Welcome to Mae

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.

The Observer's architecture critic Rowan Moore has included our John Morden Centre on his recommended list for this year's prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize. He describes the Centre as 'an exemplary work' that has 'an intimate and informal composition, distinctly Scandinavian in spirit, lifted by moments of amplitude – a high, luminous dining space; a broad passageway winding through it; generous connections to the outside. It’s casual, you might say, except that the carefulness of the architecture is anything but.' The official shortlist will be announced in September.

We are pleased to be co-hosting, alongside Lendlease and the London Borough of Newham, a family event for this year’s London Festival of Architecture. Our Build-A-Town workshop will be held at North Woolwich Library for 20 primary school aged students and their parents. We will spend an afternoon exploring architecture and master planning by building our own town. The 2023 LFA theme is ‘In Common’ and our workshop will bring families together, sharing experiences and cultures through play and learning.

We have been fortunate to work with Be First on several projects, most recently the affordable housing development Padnall Lake. As part of our social value programme, benefiting the local Barking and Dagenham community, we had the opportunity to establish a new series of workshops for the alumni students from the Open City Accelerate programme.

Accelerate is a design, education and mentoring programme providing young people aged 16-18 with architectural experience before going to university. Our alumni workshops, which we hope will be an annual event, offered advice to these same young people who are starting to plan their post-university careers. Our team of directors, associates and architects worked with 12 students, reviewing their portfolios, CVs and application letters, and providing mock interviews.

Through group work and 1-2-1 mentoring we were able to offer knowledge of the industry and contacts, and the afternoon sessions also gave students from different universities the chance to share experiences. We were very impressed with the students and look forward to hearing about their education and careers in the future.

Alex Ely (Mæ) alongsideTom Gibb and Anna Monaghan (Haverstock), and taking part in the RIBA's Building Stories series, which celebrates RIBA Award-winning buildings.

Hosted by Hero Bennett (Max Fordhams), the panel will be sharing the story behind Guildford Crematorium and Sands End Arts & Community Centre - followed by a live interactive Q&A session.

Sands End Arts & Community Centre by Mæ - Located on the northwest corner of Fulham’s South Park, this project is a collaborative development comprising several new connected pavilions arranged around the existing disused Clancarty Lodge, a popular landmark that was refurbished as an exhibition space as part of the same project. The project won a 2022 RIBA London Award, London Building of the Year Award and National Award.

Guildford Crematorium by Haverstock - The new-build crematorium was designed in close collaboration with Guildford Borough Council and their design team, and the thoroughness of this process is evident in the way that the functions of the building have been carefully orchestrated to manage the journey of mourners and to ensure that the functional aspects of the site do not intrude on the experience of visitors. The project won a 2022 RIBA South East Award, South East Building of the Year Award and National Award.

Episode Nineteen of A is for Architecture’s second season is a conversation between host Ambrose Gillick and Mæ’s founding director, Alex Ely, talking about his practice’s recent book, Towards a Resilient Architecture, published by Quart in 2022. Mæ’s work has an increasing focus on sustainability integrated into the whole life of the scheme.