WonKy

The Clearing is a multi-functional education space that will support woodland management and volunteers; events that teach the importance of sustainable woodland management and nature conservation; demonstrations of traditional forestry and woodworking skills to volunteers and local schools; and give children access to natural green space for outdoor recreation and learning.

Situated in southeast London on the last stop of the newly opened Elizabeth Line, Lesnes Abbey Woods is an 88-hectare public park and ancient woodland, including a ruined abbey, in the London Borough of Bexley. The local authority appointed WonKy in 2020 to co-design an outdoor education space with its future custodians and users including the estate management of Lesnes Abbey Woods, local volunteers, North West Kent Countryside Partnership, and Creative Nature HQ.  A former council goods yard was identified as the site for The Clearing, within the ancient woodland, as the ground was previously disturbed and of low ecological value. The project team ran pilot events on the site to build the case for development and test design ideas. 

 A large parachute, creating an outdoor classroom and meeting place, was specified to create an all-weather space that offered covered dappled lighting in the open woodland. The act of setting up the outdoor education space is intended to be a communal activity at The Clearing. With the aid of a catapult, the parachute is slung over a stainless-steel cable hung between the trees, then participants work together to draw and tether the parachute to a circle of wooden posts, carved by local volunteers into woodland motifs suggested by local school children.

Taking inspiration from the fishing net lofts of Hastings, a small square tower, lined internally with plywood and clad externally in Corten steel with a translucent GRP lantern, stores and dries the parachute. The top of the tower also allows for monitoring equipment to be installed so birdsong and other data can be recorded and stored.

A full-width metal roller shutter is the backdrop to a stage decking area that can be used for demonstrations and performances both under cover and in the open air. The design makes use of a disused Corten steel shipping container, sand-blasted and allowed to rust, the skin of this space blends in with the oxidised cladding of the tower.

The treadle operated pole lathe and shave horse are considered the beating heart of a woodland’s greenwood workshop, and these items are brought out into The Clearing when in use. At other times they are securely stored in a sheltered external store with sawtooth Corten cladding to the walls and roof. A low concrete bench surrounds the internal perimeter to offer volunteer and woodworkers a space to rest.

Corten steel, chosen as the primary cladding material, is a secure and fire resistance material used throughout the woods and public park, that weathers naturally to form a distinctive rust-red protective coating, and allows the building to blend into the ancient woodland, in all seasons and especially in Autumn.

The architects pride themselves on being resourceful with budgets and sustainable with materials, and this project began life with a ‘found’ shipping container, a decommissioned military parachute, and using as much chestnut and oak coppicing from the surrounding woods as possible. The approach to the specification maximised the budget and minimised the project’s carbon footprint. 

Photographer: Jim Stephenson Architectural Photography & Films

Client: The London Borough of Bexley

Main Contractor: Gransden Construction Ltd

Traditional Woodwork: Creative Nature HQ & Lesnes Abbey Wood Volunteers

Structural Engineer: Engineers HRW

Greening Evelyn was commissioned by the National Trust in 2022 to help explore the community’s aspirations for improving access to green space, alongside support to co-develop their vision. 

Greening Evelyn sets out a vision for the Evelyn Ward to aspire to be the first Garden Ward in Lewisham. It is inspired by the celebrated and now lost 17th Century gardens at Sayes Court, the former home of John Evelyn who gave his name to the ward. However, it is also a statement of intent where the whole ward is considered a garden, a green public realm, for local residents to enjoy. Informed by community engagement and input from a wide range of stakeholders this report includes a toolkit that aims to make the existing parks, the pavements and roads, the spaces outside housing estates, homes, shops, and businesses, greener and more accessible for everyone to enjoy and, equally, is designed to help community groups to facilitate green space improvements.

Greening Evelyn is not simply about adding more green and more planting, but an ambition to make the existing green spaces and public realm work harder for people and nature. Greening Evelyn looks to reveal hidden places and link them to existing green spaces, to increase impact and footfall. By creating nature corridors through the ward, the hope is to increase biodiversity, address the climate emergency, and celebrate what is already growing and living in the area.

A digital copy of the toolkit is available here

A new build 2-bedroom house within the grounds of a detached Victorian house in south east London. The emphasis is on sustainable construction methods, high quality design and quality materials sympathetic to the context. The proposals have secured planning permission and the house is being designed to Passivhaus standards and aiming for Passivhaus Classic Certification on completion in 2024.

A whole house renovation and remodelling of a terraced London property. The client wanted a deep retrofit of energy efficient measures as a core part of the brief. We specified materials with low embodied energy that were vapour open to ensure moisture within the existing building fabric was suitably managed. Rendered wood fibre external wall insulation was used at the garden elevation, and wood fibre was also used for internal wall insulation to the street to maintain the historic architectural details of the front elevation. The roof and floor were also insulated and new windows, doors and ventilation strategy incorporated. The house was completed in 2021 and the garden and landscaping are due for completion in 2024.

WonKy were commissioned by the residents association of Bence House to undertake a study into energy efficiency, renewable power and greening for a 53-unit block in the architecturally significant Pepys Estate. The 8-storey block is a primary typology across the estate. The study will aim to kickstart a retrofit process based on a community-led brief in alignment with national and local authority housing and net-zero policy.

A mixed-used development situated on the C16th Venetian Walls of Nicosia's Old City, a scheduled monument. The site negotiates a storey level change between two street frontages and is aiming to maximise the development potential for the client. The project has been designed to Passivhaus principles and is aiming to be the first certified Passivhaus in Cyprus. The design incorporates innovative shading strategies, inspired by traditional Cypriot architecture, to ensure a comfortable and healthy indoor environment during extremely hot summers and ensure the cooling load is within Passivhaus limits.

A new play structure for the Pepys Estate designed in collaboration with the award-winning APES (Adventure Playground Engineers). The structure is formed from a reclaimed narrow boat, remodelled and renovated into a unique multi-play area for an under-used site within a historic canal that has been landscaped into a public linear park.

We are working with the local community to create a new community garden, and a special place for local children. The garden is in Southwark, South London, on a former petrol station, a privately-owned strip of land that has been neglected for nearly 30 years - left behind when the adjacent site was developed as housing. A group of pioneering local residents have set up a non-profit association to develop and manage the garden. Working closely in consultation with the residents we developed the designs and secured planning permission. The garden work is under way and the aim is to open to the community in early summer 2021. WonKy are excited to be involved in the transformation of this hazardous space into an asset for the local community. For those looking to support the project, more information is available here: https://www.spacehive.com/gardense8

The National Trust, Lewisham Council and community partners are working with residents to open up green spaces and increase their use within the Sayes Court Estate in Deptford. This project is part of the wider Greening Evelyn vision to create Lewisham’s first Garden Ward for the benefit of local people, nature and the environment.

Greening Evelyn has been developed from community-led research carried out by WonKy Architecture for the National Trust and local partners. Its ambition is to create a garden network of biodiverse and climate resilient green spaces for everyone to enjoy in the long term. It will do this by working with the community to create new spaces, while also making existing ones greener and more accessible.

A conversion and extension of a 19th century end of terrace cottage with a large garden backing onto the river Crane in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.  The ground floor was extended to include a large nursery space with the upstairs reconfigured to provide staff accommodation.  A landscaped garden leading from the house allows easy access for the young ‘ducklings’ to enjoy views of the river Crane.  Blackboard paint was used on the external cladding to allow for chalk drawing and outdoor art lessons.

The existing house was built by Samuel Barnett’s East End Dwellings Company between 1900 and 1906, and today lies within the Globe Road Conservation Area.  The brief was to create a side extension which would bring more light into the depth of the plan, and reconfigure the upper floors to allow for the spare bedroom cum office to be more suited as a full time office.  The side infill extension is constructed from structural glazing with no steel support elements, allowing for a ‘light touch’ alteration and allowing for the maximum amount of natural light.  The upstairs home office has been enlarged by creating a vertical link with the loft space, allowing for more places to work and relax.

This rear ground floor extension in east London was conceived as an internal work room connected to an external ‘garden room.’ Dominated by a mature cherry tree the small south facing garden is bounded by a hole-punched timber fence, built-in benches, and black bamboo, whilst the canopy of the tree offers dappled shading throughout the year. Internal walls were removed, 3 cramped bedrooms became 2 bedrooms, and a staircase relocated, to create an open-plan studio house. The windows to the first floor studio room were enlarged and look out onto the green roof of the extension. Large format plywood sheets were used on the floor and staircase to add to the feel of a working home.

The brief was to extend a 1950s mixed use block in Gerrards Cross town centre overlooking the railway to provide a new maisonette and restaurant.

The transformation of the site is achieved by the treatment of the elevation over the railway embankment where corner windows and a shift in the fenestration rhythm create a dramatic backdrop to this prominent corner of the town centre between the high street and railway.

The Arts and Crafts era cottage in Hampstead Garden Suburb was carefully remodelled, extended and renovated for two designers requiring home-based work. Flexible spaces were created orientated to a newly landscaped garden within a bay window extension and an extended, converted historic garage.

The transformation of a nineteenth century terraced property in Hampstead from a struggling retail unit into a flexibly arranged maisonette and serviced office space and studio. An off-centred, timber-framed glazed lobby and staircase allow the office and meeting room to address the street. The three storey stepped extension at the rear brings light into each level and an external terrace within the interior of the block.

(with Emily Greeves Architects)

Halo Dogs is the largest dog day care centre in Britain and one of the biggest in the world.  A fleet of vans pick up dogs all over north London to be looked after for the day whilst their owners are at work.  With a team of dedicated dog trainers and dog behaviourists they have won awards and won the trust of their clients.  But the lack of accommodation for overnights stays means the dogs usually have to go to boarding kennels when their owners go on holiday. With this in mind we were approached by Halo Dogs to design an 80 kennel dog hotel and rescue centre to work alongside their existing dog day care business.

The research presented here is from a teaching unit at The Cass School of Architecture. We asked the students to look for opportunities where learning and play might step out of the school and into the public sphere, and vice versa.

The chosen site for the year was Camberwell and we began by taking mappings and readings of the polis and ‘metapolis’ of Camberwell neighbourhoods to uncover the past, the sacred, the postcode gangs, and the personal stories that make up this part of London. 

Participation is an important part of our practice philosophy and the teaching unit has engaged in public participation to consider the views and ambitions of those who attend school, live, and work around Camberwell. 

From the research and our concerns with education the unit created meaningful proposals that tested the possibility of the public realm for play and learning, including life-long learning for the individual, community based learning, and the possibility of the street, the city as a place for learning and play.

In the run up to the 2012 London Olympics an ambitious vision for the regeneration of the A11/A118 stretching from Aldgate in Tower Hamlets all the way to Stratford in Newham was unveiled.
‘High Street 2012’ hoped to create a “world class and thriving high street, where there is a balance between pedestrian and road users, where people and places are connected and where there is a sense of community, history and well-being.” 

With the 2012 Olympics now a wistful memory for many we tasked our students at The Cass School of Architecture to research a length of this significant artery from Whitechapel to Bow Church; and to uncover the past, the sacred, and the everyday that make up this part of London.

We were particularly keen to record the various Sacred Spaces in and around London. In that all religions have a following, we were interested in the various communities that give shape to the rituals and ceremonies that define their faith, and in turn are shaped by them.  London is home to many immigrant groups who often bring with them an identity shaped by their beliefs, and who often alter our own environment, from Polish mass in Roman Catholic churches to the re-use of bingo halls for African Christian congregations. 

The Serpentine Soapbox is a reimagining of Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner for the Digital Age. Writing in The Atlantic in 2018, Yasmeen Serhan considered the physical space of Speakers’ Corner as an enduring symbol of the freedom of speech that is being transformed and supplanted by debate taking place in digital, online forums. 

Serpentine Soapbox is an interactive experiment in the gathering of people in the city to listen and engage with augmented oratory from a physical soapbox; a public space where the setting and gathering are physical but the speaker and debate are augmented.

 A roster of high-profile individuals would appear as augmented speakers on the soapbox - selected from the UK and beyond and from a range of backgrounds including politics, activism, popular culture, journalism and academia.

Utilising advancements in three-dimensional scanning, life-like avatars of each speaker will be created allowing them to step onto the soapbox in turn to deliver their speech.

A pair of sculptural elements form the physical installation on the sculpture plinth: a soapbox and lamppost, constructed of stone and LED tickertape. Conceived as abstractions of the urban furniture of the original Speakers’ Corner, forming the spatial setting and focus for the gathering.

Visitors to the Serpentine Soapbox will be able to express views on the speeches, via their smart phones, displayed on the digital tickertape incorporated into the lamppost as a counterpoint to the speech itself; a hybrid form of debate augmenting face-to-face interaction with digital expression.

Around a third of the working rural population now works at or from home with such businesses becoming increasingly vital to rural economies. The workhome requires flexible design that challenges mono-functional notions of ‘work’ and ‘home’. Our proposed development at Burneside addresses the need for flexible housing and provision for home-based work through the concept of ‘extended fungibility’ developed by economist Michael Lipton. ‘Extended fungibility’ is defined in our case as the capacity to convert spatial resources quickly, easily and without loss, between domestic and economic uses. We apply this concept from the site strategy to the layout and arrangement of the dwellings. 

Our design for home-based work draws upon the research of Francis Hollis and design principles she has identified for the workhome to inform the housing types and mix:  simple, efficient dwellings that meet National Space Standards with the capacity to be fungible mixed-use properties for home-based work. 

Three typologies are proposed: the Dale House, Studio Cottage and Mews House. Inspired by rural vernacular architecture with living accommodation on upper floors for fantastic views, and the facility to be a workhome for a creative rural economy. The fungible ground level can adapt from domestic or vehicular accommodation to workshops, coffee-shops, artists’ studios, dog-grooming salons or remote-working for digital consultants. 

These typologies work within a site strategy that discreetly incorporates cars whilst delivering beautiful and functional communal spaces: a village green and playground, a work yard and generous streetscape. In addition, gardens and terraces provide private outdoor space for each dwelling. The Mews Houses form a permeable edge between the streetscape and village green and work yard with the Mews Arches accommodating shared parking, workshops, commercial units and communal facilities.  

The houses are constructed of structural insulated panels (SIPs) clad in stone and slate. The design has been developed with a leading UK provider of SIPs based in North Yorkshire and allow for a degree of internal flexibility, fulfilling the need for loose fit long-life habitation andfor different fenestration treatments in response to site orientation to meet low-energy design standards.

The Centre’s form takes its inspiration from the large gable ended boatsheds of the Broads. The form is manipulated by a ‘slip’ in section that creates the key spaces of the Centre. At its heart is a double-level multi-functional space accommodating the café and education space that opens at ground level onto an external area fronting the waterfront, sheltered by the cantilevered space above.

This ‘slip’ creates another external terrace at first floor level reached by a staircase of tiered seating connecting the café with the upper level education spaces, providing seating for learning or informal eating. The upper education spaces provide uninterrupted views across the Broads; from inside or outside this is another opportunity for wildlife watching and learning.

It is intended that the Building itself is used as an educational tool to tell the story of water as a vital resource and explaining the impact of shifting sea levels. The quayside on which the new Education Centre is sited will be an elevated deck lifting the new ground above the required flood risk level.

Whether arriving from road or river, planting will be used as a functional and visual tool to explain a sustainable approach to managing water on the site that will be a positive and tangible demonstration of water as a critical natural resource. Reed beds separate the car park from the quayside deck and treat waste from the Centre, releasing clean water back to the ground; the apex to the main roof and perimeter of the terrace are planted to attenuate the rainwater flow and feed into a harvesting system for re-use in the showers and toilets. The roof terrace classroom will house solar panels and rainwater harvesting tanks, demonstrating to visitors the Centre’s sustainable credentials: renewable energy and water conservation.

Below the roof terrace and water harvesting tanks, is a yacht station providing washing facilities for boating visitors to the site. The building’s structure is conceived as a truss system of laminated timber beams enabling the cantilevered form and expressed internally to create a dramatic and delightful interior. The external cladding will be untreated, lightweight cedar shingles and weatherboarding: reducing structural load, minimising maintenance requirements and creating a sensitive external envelope in the context of the Broads.

A proposal for a new sports pavilion at Clitterhouse playing fields in Brent informed by research into the history of earthen pavilions in sports grounds. The 'Brent Kop' is a proposal for an earthen mound pavilion constructed from recycled rubble and rammed earth: a Passivhaus, exemplar Sport England clubhouse within a raised viewing bank.