Location?

Aldgate East, London + Pyrmont, Sydney

When did the practice start?

2005 + 2014 in Sydney

How many staff?

25 

Company ethos?

We are a team of people who share a belief that architecture should represent and evolve with the community it helps to form, becoming embedded and integral to its identity.   

Our work centrers the design and delivery of high quality—what could be considered—“shared spaces”; it is the park, square, yard, street, curb and doorstep of the city as well as the overlaying of uses to instigate exchange, interaction, shared experience, and memory.  

Through this we develop higher density proposals which can accommodate greater diversities of tenure and uses, as well as the in between “non sellable” shared spaces required to create cohesive, fully functioning communities and, ultimately, the cities they combine to form.

We are fortunate to collaborate with amazing clients and consultant teams who share and invest in this ethos, contributing to frequent design workshops and reviews around the strata of card model options that are fundamental to our design process.

Current projects?

Our work encompasses commercial, cultural, residential and educational projects which at their most successful, symbiotically combine within larger mixed use proposals. The commercial success of these schemes often allows our clients to invest in less profitable uses and spaces, fundamental for community cohesion, generating cultural and community benefit. This often manifests itself as affordable housing, work space, education, and training spaces with a recent residential project directly facilitating the delivery of a new school for children with cerebral palsy through which we have sought to utilize architecture as a sensory based learning environment.

A significant portion of our current project work is based in Hackney Wick and Fish Island. Bordering the Olympic Park, we have found this area particularly relevant to our ethos as its identity and success has been founded in the blurring of uses and spaces to allow its creative community to form and thrive. Our projects in the area have attempted to facilitate this, culminating in our proposals for Iceland Wharf which, through the formation and cross programming of a sequences of shared yard spaces, looks to bring together 4000m2 of commercial uses and users with 120 new homes and affordable live work opportunities. 

Have you always been at this studio?

pH+ started in a corner of a Shoreditch art gallery. As more people joined us, we grew through a series of Hoxton lofts until, in response to rising rent levels, we discovered the Aldgate / Whitechapel borders. This is a rapidly changing and exciting area of London which perfectly suits our position spanning commercial and cultural projects and clients….as well as our coffee, cake and artisan gin habits!

We have based our Sydney Studio in Pyrmont which, to the west of the Central Business District, has a similar border position and is emerging as a new cultural and creative district.

Favourite part of the studio?

The large table at the front of our studio is the place we meet, eat, design, review and celebrate together. Our large pin board backdrop hosts a continually changing panorama of our thoughts, sketches, mark-ups facilitating the discussion and review which allows us to hone, test and distill our projects to ensure they are as responsive as possible to their briefs and context. 

Favourite nearby coffee shop?

Treves and Hyde. James who runs it was just last year crowned ‘worlds best’ barista at the Coffee Masters competition and is a true artist. Their evening cocktails are excellent. 

Do you eat lunch together?

The size of our meeting table encourages eating together. It also plays host to our Friday afternoon fun ones, heaving under the weight of wine, beer and salty snacks, where projects are discussed as a studio. 

Pets allowed?

Not currently although it is a hot topic of debate (despite out London Director lacking the pet lover gene). Brave and pioneering pot plants have begun to stake a claim however…..watch this space.

Most played song/artist/musician? 

Although the office play list is varied, it could be generally defined as classic to current guitar based indie with some pop goth nuances. Most played depends on who is DJ-ing, however there is always room for Shakira (guilty pleasure).

Favorite architect?

As a studio you would get 25 different and varied answers, which we think is really positive as each of us brings a different interest and angle to our design process. Collectively, we are excited by architects interested in ‘place making’ and who are able to use their architecture as ways of bringing together and refining often quite complex briefs. Our instagram feed is testimony to this with images from recent visits to BIG’s Lego House, Herzog De Meuron’s Elbphilharmonie and Room 11’s pavilions at Tasmania’s Glenorchy Art and Sculpture Park alongside Utzon’s Bagsværd Church and Siza’s Bairro Social da Bouça Housing. SMLXL provides continuous inspiration so OMA should also get a significant mention.

Favourite building in London?

In a similar way to our “favorite architect,” you would get a real variety of answers. If you asked the team, we are focusing on the buildings that facilitate emerging communities. Looking at these projects across divergent scales and temporalities, we really like Pop Brixton By Carl Turner Architects for Make Shift and the many buildings that make up Argent’s redevelopment of Kings Cross…. Although we would love them to bring back B|D Landscaping’s Swimming Pond!