Over the last twelve months Covid-19 has seen many of us spending more time at home and within our local communities. For some this has been a positive experience, for others not so much.
The pandemic, alongside the government’s recently published Living with Beauty report, has shone a light on the value of good residential design and placemaking. Considered design of homes and neighbourhoods can have significant health & wellbeing effects at both the individual and collective level and set a positive benchmark for future developments to come.
With the support of our event partners, Winkworth Sherwood, FBE Manchester will be exploring these themes with four guest speakers, all of whom have a wealth of proven experience in the delivery of distinctive, engaging neighbourhoods where residents feel part of something bigger than their own front door.
AJ 40 under 40: Archio
18 December 2020 By will hurst, illustration by Simon Hayes
Run by Mellis Haward and Kyle Buchanan, the AJ 40 under 40 practice combines an ethos of contributing to wider society with looking after the wellbeing of its own employees
The last AJ 40 under 40 made a big impression on the two directors of Archio, who had just graduated when it came out in 2005. Mellis Haward, 38, and Kyle Buchanan, 39, – who met while studying at Cambridge – remember being particularly impressed by the ‘joyful’ work of AOC and the urban design approach demonstrated by Witherford Watson Mann and 5th Studio.
The pair bring experience of working for a number of leading practices in the past, including Glenn Howells Architects, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Sergison Bates, Moxon and Gort Scott. Significant projects include nine new homes and a refurbished pub completed within the curtilage of the Grade II-listed Temple Inn in Somerset and an ongoing scheme to