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INSIGHTS
Another interesting project that Ackroyd Lowrie has recently been involved with is Yonder, where a creative retrofit of a warehouse in Walthamstow has resulted in a modern and dynamic hub to work, exercise, eat and relax. Yonder combines a series of co-working spaces including flexible desks, maker’s workshops and R&D prototyping, with indoor climbing, and a central café that is used day and night by the local community. The adaptive reuse design follows an amphitheatre layout, and was modelled extensively in VR to provide interesting sightlines throughout the triple height space. A low energy ventilation system served a new water cooling and heat recovery need; it was developed to specifically address the climate conditions needed for climbers as well as remove the chalk dust they use from the air. Yonder has been hailed as a new benchmark for its use of space, light and climate control, while also creating over 100 jobs. Recognising the benefits that technology can bring to building
YONDERLAND Adaptive reuse in Walthamstow provides a dynamic workspace with a climbing wall Architypal lessons
Architype proved to be a great foundation for Jon and Oliver in forming their new practice. While at their previous firm, Ackroyd was heavily involved with a lot of research work as part of the Government-funded research initiative Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board). As part of the scheme, he did post- occupancy evaluation of a recently completed building to test how it actually performed in use. He says it proved a highly instructive process, and informed much of Ackroyd Lowrie’s philosophy on design and technology. Reflecting on their time at Architype, coupled with this research, Jon and Oliver got to thinking that while it’s all very well to reveal problems once a building is in use – some remedial measures are possible at that stage – certain fundamentals are very hard to fix, and the capital has been spent. So, to address the question of how to prototype and test buildings before they are built and those chances to get it right are missed, they turned to employing Virtual Reality (VR) which replicates the Building Information Modelling (BIM) model used on projects, so clients could immerse themselves in the final design. Ackroyd states that “this type of engagement has been really successful, particularly with end user clients, and ‘multi-headed’ user clients, such as the NHS.”
Putting technology to the test A successful example of a VR-assisted design now in operation is a dialysis ward that Ackroyd Lowrie designed at Mile End Hospital in east London. In the project to extend and reconfigure the Bancroft Unit – created as the first ‘self-administering’ dialysis ward in the UK, staff wanted to understand how they would be best able to work around the patients, such as factors like bed spacing. Ackroyd Lowrie set up a scenario using multiple VR headsets in the existing facility that enabled staff to visualise the adapted space in a really effective way.
Creating buildings that don’t require fundamental change is a sustainable goal in itself. “The most unsustainable thing you can do is to build something wrong, and then have to go back and change it,” says Lowrie. That was another legacy from what we had learned at Architype – the importance of trying to get buildings right first time.”
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design, Ackroyd Lowrie is keen to grasp the challenge of grappling with the AI technologies that are coming onto the market. While these are both “fascinating and terrifying,” say the duo, they believe it’s vital for architects to engage with them. “We’ve got a ‘hackathon’ happening over the next couple of months, where we’re testing different AI tools, seeing how they can work within our workflow, to optimise performance and improve sustainable design,” adds Ackroyd.
VR ON THE WARD FLOOR VR was used at Mile End Hospital to help engage staff and optimise a ward design
AI & diversity for designing future cities Along with the use of AI to “leapfrog and create efficiencies for better cities,” Ackroyd Lowrie as a firm is also a big advocate of encouraging and embracing greater diversity within its staff to benefit the practice’s work. Jon and Oliver agree that if you’re going to design the cities of the future appropriately – and make urban environments that are suitable for everyone that uses them – you need to have a deeper understanding of the people that are going to live in them. Ackroyd admits candidly, “If you’re all from a white middle class background, that isn’t going to be a true representation of everyone that will be living there.” The pair say that the end goal – assembling the ‘perfect’ mix of designers together within the practice – is the “magic sauce” for designing future cities. They see it as the fundamental ingredient to designing cityscapes that accurately reflects communities. g
ADF OCTOBER 2023
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