Dunlop successfully transformed by 2006, we then continued with phased completion of the even bolder step of turning the Victorian terrace upside down and creating hundreds of new homes at Chimney Pot Park in Salford – somewhere which has since won 16 awards including a Housing Design Award.
The success of those schemes is down to Urban Splash’s culture and ethos; they have this sheer determination to find ways to solve the regeneration of existing structures and the ripple effect that has on neighbouring areas.
However it’s not always been easy; we’ve often been challenged on our collaborative schemes – be that by costs, unknowns and a desire to go where others had failed, but this made us more determined as a team and we balanced the pain with collective spirit through team-building nights out and study trips! Urban Splash have always been good at ensuring that the project team became a united single vehicle.
As for what’s ahead, who knows where Urban Splash will go. I’m particularly interested to see the plans of their newly appointed Director of Future Suzy Jones, and how she’ll take the brand even further. Urban Splash has always been ahead of the curve, and if they can continue to be bold and ‘think outside the box’, whilst retaining the underlining values of great design and improved lives for end users, then they absolutely will be a huge player in the future.
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