Positive Works by Grimshaw

Positive Works

A Review of Grimshaw London’s Community Engagement Works 2019 - 2020

CONTENT

04 Foreword: A Year in Review

14 Fundraising

60 Moving Forward

Who are we?

Why Philanthropy and Community Engagement?

Projects

What are you up to?

2019/2020 IN REVIEW The London Community Engagement team’s first initiative was to rebrand from the term ‘philanthropy’, in order to simplify our goals. Our goal: as a local business we want to be good neighbours and to participate in our community. Looking back at our first 18 months we think we are slowly getting there. This magazine charts the progress of the Grimshaw London office since mid-2019 when we first shared coffee with our neighbours. We had intended for this review to be annual, however with the pandemic in March 2020 we focused our team’s attentions on how we could support our community. With the new year of 2021 we have finally found some time to sit down and consider how we have supported our community, and how we could do better. Our first 18 months has certainly not been what we expected! We could not have anticipated what relationships, projects, or support that reaching out to our community would produce. We started 2019 meeting with a great social enterprise called The Library of Things. They introduced us to the Upper Norwood Library Hub who at that time were looking for advice about making their community spaces more accessible. They also introduced us to the Octopus Network, a local Islington network of community centres, including some of the community centres just down the road from our office. Both these introductions have resulted in Grimshaw building relationships with local organisations. Beyond Grimshaw reaching out to neighbours as an organisation, we have also appealed to Grimshaw staff to consider what relationships are important to us in our local community, and to both individually, and as a part of Grimshaw, contribute to these relationships. 4

We have seen so many staff driving forward Grimshaw’s community engagement across many different themes. Aidan developed Grimshaw’s relationship with the LGTBQ+ Outside Project, a community initiative located on the doorstep of our office in Clerkenwell. Angela Dapper has raised funding for the Part W project, a grass roots group who provide funding for women to attend professional events who may not otherwise be able to afford attendance. Andrew Thomas has raised funding for the Stephen Laurence Trust, Sam Bunn has led the Future Frontiers mentoring scheme, and Emily Watts has spent 2020 raising funds for the NHS. With so many individuals donating to causes close to their hearts, and spending time educating, volunteering, and raising awareness, we couldn’t be more energised by the positive works that Grimshaw has contributed to. We strongly believe that the design industry has a responsibility to empower local communities. This pandemic has only highlighted the importance of localism. We are uniquely placed to support community projects, from inception and stakeholder engagement to communication, spatial requirements, and tangible outputs. This both enriches our architectural practice, enables green community achievements, and builds our own practice resilience in our community.

Annabel Koeck Associate, London Community Engagement Team

“Through community engagement we want to contribute our knowledge and expertise to projects that make a positive contribution to both our neighbourhood, and the industry as a whole.” Andrew Thomas, Partner Grimshaw

WHO ARE WE? Grimshaw London has delivered a number of philanthropic endeavours historically. Each initiative has been received positively and has illustrated that there is support amongst the staff and leadership. In general, efforts have been sporadic, involving staff members who contribute their own time outside of core office hours. Moving forward, a new focused London Community Engagement working group has been formed, called Positive Works, made up of a number

of London staff members from all levels. They are responsible for driving internal communication and strategy for our philanthropic work. Over 2019 and 2020 they have identified partner organisations that Grimshaw employees have been building relationships with, and also enabled staff participation in community initiatives. Recognising the drive of staff to participate in Positive Works has enabled Grimshaw to build on existing relationships and to enable individuals to support their own communities in a more robust way.

“Our work responds to the needs and resources of the contemporary world. Our approach is founded on the desire to create design solutions that use the planet’s resources carefully. Through this pursuit, we design buildings and environments that work, inspire people and transform communities.” Grimshaw Values 7

WHY WE DO IT!

1 We believe that our philanthropic work will

manifest Grimshaw values and approach to architecture.

Through community engagement we want to contribute our knowledge and expertise to projects that make a

positive contribution to our local community, and the industry

as a whole.

Internally, our philanthropic work has the potential to:

• Energise staff & Improve Mental Health by providing

opportunities to be involved in projects that align with shared ambitions and community service.

• Enrich our work through exposure to

innovative ideas relevant to society today.

• Enable the Grimshaw team to enhance collaborative skills

and to engage externally on the creation of strategic projects.

Externally, our philanthropic work has the potential to:

• Contribute positively to our local community, both in regards to our industry and locality.

• Better the built environment through collaboration and discussion.

• Build relationships with like-minded and progressive organisations and individuals.

HOW WE DO IT? Grimshaw London contributes philanthropically in different ways to support our local community and the industry as a whole. In addition to the allocated local budget and expertise, Grimshaw London allocates 1% of the office’s time to philanthropic causes. This equates to: • 2.5 days volunteering per person annually; or • 3 people full time a year contributing to Philanthropy initiatives

FUNDRAISING SUPPORTS & EVENTS

ONE-OFF INITIATIVES

PARTNERSHIPS

1% OF ALL STAFF TIME

SPONSORSHIP

THEME 01

SUPPORT OUR INDUSTRYCOMMUNITY • Affect change within our industry • Act as thought leaders in how architecture can transform communities

THEME 02 ACCESS TO ARCHITECTURE

• Supporting access to architecture initiatives with a focus on enabling low income students and social mobility • Encouraging diversity within our industry

THEME 03

GRASS ROOTS INITIATIVES & CHARITY SUPPORT • Affect change within our local neighbourhood • Support Charities that provide critical services in communities

INDUSTRY SPONSORSHIPS “Everything we produce, from buildings to master plans to industrial design, is the culmination of an evolutionary process that derives beauty from form, economy and efficiency. With each project we learn more about creating forms and places, serving processes and people, and respecting the fragility and resources of our planet.”

UK Green Building Council aims to ‘radically transform’ the way that the built environment in the UK is planned, designed, constructed, maintained and operated.

The W Programme: The Architectural Review and Architects Journal supporting and advancing equality in architecture

London First We believe that London needs to be a great place to live, work, visit and invest.

We believe that our philanthropic work should manifest these values and our approach to architecture. Through industry sponsorship we contribute to broadening collaboration, research and development within our industry.

New London Architecture NLA is an independent forum for discussion, debate and information about architecture, planning and development in London.

London Festival of Architecture is the world’s largest annual architecture festival. They welcome everyone into the conversation around architecture and our city.

Architecture LGBT+ is a not for profit grassroots organisation. They aim to provide a safe, inclusive & prejudice free environment for LGBT+ Architects

We believe all young people should receive the education, training and support they need to reach their potential.

Independent movement of businesses and people that campaign for the idea that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.

Welcome to Future Cities Forum providing high quality thought leadership events, discussions and reports on best practice for the development and regeneration of cities.

2019 FUNDRAISING Grimshaw London staff coordinate and participate in fundraising efforts throughout the year. In 2019, London staff raised money for many initiatives and charities, including...

WIRES Wildlife Rescue

Brompton to Brighton

Ultra White Collar Boxing

In support of the Australian Bush Fires

For the British Heart Foundation

For Cancer Research UK

BlazeAid

Kent Half Marathon

Royal Parks Half Marathon

In support of the Australian Bush Fires

In support of Article 25

For Evalina’s Childrens Hospital

Coffee Morning

Around the World Lunch

For the MacMillan Cancer Charity

For the Stephen Lawrence Trust

Shine Light Walk

For Cancer Research UK

2020/21 FUNDRAISING Prior to the pandemic, Grimshaw held a fundraising evening at the London office hosted by “The Outside Project” a grassroots organisation who need financial support to maintain their volunteer workforce helping homeless people. During the lockdown in 2021, Grimshaw ran an online auction to raise money to support NHS front line staff and those most vulnerable during the pandemic through “Critical NHS”, a nonprofit organisation established in March 2020.

Critical NHS

The Outside Project

A community based non-profit organisation established in March 2020 to support NHS front line staff and those most vulnerable groups in response to the outbreak of coronavirus.

In support of LGBTIQ + Crisis/Homeless Shelter & Community Centre

£2,600

£1,600

PROJECTS

NORWOO THE OUTSIDE

FUTUR TATE S CDW SCALE OCTO STEPHEN LA FACE CRITICA ARCHITECTU 16

OD LIBRARY E PROJECT EVENT GINGERBREAD CITY RE FRONTIERS SCALE RULE E RULE OPUS NETWORK AWRENCE TRUST MASKS COVID-19 AL NHS FUNDRAISING URE IN SCHOOLS 17

Norwood Library The Upper Norwood Library Hub (UNLH) is a community run space that hosts a range of activities and events for the local community of Upper Norwood. The space is run by a community trust who host a range of community activities and events for the area. They host open mic nights, run English and music lessons, and everything in between. Grimshaw worked with the UNLH to design and install a new cafe and communal area. A small number of Grimshaw London staff donated their time to complete this task over 5 weeks.

“Grimshaw’s work at our community library hub has allowed us to revamp our high-street space to encourage engagement from our community beyond everyday library functions. Grimshaw worked collaboratively with our community to develop a fantastic social space and cafe that encourages members of the community to pop in for a coffee during the day, or in the evening for our poetry and open mic nights. Grimshaw went above and beyond by not only designing the space but also spending countless hours and weekends to construct the project and bring the designs to life.” Emily Jewell Hub Director

Category

Critical social services & local community building

Grimshaw Involvement Volunteering Pro-bono design work Direct material supply 18

“Grimshaw invested a lot of their time, passion and resources in understanding how to help us create a space that supported our goal of maintaining financial sustainability”

In September 2019, Grimshaw’s philanthropy team was introduced to the Upper Norwood Library Hub through our work with the start-up called the Library of Things (LoT). After a conversation with the partners of the practice, Grimshaw not only agreed to support the project financially but to support our architects and model shop to give their time and expertise to deliver the project. In October 2019, a design was proposed that centred around the idea of pegboard, which would allow the hub to continue to use their wall spaces extensively for communication, however in a more ordered fashion that

would contribute to making the space feel cosy and welcoming. In November 2019, the Grimshaw philanthropy team got hands on. This project was fabricated and delivered on site in 3 weeks, just in time for the Hub’s Christmas community events. A project such as the UNLH gives our young professionals and architects an opportunity to gain hands-on experience and to learn soft skills such as budgeting, coordinating suppliers, stakeholder engagement, and team management.

“I imagine a space where someone could sit down at 10am and is still there at 4pm”

In Conversation with... Claire Boland

Architectural Assistant, Grimshaw

‘What an incredible experience, the opportunity of creating something in a short time frame, from design concept to reality in 10 weeks. It was energising to be part of a project that embodied the objective of being environmentally and socially sustainable. The Hub project was a cocktail of new experiences, opportunities and challenges. Donating my time as a volunteer allowed me to step outside of my day to day routine and expand not only my networks but also a wide range of skills. The Hub project allowed me to gain insight and to step into the role of architect, project manager, cost consultant, contractor and structural engineer to really feel the practical implementation of our design. For example, hammering 3000 pegs into 3000 holes. Great idea! These projects have so many benefits, to the community, to the organisation and to the individuals who step up and get involved. We were invited as VIPs to the opening in November, making the weekends we gave up well worth it. I look forward to being part of the team again this year.‘

“Engaging with the public in this manner makes you think more about what you are doing and its value” Muyiwa, Architect Grimshaw

Grimshaw Team

Annabel Koeck

Claire Boland

Muyiwa Oki

Mastermind

Jack of all trades, master of none

Painter and Getaway Driver

Robert Sims

Wynne Leung

Workshop CEO

LoT Demolition-er + Master Installer

Claire Greenland

Steven Smith

Oscar Maguire

Lighting Specialist

Sunday’s Helping Hand

Level Measuring Master

Ugnius Katinas

Veronica D’Ambrosio

Naomi Danos

The one who made the pegboards stand up

Design Gatekeeper + Dowel Hammering Queen

Dowel Cutting + Cafe Bench Extrodinaire

‘Keith’

Chris Woodhouse

DIY Mentor + the one who covered our mistakes

The one who stopped us from cutting our fingers off

Andrew Thomas

Ed Cluer

Kirsten Lees

Mentor and Credit Card

Design Competition Winner

The one who made it all happen 25

“NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US” COMMUNITY LED PRINCIPLES WITH FUNDING TO FACILITATE

The Outside Project Fundraising Grimshaw hosted a charity after work event in the office atrium to support and raise money for The Outside Project. Members of The Outside Project ran a drag bingo evening and participants donated digitally throughout the evening. The Outside Project is a homeless/crisis shelter & Community Centre in response to those within the LGBTIQ+ community who feel endangered, who are homeless, ‘hidden’ homeless & feel that they are on the outside of services due to historical & present prejudice in society & in their homes. The project launched publicly at London Pride 2017.

Gingerbread City Gingerbread City is an annual exhibition organised by the Museum of Architecture. It aims to connect the public with architecture in an exciting way, and spark important conversations around cities and how we live in them. This 2019 City explores the theme ‘transport’. Grimshaw’s wonderfully ornate gingerbread structure was awarded 2nd place by the Museum of Architecture’s internal judging panel, and placed 6th in the Public Vote. The team worked very hard so it was incredibly warming to see many employees stop to admire London Bridge Roll Station as it evolved from concept sketch to gingerbread model, and it was a wonderful opportunity for multiple teams and departments to create something unique together. The exhibition raised money to support the MoA as event organisers, and as a charity. In January, the MoA helped to fund a database to match homeless people with proxy addresses from empty properties around the UK.

Category

Community Engagement

Grimshaw Involvement

Volunteer cookie construction team Direct ‘material’ supply Pro-bono baking

Gingerbread City

“The repetitive roof bays have allowed the use of cutting-edge gingerbread modular construction saving time and money”

Concept sketches 30

“The gingerbread city was a great opportunity to promote architectural values to a larger audience with the means of gingerbread, sweets and confectionery. Grimshaw designed a transport interchange with vaulted roof bays, that created an open and civic station, while incorporating sustainability measures, like natural ventilation and green roofs. I really enjoyed working with people across the office, between different teams and collaborating to construct one of the biggest models I have ever worked on, almost 2meters long! This project brought together two of the things I enjoy most in life, architecture and cooking! “ Manolis Venierakis Architect, Grimshaw

Gingerbread City 2019 Team: Manolis Venierakis, Natalie Azodo, Preshila Anada, Marcin Chmura, Esther Akanni, Maria RodriguezJurado, Joseph Shaw, QaisyJaslenda, Georgios Tsakiridis, Anthony Williams, Declan McCafferty, Alex Tucker, Elyse Howell-Price, Will Mansell, Elena Shilova, Rob Sims, Sandra Kolacz

Future Frontiers “Our programme enables young people to link their education to their futures. Over the course of the coaching programme at Grimshaw, volunteers guided Year 10 pupils through their career journey from identifying jobs that suit their skills and interests to finding out how they can achieve their career goals. Multiple interactions with professionals help young people reach sustained destinations once they leave school, in either education, employment or training. As well as interacting with their Grimshaw coaches students concluded their coaching sessions speaking with a huge range of inspiring professionals, sourced by the coaches: from interior design, aerospace engineering, haemotolgy to criminology and finance. Collaborating with Grimshaw on the coaching programme was extremely inspiring for the Year 10 students from Oasis Academy Silvertown.”

Category

Social Mobility, Community Engagement

Grimshaw Involvement Volunteering Donation Direct material supply

Contribute to diversity in education The students gained confidence in their abilities and new found knowledge and experience of the world of work.

“ The scheme challenged our Grimshaw team to develop others and empower them to achieve their goals, whilst upgrading professional training in mentorship skills.

“It was a pleasure working with Grimshaw and the coaches over the four sessions, everyone was so passionate and had so much consideration for their pupils’ experience of the programme.” Fabi Crole, Future Frontiers

Tate Scale Rule In association with the National Saturday Club (NSC), Scale Rule ran an interdisciplinary workshop at the Tate Exchange with over 100 (one hundred!) 1316 year old club members. Scale Rule volunteers from across the architecture and engineering community, including Grimshaw, led groups of young people from NSC to visit artworks in the Tate Modern galleries. The artworks reflect upon – or inspire reflection upon – ideas of community, collaboration and support. After a close study of these pieces (including sketching and discussions with volunteers) the Club members returned to the Tate Exchange space to consider their responses to the artworks. Those responses took on a threedimensional form as each group built bamboo structures to form a ‘room’. Within their room, the teams were challenged to weave a web of wool that allowed a person to move through.

Category

Social Mobility and Education, Community Engagement

Grimshaw Involvement

Volunteering Logistics Support provided by Grimshaw to www.scalerule.org 37

Contribute positively to social mobility in our community “Seeing the group of primary school students discuss and build a design idea was a refreshing example of the power of collaboration. Thanks to Scale Rule and NatSatClub for bringing us together through these fun workshops that most certainly help to lay the foundations for a better society! ”

Tate Scale Rule 2020 Team: Organisers: Steve Kennedy (Grimshaw), Phil Isaac (Simple Works Engineering), Laura Hannigan (Simple Works Engineering) , Sinead Conneely (Simple Works Engineering) Grimshaw Volunteers: Maria Aceytuno Poch, Qaisy Jaslenda, Ella Adu, Ryan Blackford, Clare Mckay, Daniel Higham, John Naylor, Steven Smith, Alice Ampolo, Damla Turan, Sun Yen Yee, Basia Swierc, Pierre Longhini, Kalpana Gurung, Maria Gatto Ronchero, Francesca Minuti, Manolis Venierakis, Muyiwa Oki.... and a lot of engineers too!

Our programme enables young people to link their education to their futures

“Another year and another brilliant couple of workshops for National Saturday Club (NSC) completed with brilliant feedback from NSC, Tate Exchange, NSC tutors and (most importantly) the students themselves.” Steve Kennedy, Grimshaw

CDW SCALE RULE Scale rule is a collective of engineers, architects and designers who like teaching, designing, building and learning. Their projects and activities aim to benefit young people who are interested in the built environment, and the local communities they interact with. For the past 5 years Grimshaw has supported Scale Rules’ pavilion at Clerkenwell Design Week and hosted workshops for young people to help design it. Scale rule gives our young professionals and architects an opportunity to gain hands-on experience and to learn soft skills such as budgeting, coordinating suppliers and team management while engaging with the community and supporting local Farringdon businesses.

Category

Social Mobility, Education, Community Engagement

Grimshaw Involvement

Volunteering Pro-bono design work Donation to www.scalerule.org 42

Better the built environment through collaboration and discussion We encourage young people and professionals to engage with their local built environment and architecture.

The winning pavilion was a deconstructed dome pulled apart by the symbolic hands of humanity illustrating the impact of human creation and destruction on the planet. In normal years this design would have been finalized by the Scale Rule team running the workshops, and constructed and installed as part of Clerkenwell Design Week in May 2020 with the help of the workshop participants. However, clearly 2020 has not been a normal year, and instead of the design being realized physically it has been rendered digitally. While the team continued to develop the design ready for construction, the global pandemic

and subsequent lockdown saw Clerkenwell Design Week postponed, and the pavilion was re-imagined as a digital release. Early in the summer, the students behind the winning concept took part in a digital design workshop where the pavilion was collectively reviewed, tested and developed to allow the team to give feedback and push the design forward. In collaboration with XR developers at Grimshaw, the pavilion was created as both a virtual and augmented reality composition which can be explored online. The pavilion can be experienced anywhere using the instagram filter to drop it into your surroundings and move around.

“Engaging with students during the design process makes you appreciate the value of what we do at Grimshaw and how much we can give back to communities” Veronica, Architect Grimshaw

In Conversation with... Catherine Howe Architect, Grimshaw

“It was disappointing that we couldn’t build the physical pavilion for Scalerule this year but it turned into a great opportunity to develop a digital release with the student team. The pandemic forced us to rethink designs for social distancing and approach the project differently during the first London lockdown, it became a real learning experience for us all. We explored VR and AR to build up interactive sequences and a filter for everyone to be able to experience the concept online, bringing the students’ design into their own space, live from their own phone at home.”

CDW Scale Rule 2020 Team: Catherine Howe, Edel McGee, Clare Mckay and engineers from Price & Myers (Martina Famoso, Will Rogers-Tizard, Tyron Mullins)

Digital & XR: Jamie Vickery, Joe Allison, Sasha Belitskaja

PHYSICAL BUILD DEVELOPMENT

AND THEN COVID19 HAPPENED...

FULLY DIGITISED RELEASE

@NEXTGENDESIGN_LDN

“Due to the pandemic the kids did not get the chance to construct the pavilion design, however it was a great learning experience developing the design digitally with the school groups.” Catherine Howe, Architect Grimshaw 47

CDW SCALE RULE

OVER THE YEARS...

2016 Since 2016 Grimshaw has sponsored an annual pavilion building programme run by Scale Rule. Scale Rule is a collective of architects and engineers across England who run educational programmes about the built environment for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The annual pavilion building programme includes design workshops at the Grimshaw London office and an inclusive construction project which is undertaken in collaboration with Clerkenwell Design Week.

Future of Design

2018 Past/Present/ Future

2017 Unity Bridge

2019 St John’s Grate

Octopus Network The Octopus Network is a network of multi-purpose community centres in Islington. These community centres provide services including learning/emergency food/health & wellbeing and climate change. Grimshaw supports the Octopus Communities Network because they are our neighbours and we value our community. Grimshaw provided funding to the Octopus Network in 2019; in 2020 Grimshaw actively supported their successful funding applications to the National Lottery to provide urban working gardens in concrete social housing locations. Building on this relationship, in 2021 a team of Grimshaw volunteers are working with local gardeners to plan and build new gardens in Islington for “Action for Local Food “, a new project being led by Octopus Communities Network.

Category

Social Mobility, Community Engagement, Health and Wellbeing in Cities, Sustainable Cities

Grimshaw Involvement Volunteering Pro-bono design work Donation 50

“The participation of Grimshaw Architects in our urban growing scheme has been invaluable. We have been able to share ideas and learn from one another. Grimshaw’s young architects have learnt a lot about urban growing, and our community gardeners have really valued the specialist construction support to deliver several new urban food gardens in areas of serious deprivation in Islington.” Julie Parish, Octopus Community Network

Stephen Lawrence Trust The Stephen Lawrence Trust, Building Futures programme supports young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and under-represented groups to study architecture, gain work experience and qualify as architects.

Category

Diversity in construction, Social mobility

Grimshaw Involvement Donation 52

Unconscious bias has a major impact on young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. These initiatives encourage choosing talent in the workplace over background, race, gender or sexual orientation.

Nurturing the architects of the future. Creating a diverse and exciting profession to work in. “The Stephen Lawrence Trust Bursary will be a great support throughout studying architecture and later on for postgraduation. Having support like that will change my mindset and make me want to aim higher. It can put my mind at ease about financing during and after studying and makes it easier for me to follow my goal and finish the process to qualify as an architect.” Hooman Valizadeh Stage 1 Architecture

Face Masks Covid 19 Generous-spirited architects across the UK have produced protective face shields for frontline NHS staff. Grimshaw has used office 3D printers and laser cutters to manufacture critical PPE ready to be used in wards across the UK in the fight against coronavirus. This effort is being co-ordinated via nonprofit groups, such as 3Dcrowd UK, the Do Some Good initiative and the National 3D Printing Society (N3DPS), that aim to provide a centralised resource to deliver reliable and safe designs to healthcare providers. Grimshaw has moved several of its modelmaking printers into the spare bedroom of partner Andrew Thomas, who is producing two headbands for visors every 30 minutes for N3DPS as part of a total 20,000 visors made by the community each day. The headbands are picked up in batches by DHL and delivered for free to a medical supplier that sterilises the product, attaches it to an acetate visor and packages it ready for distribution direct to the NHS.

Category

Health, Community Engagement

Grimshaw Involvement Volunteering Pro-bono design work Material Supply

Grimshaw has joined the UK campaign organised by MedSupDriveUK and N3DPS to manufacture and distribute face masks for health workers in the fight against COVID19.

“My wife has been on the wards and there just isn’t enough PPE, so as much as we can get out there the better. It’s great to see how much collaboration there is. Everybody’s pulling together, everybody wants to do their part and it’s working very efficiently.’ Robert Sims Model Shop Manager, Grimshaw 55

Supporting NHS front line staff and those most vulnerable during the pandemic

Critical NHS Fundraising Grimshaw held a charity auction to support and raise money for Critical NHS. Members of Grimshaw staff offered their creative skills from cooking to knitting or donated a variety of items to raise money. Critical NHS core team was created in response to a request for support from NHS staff within the Critical Care Units who were working extremely long hours during the difficult times of pandemic, with limited access to food and provisions as supermarkets were base and hospital canteens and food outlets were closed.

Category

Mental Health and Public Health

Grimshaw Involvement Fundraising: £2,600 raised

Architecture in Schools Open City Architecture in Schools is a creative learning programme organised by Open City for primary school pupils in years 4, 5 and 6. The programme aims to train teachers in how architecture can be used to teach a variety of subjects including Art, Design, Numeracy, Literacy, Geography and Science while improving children’s drawing, model making, communication and problem-solving skills. The aim of the programme is to inspire the next generation of city-shapers and for participants to understand how architecture informs the world around us. Every class which takes part in the programme attends a half-day visit to an exemplary building from Open City’s database of 800 incredible venues. For the 2019 programme, whose theme was Smart City, Grimshaw was paired with The Cubitt Town junior school that won the Most Buildable Design’ award.

Category

Social Mobility, Community Engagement

Grimshaw Involvement Volunteering

Grimshaw Team: Alex Bodman, Simona Uzunova, Barbara Swierc, Manolis Venierakis, Jose Hidalgo, Marta Blanco, Carmine Andrea Rago, Emma de Haan

What are you up to?

Aidan Hermans

Veronica D’Ambrosio

The Outside Project Fundraising

Community Hub Project Lead

Name: Aidan Hermans

Name: Veronica D’Ambrosio

Role at Grimshaw: Architect

How you got involved in community initiatives: Following the 2019 Diversity Week, Aidan and a group of colleagues established Grimshaw LGBT+ following a successful panel discussion around queer representation and barriers in the construction industry. Aidan and the wider group are interested in building stronger queer connections within the office and between construction industry players to create a more inclusive and safe space for all LGBT+ people and to support knowledge building around the subject. Supporting grassroots organisations like The Outside Project who need financial support to maintain their volunteer workforce forms part of this mission as we attempt to cover all ways in which the urban environment can harm LGBT+ people including homelessness.

How you got involved in community initiatives: I have always believed in using my professional skills and knowledge to benefit others. When the chance to transform the Upper Norwood Library Hub came up, I was thrilled from the opportunity and I jumped on it.

Moving Forward: Aidan and the wider group continue to maintain active roles in the Grimshaw LGBT+ Group. These roles include organising and conceptualising future (digital) internal and external events, participating in the Architecture LGBT+ Pride float competition, promoting fundraising opportunities such as The Outside Project, working together with Internal Comms and HR to develop inclusive practices and supporting knowledge building within the practice. 60

Since the first time we visited the Hub, it was clear how important this place was for the local community. All the leading people from the Hub engaged and participated throughout the design process, and during the self-building process, too! I would encourage everyone to take part in experiences like this one: local communities have the opportunity to meet with professionals and contribute meaningfully to their society, while you can be creative, enhance your teamwork skills and actively listen to their needs.

Moving Forward: Veronica is making the most of the wide range of skills learnt and developed through community hub engagement in her current day to day work on the Excel project. She is also taking on leadership of the Women in Architecture group at Grimshaw.

Sam Bunn

Jade Lau

Future Frontiers Project Lead

Social Mobility Foundation

Name: Sam Bunn

Name: Jade Lau

Role at Grimshaw: Architectural Assistant

Role at Grimshaw: Architect

How you got involved in community initiatives: I got involved through a colleague who asked me to speak at a local school about my career. This experience inspired me to get involved when Grimshaw was looking for support to enable the Future Frontiers in our own offices.

How you got involved in community initiatives: I joined the Social Mobility Foundation mentoring scheme in 2019 as a mentor and was paired with a sixth form student. Our conversations were wide ranging and included discussions for her further education intentions and career ambitions. Following this, I spoke to members at a Q&A panel for the 2020 cohort to encourage young people to participate in future initiatives.

The Future Frontier programme allows you to have a real impact on a student’s outlook and future, at a key inflection point within their educational journey. I believe it provides a level of support and guidance during a period that can often be overwhelming as education begins to transition into career. Through making time to volunteer I have gained a valuable new perspective on my overall role as a professional. Moving Forward: Looking forward to finally completing my own studies (Part 3!) and hoping to continue to be involved with education, minus the exams, through both university teaching and future frontiers mentoring.

Moving Forward: Moving forward I would welcome educational and mentoring opportunities and also encourage those who have not previously participated to do so. I was aware of the merits of being a mentee, but less so of those as a mentor until this stage. I think I will also be a much more effective mentor to younger architects in the practice thanks to this experience and have learnt to better represent myself in my own career too.

MOVING FORWARD Moving forward we hope to expand our community engagement endeavours across more boroughs in London and to build on existing relationships to grow our impact. Please contact Andrew. Thomas@grimshaw.global for further information. Finally, a huge thank you to all the staff who contributed so much over the past 18 months!

“This pandemic has only exacerbated inequalities in our society. It is vital that in the aftermath we contribute creatively to rebuilding our local community initiatives, enabling sustainable growth for all.” Kirsten Lees, Grimshaw London Managing Partner

Positive Works 64