PRESENTATION Sarah gives talk at CAT (Centre of Alternative Technology) and meets legendary eco self-build heroes Pat Borer and David Lea.
Conference – Sarah and Jo Marsh present Ty Pawb at the RSAW 25th Anniversary Conference in Cardiff.
Book launch – Sarah speaks at the book launch of Future of Museums and Galleries at Central St Martins. Es re nientendit red. Pales! Seridi sulvitermium do.
RESEARCH TRIP VeloCity team visits Copenhagen to look at innovative highdensity car-free housing typologies.
PROJECT UPDATE Work progressing well on our new gallery, Found in Brecon, opening July 2019.
Triennial 2019 VeloCity selected to exhibit at the Oslo Architecture Triennial 2019 opening in September.
Article – Stonecrop receives more coverage in Dezeen and Elle Deco Country
RIBA Research & Panel discussion – Petra Marko and Sarah introduce a new evidence– based research report, The Modern Day Picturesque, and host a panel discussion with Alicia Pivaro, Hana Loftus and Meredith Bowles as part of the RIBA series, Perspectives on Architecture.
RIBAJ MacEwen Award – Ty Pawb is commended in the RIBAJ MacEwen Award which recognises architecture for the common good.
VELOCITY SHORTLIST – we are very pleased that VeloCity’s team entry has been shortlisted for the international competition to masterplan a 704ha Garden Community on the edge of Colchester, providing 9000 homes over 20years.
MENTOR – FY enjoyed participating in the speed mentoring at the annual RIBA Guerrilla Tactics conference.
BLACK MOUNTAINS COLLEGE – We are very excited to be working with the Black Mountains College a new university dedicated to addressing the unfolding climate and ecological crisis. The AJ article tells you all about the ethos and design brief to re-purpose a Welsh farmstead located in the Brecon Beacons National Park, and the benefits of its rural location both for the students and the local economy.
AJ RETROFIT AWARDS – Sarah was one of this years judges for the AJ Retrofit Awards, probably the most important award in architecture as it addresses climate emergency by promoting the re-use of existing buildings.
HOME MADE – VeloCity is part of this exhibition at CID Grand Hornu in Belgium presenting new opportunities for home working in the countryside. Exhibition runs from Oct 2023 to Feb 2024.
BUILDING TOURS – two in the same month! Sarah took TAC members on a tour of the B&W Building in Shoreditch, a fully engineered timber building designed by architects Waugh Thistleton who gave us hugely informative insights into the challenges they faced. The second was to Appleby Blue Almshouse, this time arranged by Clare Treanor for our cycling friends, a brilliant reimagination of the traditional almshouse, designed by architects Witherford Watson Mann.
FACTORY VISIT VeloCity visit Brompton bike factory and partner up on co-mobility strategies.
FY’S MARKET HALL DESIGN AT HEART OF A NEW TOWN – Northstowe is a new town in Cambridgeshire for Homes England, the UK Government’s housing accelerator for England. More here
JUDGING AJ RETROFIT AWARDS – as a previous winner we are delighted to be judging this years awards – such an important award supporting re-use and the reduction of our carbon footprint. We saw some great entries and winners are announced in May!
Article – The rise of Reuse unleashes a wave of brilliant buildings, featuring Ty Pawb in Concrete Finishes
Opinion piece – Coronavirus: What next for Architecture? Sarah and Judith Sykes of VeloCity discuss the long term impact Covid will have on the industry in a feature for Building Design 14/04/20
TY HEDFAN IN THE SNOW – Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!!
Conference – AJ Summit on Climate Emergency Sarah talks about growing villages differently.
Opinion piece – BBC Wales News interviews us on our approach to placemaking in the countryside. READ HERE
Urban Design London ‘Tomorrow’s Market’ – We joined a round-table conversation on the future of markets citing Ty Pawb as an exemplar case study
MAYOR’S ‘DESIGN FUTURE LONDON’ CHALLENGE – Sarah is honoured to be mentoring teenagers from Ark Globe Academy to design solutions for the Mayor’s competition that seeks to improve our city’s public spaces.
CAREERS DAY AT HAGGERSTON SCHOOL – a month of sharing experiences saw us participate in a careers day for Years 7&8 at a local Hackney school.
GUERILLA TACTIC SPEED MENTORING – another event which saw FY sharing experiences and knowledge with young architects in the early stages of their careers.
KINGSTON UNIVERSITY ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS – FY were more than happy to share our work and approach with Year 1 architecture students who chose to study our practice as part of a course assignment.
PRESENTATION Sarah joins Negroni Talks #10 – Borderlands – and shares her view on “baggy space” as part of London Festival of Architecture
FRONT COVER OF GRAND DESIGNS – Our new build house in Haslemere, Surrey, graces the cover of the February 2022 issue.
EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPES BOOK – published this month the book uncovers the hidden treasures that the UK has to offer, featuring our Ty Hedfan house and other unique holiday homes also seen in the Channel 4 series.
WALES WEEK AT RIBA HQ – FY joined the celebration and exhibition of contemporary Welsh architects making their mark on London.
REUSE OF MODERN AGRICULTURAL BARNS – FY are excited to be working with our good friends Dom & Kate Ash creating a rural live/work complex in the Cotswolds.
RICHARD REID – a very sad loss of a great architect, mentor and generous supporter of collaborative working.
‘Gentle Radicalism’ – Sarah curated the Architecture Club Spring Forum debate, ‘Gentle Radicalism’ which discussed new approaches to growing vibrant and viable communities in the countryside with speakers including Rob Hopkins of Transition Towns, Ben Rawlence Chief Executive of Black Mountains College, Petra Marko from VeloCity and Robbie Kerr from Adam Architecture.
Award – VeloCity is a finalist in the World Architecture News Female Frontier Award in Team of the Year category
RIBAJ PiP WEBINAR – As author of the Infrastructure and Placemaking chapter in the RIBA Rethink Design Guide, Sarah shared insights on VeloCity’s current work with Blenheim Estates on growth and connectivity in the countryside.
PROJECT COMPLETION Our new gallery Found opens, promoting Brecon as a town of creatives.
TORINO-NICE RALLY Jeremy completes an epic cycle following the Turin to Nice Rally route with mates Joe Morris & Will Lee.
FUTURE AWARDS Sarah judges excellent student work for Blueprint for the Future awards.
SANDI TOKSVIG AT TY HEDFAN – We were really excited to host Sandi and Jenny Eclair at our Welsh house, Ty Hedfan, for the Extraordinary Escapes Channel 4 series, catch our episode here
WREXHAM SHORTLISTED FOR UK CITY OF CULTURE 2025 – Welsh Secretary Simon Hart said “I am absolutely delighted to see Wrexham on the shortlist, it already has much to be proud of (including) an award-winning culture and arts hub in Tŷ Pawb.” More here
Awards – Stonecrop and Ty Pawb are both shortlisted for the RIBA Regional Awards, but the judges’ visits are postponed until 2021 due to Coronavirus.
Project – Blenheim Estate publish VeloCity’s green vision for the Estate.
RIBA SECOND LIVES – FY presented Tŷ Pawb in this important exhibition exploring re-use and retrofit and participated in a talk with Mikhail Riches and Ian Chalk architects. More here.
JUDGNG AJ RETROFIT AWARDS – we are delighted to be judging these important awards a second year running with some great entries supporting re-use and the reduction of our carbon footprint.
CENTRAL ST MARTINS – Sarah’s students on the MA Narrative Environment course produced a playful and compelling campaign for VeloCity deploying an ancient oak tree as the narrator.
Community-led Housing Festival – Sarah joined a panel discussion as part of Thames Valley Community-led Housing Festival, presenting VeloCity and the importance of where and how we build housing in the countryside. You can hear the talk here
AJ SPEC BUILDING STUDY – Features Stonecrop, a new build house in Rutland.
BETTER BIKE SOCIAL – Judith Sykes and Sarah were really excited to present VeloCity at the kick off of this mini-bike festival curated by Joe Morris of Morris+Company. More here
HAGGERSTON CAREERS DAY – we participated in another school event that was all about promoting careers in the creative arts.
AWARD WINNER Ty Pawb receives the prestigious National Eisteddfod Gold Medal in Architecture and is shortlisted in the AJ Retrofit Awards for 2019.
AGE UK’S BID FOR NOTTING HILL POLICE STATION – FY have contributed to Age UK K&C’s bid to embed a community hub in the police station designated as an Asset of Community Value and currently on the open market.
CLIMATE CAREERS FAIR – What job will you do when the world is 2 degrees hotter? Our Director, Jeremy Young, joins Ben Rawlence and other activists and experts to impart their knowledge and advice at Back Mountains College online conference 30 April.
Talk – Architecture Foundation 100 Day Studio series – Day 68, Sarah and Annalie Riches talk about their collaboration on VeloCity
BLENHEIM COMMUNITY PATH OPENS – As part of the ongoing work Blenheim Estate are doing with VeloCity, spring saw the opening of another new community walking and cycling path across the Park, linking Hanborough train station to the surrounding villages to provide a safer, traffic free route. Read more here.
PETT LEVEL BEACH HOUSE – FY have planning approval for a new build beach house on the East Sussex coastline commanding amazing views to Dungeness and the cliffs where David Bowie shot the clown sequences in his Ashes to Ashes video. Construction commences later this year.
RE-SHAPING THE HIGH STREET – Sarah and Jeremy visit Sarah’s home town, to look at important work being undertaken by Yeovil Art Space to help regenerate the town centre.
BUILDING CULTURE – Tŷ Pawb is featured as a case study in ‘Building Culture’, a publication looking at the procurement of UK Arts construction projects, with recommendations for future best practice.
PLACEMAKERS CONFERENCE – Sarah joined a panel discussion on Rural and Small Places organised by Community Housing Cymru.
NEW STUDIO – we are upgrading our Voss Street office which should be completely finished in April – party time!
WALES WEEK – we celebrated another great Wales Week event at the RIBA with an exhibition, talks and an amazing ceramic installation by Ruth Peterson created in memorial of the Grenfell victims.
OVERALL WINNER Ty Pawb is Overall Winner of AJ Retrofit Award 2019 as well as winning Best Cultural Building under £5m.
Everybody’s House Wrexham celebrates Ty Pawb’s successes with a special Civic Pride Event in Wrexham.
TE WHARE MARA – meaning Garden House in Māori has won planning approval from Brighton and Hove planners. It is a new house for clients with a Māori heritage, designed around a series of gardens and with a glazed fernery built into the fabric of the building to house New Zealand tree ferns.
RSAW SPRING CONFERENCE – Sarah was honoured to be the Chair of the annual conference with speakers including Niall Maxwell, Mhairi McVicar and Dan Benham.
AJ RETROFIT AWARDS – another year judging this important award which promotes re-use and working with what we already have to protect our planet’s valuable resources.
Event – Wrexham’s Mayor launches the Civic Pride initiative with Ty Pawb’s award success’s marking the first inaugural celebrations.
PECHA KUCHA AT THE SILO – Sarah speaks about her personal vision for VeloCity at a Pecha Kucha held in the Silo at Shatwell Farm, home to Niall Hobhouse’s Drawing Matter collection in Somerset. More here.
GROWTH OR DEGROWTH? – fantastic turn out for an important debate with speakers Smith Mordak, Andrew Waugh, Eva MacNamara and Selina Mason organised by Sarah for The Architecture Club.
TALKS – a double bill with a road trip across Wales. FY speaking in Shrewsbury to the Shropshire Society of Architects and then on to the RSAW Spring Conference at Centre of Alternative Technology (CAT). More here.
AJ CLIMATE CHAMPIONS – This wonderful podcast series includes one by Jennifer and Sarah talking about VeloCity’s work with Blenheim Estate promoting walking and cycling routes in rural areas to disincentivise car-use and help tackle climate change. Listen here
POLICY FORUM FOR WALES CONFERENCE – Sarah spoke about aligning development and planning with net-zero goals.
ON SITE – a new house on the River Loddon is rising out of the ground. Taking cues from our previous Ty Hedfan river side house, it is elevated on stilts with living spaces hovering over the water and within the trees.
TALGARTH TALKS – we caught the second in a series of talks organised by our clients, Black Mountains College, a university founded as a response to the climate and ecological emergency. Writer and naturalist Carwyn Graves took us through a fascinating journey into the human and ecological history of Wales. Talgarth Talks
AJ RETROFIT JUDGE – Sarah is delighted to be judging this important award which saw our Ty Pawb project as Overall Winner in 2019.
MANIFESTO LAUNCH We launch our VeloCity manifesto, Growing Villages Differently at the Oslo Architecture Triennale – this year’s theme is Degrowth tackling important issues around climate change and reshaping our society.
BLACK MOUNTAINS COLLEGE – thank you to Eleanor Young, editor of RIBAJ, for visiting and writing about this important new university focussed on tackling climate emergency. FY are working on their new campus repurposing an old farmstead with the scheme currently in planning – read more here.
CITY OF CULTURE – we were thrilled to see Wrexham make the shortlist for City of Culture 2025 – congrats to Tŷ Pawb the centerpiece of their bid.
PLANNING AWARDS – this is the second year Sarah judged these awards with many strong projects including The City of York Housing by Tibbalds & Mikhail Riches.
Article – Stonecrop goes global and is featured in Abitare!
VENICE CYCLE TRIP – Velocity team join cycling friends on a tour around the Italian mountains, culminating in Venice for the opening of the Architecture Biennale.
BEFIRST COMPETITION– FY are very pleased to be part of the Waugh Thistleton team shortlisted for the BeFirst Framework for housing and mixed use developments in Barking and Dagenham – all fingers crossed!
AT IN PRACTICE – Sarah talks to Architecture Today from FY’s Brecon studio about how their rural base allows them to focus on projects responding directly to the ecological and climate crisis.
FY WINS 4 RIBA AWARDS! – A bumper crop this year with Stonecrop winning 3 RIBA Regional Awards and Tŷ Pawb winning RIBA’s RSAW Architecture of the Year Award.
BD STRATFORD DESIGN CHALLENGE – FY contribute to BD’s series of opinion pieces on the future of retail citing Tŷ Pawb as a new alternative to the failing high street – a place where boundaries are blurred, activities mixed and retail is more experiential. Read here
RETROFIT FOR BLACK MOUNTAINS COLLEGE – great news that BMC has won a Levelling Up grant to renovate a derelict Victorian school in Talgarth and expand their campus. We are working with them to create new learning and shared co-working spaces for use by the college and wider community – the construction of the school in 1870’s pictured above.
ART FUND MUSEUM OF THE YEAR – we are proud that Tŷ Pawb was a finalist in the Art Fund Museum of the Year with the award ceremony held at the Design Museum and announced live on the BBC One Show.
SHORTLISTED – FY teamed up with Tibbalds and Mikhail Riches to bid for the masterplan of The Core, a 47 hectare site north of Cambridge that over 20 years will see a new community of 10,000 people evolve.
Consultation – Early discussions with residents of Cassington took place to share ideas to improve the village allotments and provide new affordable and energy efficient housing.
Opinion – Oxford Open Thought showcases VeloCity’s Vision on their open platform inviting ideas to shape the county as part of the Oxfordshire Plan 2050.
RURAL 20 MINUTE NEIGHBOURHOODS – Judith Sykes and Sarah joined keynote speaker Professor Carlos Moreno, creator of the ’15-minute city’ concept, at the Town & Country Planning Association’s webinar focussed on how we can create compact and connected communities in rural areas. Listen here.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT WSA SHOW OPENING – we were honoured to speak about our work around the theme of ADAPT at the Welsh School of Architecture Student Show.
STONECROP FEATURED IN HOUSE & GARDENS – A great 8 page spread on the house we designed for Matthew and Nicky Lyttelton who wanted a green retreat which offered a more sustainable way of life.
BAGGY SPACE PART 2 – Sarah joined a panel discussion as part of Tŷ Pawb’s event programme for MILQUETOAST, an exhibition of artwork by Bedwyr Williams.
LISBON CONFERENCE 2021 – Petra Marko and Sarah presented VeloCity talking about the benefits of cycling as a path towards better physical and mental health.
MESSUMS ‘DISCUSSIONS ON ARCHITECTURE’– FY gave a talk as part of the series, set in Messums Wiltshire’s wonderful 13C tithe barn. Watch here
PROJECT REVIEW
“It was designed around the needs of the family… but, more than that, the house was designed around the idea of framing the landscape.” – New house within Haslemere featured in Saturday Times.
MODERN HOUSE PODCAST – so pleased to be part of this fantastic series which sees Sarah chatting with Matt Gibberd about the remarkable ways buildings are shaped by the people who inhabit them. You can listen here.
RIBA AWARDS – this year saw Sarah as the RSAW Chair of the judging panel for the prestigious RIBA architecture awards. The winning Welsh schemes included Grange Pavilion, a new community hub in Cardiff.