Mae News

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John Morden Centre shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize 2023 Project Update

The John Morden Centre has been shortlisted for the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize 2023.

The RIBA Stirling Prize is the architecture industries top award and is judged against a range of criteria including design vision; innovation and originality; capacity to stimulate, engage and delight occupants and visitors; accessibility and sustainability; how fit the building is for its purpose and the level of client satisfaction.

The shortlist is drawn from RIBA National Award winners. The citation from the RIBA jury said "The building, while warm and welcoming, also appears simple, robust and well-detailed, which should allow it to mature well over time.

The project provides a delightful set of meandering spaces which expertly combine recreational and more tricky medical facilities without feeling institutional. Such stimulating spaces are vital to conquer loneliness and isolation. It is beautifully yet robustly detailed and should be a joy to use for years to come."

It follows the shortlisting of our Sands End Arts & Community Centre in 2022 for the same award.

The RIBA’s film about the building can be viewed here. The winner will be announced at the Stirling Prize 2023 ceremony, which will take place in Manchester on Thursday 19 October 2023.

September 2023 view RIBA announcement
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John Morden Centre featured in Baumeister Project Update

The John Morden Centre is featured in Baumeister magazine’s three part series ‘Sustainable Buildings’. Building sustainably is the greatest challenge that architects and the construction industry is confronted with today. This issue focuses on communal living and sustainable social buildings.

August 2023 Read more
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Mæ a finalist in the Social Value Award category at the Building Design, Architect of the Year Awards 2023. Practice News

We are delighted to have been selected as a finalist in the Social Value Award category at the Building Design, Architect of the Year Awards 2023. The Awards recognise the best in the industry across 16 categories. As a practice committed to creating inclusive, welcoming places together with the people who use our buildings, we are delighted that this central tenet to our work has been recognised in these prestigious awards. The winner will be announced at the awards reception on Tuesday 17th October.

August 2023 Read the shortlist here
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Daventry House for Westminster City Council completes Project Update

On 13th July Westminster City Council, Mæ and United Living hosted a reception and tours of our newly completed Daventry House on Lisson Grove NW8 .

Debbie Jackson,Executive Director Growth Planning and Housing at Westminster City Council, Caroline Lewis Managing Director of United Living New Homes and Alex Ely Director of Mæ introduced the scheme, which forms part of the Church Street masterplan.

Daventry House is a fully affordable housing development with all homes provided for social rent and forms part of the Council’s Church Street Regeneration Programme. The scheme is delivering 60 high quality homes for older people and has been designed to meet the HAPPI framework (Housing for an Ageing Population Panel for Innovation). The homes provide generous, accessible accommodation with an emphasis on neighbourliness, while an enterprise centre provides for a richer mix of activity on the site, and supports local businesses as part of Westminster City Council’s wider programme to stimulate economic development in the north of the borough. The development sits at the scheme is at the forefront of the Council's Fairer Westminster strategy.

July 2023 View Project
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Agar Grove Phase 1b shortlisted for the RIBA's Neave Brown Award for Housing Project Update

Given in honour of social housing pioneer Neave Brown (1926-2018), the annual award recognises the UK’s best new affordable housing.

Neave Brown worked for Camden Council during the era when Sydney Cook was Borough Architect in the 60s and 70s. The schemes the borough delivered at the time are widely regarded as the most important urban housing built in the UK in the past 100 years. It seems fitting, and we are honoured, that our scheme for Camden Council has been shortlisted for this prestigious national award.

The winner will be announced at the RIBA's Stirling Prize ceremony in Manchester on 19th October.

July 2023
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SEACC shortlisted for Erich Mendelsohn Award 2023 for Brick Architecture Project Update

Sands End Arts & Community Centre has been shortlisted for the Erich Mendelsohn Award 2023 for Brick Architecture.

Submissions came from all over the world: from Europe, China, from South America

Bauwelt editor and jury member Ulrich Brinkmann reflecting on the jury meeting said "The standard of innovation associated with the name Mendelsohn was constantly confirmed by these excellent projects",

The jury comprised Fabrizio Barozzi (Barozzi Veiga) from Barcelona, Andrés Solíz (Escobedo Soliz) from Mexico, Susanne Wartzeck (President Bund Deutscher Architektinnen und Architekten BDA) and Silvia Schellenberg-Thaut (Atelier ST)

A total of 584 projects from 33 countries were submitted.

The winner will be announced on the 8th September.

July 2023 Read more
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Mayor of Newham Rokhsana Fiaz officially marked the topping out of Noele Gordon House Project Update

Mayor of Newham Rokhsana Fiaz officially marked the topping out of Noele Gordon House in #EastHam. The development, on the former Hartley Centre site, will contain 75 high quality later-living council homes specifically designed for London Borough of Newham residents over 55 on the housing waiting list, alongside a 1600sqm health centre.

The homes at Noele Gordon House are designed to industry leading HAPPI (Housing an Ageing Population Panel for Innovation) principles which meet the needs and aspirations of older residents. The 75 homes will provide older council tenants with an opportunity to downsize into more manageable homes. This in turn will help free up more family homes for those on Newham's housing waiting list.

We’re proud to be working with Populo Living and the Hill Group UK in building high quality accommodation for elderly council tenants and helping to free up existing homes to families on Newham’s waiting list.

June 2023 View Project
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GLA publishes their long-awaited suite of Design and Characterisation London Plan Guidance (LPG) Research News

On Thursday 8 June, the GLA published their long-awaited suite of Design and Characterisation London Plan Guidance (LPG). Mæ was commissioned to draft the guidance, which comprises four new pieces of LPGs developed to support the delivery of high-quality homes and places across the city. They are a useful guide for planning authorities, developers and local communities. The four pieces of guidance focus on the implementation of London Plan 2021 policies, as follows:

June 2023 Read more
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2023 London Festival of Architecture 'Build-A-Town' workshop Practice News

We recently hosted our Build-A-Town workshop as part of the 2023 London Festival of Architecture. The LFA theme this year is ‘In Common’ and our workshop brought together twenty local primary school children to build their very own town.

Held at the wonderful North Woolwich Library in Newham during the half-term holidays, the children and their families master planned their perfect town and crafted buildings they would love to see and visit, including a museum, a castle, a campsite and houses.

We delivered the workshop with support from London Borough of Newham and Lendlease as part of our 2023-24 learning, skills and employment programme within Newham.

June 2023