The Homerton College, Cambridge, team have been exploring the richness and variety of faience cladding for the dining hall. The sunlight is looking great on our recent sample. Find out more about the project here.

We’ve had a brilliant day visiting Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The new gallery and visitor centre is rapidly progressing ahead of its opening in the Autumn! Swipe right for more images.

“More even than the work of great architects, I loved buildings that grew silently with the centuries, catching and keeping the best of each generation, while time curbed the artist’s pride and the Philistine’s vulgarity, and repaired the clumsiness of the dull workman.”

Evelyn Waugh – Brideshead Revisited

Building on the Studio’s past two years exploring primary and secondary education this year we turn our gaze to some of the oldest institutions in the world, places that become our home for several formative years in the pursuit of ‘higher education’ – Universities. We pose the simple question – how do we build well?

The most enduring universities emerged from the building form of Cistercian monasteries such as Le Thoronet Abbey in southern France. Clusters of interconnecting quadrangles at once define a spatial and organisational logic for rooms within a college whilst contributing significantly to cities urban streetscape and civic qualities. The year began with students visiting Oxford and Cambridge and documenting them at the scale of City, College, Building and Detail.

During this process we discovered longevity does not necessarily rely upon static and unwavering edifices. As Waugh conjures the provocative image of a building as an almost accidental accumulation of comfort and patina, more grown than conceived. Even the most ancient buildings undergo a process of repair, remaking, or as Ruskin put it ‘changefulness’.

The studio went on to visit works by Marie-José Van Hee in Ghent and the serene Roosenberg Abbey by the architect monk Dom Hans van der Laan, before embarking on the main project, to conceive a new University building on range of constrained urban sites in Aldwych for institutions including LSE, Kings College, and The Courtauld to accommodate academic communities and unknown pursuits for centuries to come.

Sir Alex Gorden’s popular mantra of the 70’s ‘long life, loose fit’ provoked the studio’s reflection on how buildings might be as generic, flexible and ‘loose fitting’ as possible, inviting the resourcefulness and improvisation of successive generations to impress their own ideals.

Studio 11 is delighted to present the outcome of these various conversations, insights and explorations, projects promoting values of academic freedom and institutional autonomy; buildings of long life and low specificity, timeless and changeful.

The show remains open until 7th July.

Eleanor Young has written a great article for the RIBA Journal about Waterloo City Farm, it’s urban context and the projects essential role in the community. Read more here (Image credit: Peter Cook)

Capel Manor College in Crystal Palace Park has received funding to go ahead with a £4.9m regeneration project to their south-east London campus specialising in teaching animal care, horticulture, arboriculture and garden design. More updates to follow on our website soon.

We are excited to begin our Summer Series; a number of celebrations, dinners and debates around the themes of our past and present work. Earlier this month we enjoyed inviting our friends and collaborators to begin the discussion and enjoy an early summer evening in our blossoming studio garden.

This summer Waterloo Community Farm will play host to a number of great events, including the Green Sky Thinking 2018 Launch. The barn, farm and Feilden Fowles’ studio were opened to event-runners to celebrate the beginning of another inspiring series focused around the theme of ‘People First’. (image credit: Michael Colman)

We have started 2018 full of energy, and looking back at the wonderful projects and clients we worked with last year here is our #bestnine2017

We are recruiting for a new Studio Manager to join our team. This is a great opportunity to join the practice and will be a rewarding position, working closely with Directors & the FF team.  If you feel you have the relevant experience to fit this position, we would love to hear from you. Details of the position and how to apply can be found here.

Feilden Fowles are delighted to have won a prestigious Wood Award for their Waterloo Studio. A big congratulations to all the team and to Timber Workshop for such a great job!