Welcome to Mae

Mæ are pleased to announce a new starter amongst the team; Tom Jarman, commencing his role as our newest Director.

Tom has a wealth of experience in a whole host of sectors such as masterplanning, commercial, residential, education, arts and culture and is a welcome addition to our team here in Southwark.

He will be responsible for several ongoing projects within the practice and will be an active contributor to the creative and technical leadership of projects across the Mæ portfolio.

Re-Set-Go is a hand-on experience and mentoring programme established by the London Practice Forum with the mission diversifying architecture practices. The programme provides opportunities for Black, Asian and multi-ethnic individuals and women from the boroughs of Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Wandsworth.

As well as offering mentoring sessions and portfolio & CV surgeries, we also hosted graduate student, Abiba, for a 6-week paid internship. We were delighted that Abiba had chosen to join us as she wasn’t undertaking architectural studies but came from an urban history and culture background. She joined our estate regeneration team working in Hammersmith and Fulham and undertook a detailed and invaluable study on the local community.

We connected with the students being hosted by other London Practice Forum members for weekly catch ups, sharing experiences with each other. They were an extraordinary talented group of young people and we very much look forward to working with them in the future.

When we proposed a day workshop for a group of Year 10 students to our clients at Be First, we knew it would be a wonderful opportunity to talk to this group of twenty 15- to 17-year-olds about what is important to them within their neighbourhood.

The students worked in groups with a Mæ team leader focusing on housing, civic & community, commercial and public realm. After a walk-and-talk, taking photographs and making sketches, the students jointly planned their own ‘ideal’ neighbourhood. As a practice that specialises in community-led regeneration projects, we were able to watch and listen to what was important to these young people, whether it was green spaces, cycle routes, a local shop or a home with outside space and a door to the street.

It's important to us to share our skills and knowledge through our education programmes. However, the ideas and experiences that young people, such as those from the Warren School, share with us are invaluable to our development as stakeholder-led architects.