Hi, Linda, how are you?

 

Hi, David. I'm fine. Thanks. How are you?

 

I'm very good. I wanted to ask you a number of things. Firstly, about retrofit, because you're a practice that's very keen on this area, with, as it says on your website, a mission to 'enable sustainable life through the art of architecture'. What's your view on retrofit as a sector currently? It seems to be in vogue, but is it strong enough in this country, for example?

 

Well, that's really interesting, both in terms of if it's strong or if it's in vogue, or in a particular country. It's obviously something that's been going on for hundreds of years. We have taken care of our buildings throughout history; retrofit or refurb or renovation is something that I'd almost assume any architect has come across during their work life, or life in general. Personally, I was slightly surprised that it has become so focused. Or that it hasn't been as focused before. But clearly, with the desperate need to just reduce our carbon footprint now, because we need to do something quite radical, it's good that it's got a strong focus. It sounds quite big when you read out what's on our web page in terms of ‘the art of sustainable living’. But I think that is something that we have to consider every day in our work. And I guess that part of being at a very big practice is also the fact that we can do research; we can work with retrofit solutions on a multitude of projects across all sectors, and see where we can best improve, or where we can make a difference. So, I think that was really something that led us to not having had that main focus in the UK before. When we were moving offices, we felt that we really had to make a statement in our own space, and try to be more focused on this in the UK, not just across Sweden, or Norway, or in other countries where we work.

 

 

Yes. You mentioned your own offices. You mean your new, very distinctive office space. I say new, it's new-ish, isn't it? When did you move in? And can you describe it? What's so special about it?

 

Yeah. We moved in last autumn - October, I think. And the final pieces have actually just come into play. We were looking for a bigger space when everyone was coming back post- the pandemic. And obviously having been in a really nice warehouse office space before, we had a really wide search, and we found this 60s lower ground floor building, which was a very odd space in a building, which was not in great shape. It had all been clad up with a plaster board and not great ceiling, and strange flooring and so on. But it really suited all of our search targets, and we wanted to strip it down and see how we could just refine what we already had. So, we took out a lot of material, but we didn't add very much, and the building or the construction material that we added, most of it was reused. So, we were in touch with contractors that could get pieces of plywood that we could have for acoustic reduction. And we found really nice flooring. We did try to find glass partition walls, but that was really, really difficult. Anyone who's done renovations or retrofit knows that you can't just order anything off the shelves. You need to find the right dimension. That was actually something that we did order. But I think as much as possible, we did to try to work around everything that we could find, resourced from other construction sites.

 

Where is the office?

 

So sorry, yeah! It's in Clerkenwell, in Bastwick Street. 

 

And did you feel in doing this project, you had to embody the ethos of the practice? You were doing a scheme that effectively was an advertisement for your ethos; the way you view architecture?

 

Yes, absolutely. And I think we took experience from some Swedish projects that we had done previously. So, a big project for a municipality and cultural building. We did the whole interior in Gothenburg, where 90% was actually re-used furniture and material for the interior fit-out, and we thought: we need to at least be at the same level, because it's obviously a much smaller space. So, it should be doable. But it takes time. It's not always cheaper, but it may be cheaper to the extent of what we have to do at the moment, maybe with just reducing our footprint the highest priority. As architects, we like to strip down the columns to bare concrete and just reduce everything that's been added to the space before. And try to really work with the natural daylight, bringing in some of the Scandinavian aspects of our Scandinavian offices, like really good daylight. And where it is dark, not just trying to make it nicer, but just to accept that the lower ground is always going to be darker. So how do we make that a good quality space, even if we don't have that much daylight? All of our offices are obviously different but trying to find ways to make it part of White company. We don't really have a brand for all of our offices. We try to stay true to the core of the design principles.

 

 

You mentioned your other offices. You're in 13, I think, across five or six countries. I wondered if I could ask you whether you have a weather-vane view about London's economy and the market in a comparative sense to those other areas you're in - in Sweden and beyond.  How strong is London at the moment? Are there signs of economic growth? Or is it tricky still?

 

The majority of our offices are in Sweden and Norway, so Scandinavia, where, particularly in Sweden, it's been a complete disaster. 

 

Has it?

 

For two years - recession, really high interest rates, the whole construction and building industry has almost come to a standstill. So compared to that, London has been thriving! (laughs) But I think the fact that we've been doing really well, and actually have grown over the last 2, 3, 4, years, is that we have been able to draw upon a really wide expertise within the wider company. So, where we set out and started in 2015 we were very much focused on urban design, residential, sustainable living, and now we're also working a lot with healthcare projects. So, it's kind of a crossover combination, and we are moving into the more commercial office sector as well. So, I think had we been in London only focused on residential and urban design, I think it would have been really tough, because we all know that market has been tough over the last couple of years, where healthcare has really been sort of long-term investment, and we've been successful in projects in that sector. I think interestingly, just referring back to the retrofit discussion, in our Stuttgart office in Germany, they almost only work with retrofit projects on quite a large scale, or nature-based building materials. So, there's a lot to be looking into in terms of German, Dutch, sort of the Northern European aspect, in terms of how they actually enable delivery of retrofits on the landscape. I think that's something that we're trying to find out. You know, what are the financial, or building regs or other aspects of their market that make that possible, whereas we - I would say - struggle a little bit on the retrofit sector in the UK.

 

 

Last question, because we're just up to time, I just wanted to ask you very quickly about your collaboration with CarbonZero, which is the owner of the Prodikt platform. You're starting a collaboration with them to promote the development of a 'more sustainable construction and property industry'. And the goal of it, I read, is to develop easier ways to perform sustainability analysis and to be able to see the climate footprint of what is being project planned in real time. Can you elaborate on that a little a little more, or is there not much more to say on that one?

 

I have to admit, I don't know all the details. But the way we worked over the last few years, you know, really steering towards its focus is that we want to be able to almost track live - our impact, both within the project or the business. And also, I'm not sure whether it's with the same sort of initiative, but we're working with a PED which is Positive Energy Districts, where I think it's not just one thing in terms of embodied carbon, but it's also the carbon in use and the energy solutions, and how that then also spins off in terms of the shared economy, circular economy aspects. Coming from Scandinavia, we have a lots of district heating and district sharing, which I think is something the UK could really benefit from, if it was possible to bring some of that forward.  I mean, it's difficult to say, what zero carbon, or carbon zero really is. Every little bit has such a big impact. You both need to be down on the very detail of tracking it as you're drawing whatever you're working on, but also, on a holistic level, see it as the system, and how we can improve long term.

 

Brilliant. Well, thank you very much. It's fascinating to hear about all that. And I note you're almost a year in your practice studio, so I'm looking forward to the one-year celebration party invitation! (laughs)

 

Yes!  (laughs) Absolutely. I'll make sure you get that, David. 

 

Lovely. All right, thanks. Nice to speak to you, Linda, see you soon.

 

Thanks, David! Bye!