April 21, 2021

PLP Labs, with their research partners, have launched ‘Use of Wearables in the Office’. The report is the culmination of their research for the BCO into how wearables can transform how we monitor health and wellbeing in the office.

As part of the report, the team ran a pilot study where participants wore fitness bands and posture monitors, whilst their vitals were monitored as they did their daily work in various specially crafted scenarios in the office and working from home.

The study helped the team establish best practice for using these tools for evaluating occupant health and wellbeing. The report also explores the future impacts this will have on how post-occupancy evaluations are conducted, the responsibilities of employers and landlords, and ultimately how office workers relate to the spaces around them.

For companies, a large part of the S in ESG is employee health and wellbeing. This report provides a new data-based approach to evaluating and improving this, by measuring the human as well as their environment.

April 16, 2021

PLP Architecture has revealed its design for a new signature luxury residential tower on a beguiling garden site along Orchard Boulevard in Singapore’s most coveted neighbourhood. Park Nova will be a biophilic enclave rising above the surrounding greenery, embraced in a lush vertical garden. The building brings a new focus on modern metropolitan living and aims to redefine urban living in the garden city.

Park Nova’s biophilic design has been inspired by the context, history and setting of the local area, once home to orchards and now a lifestyle destination that maintains its lush green character. Drawing on the form of a butterfly, the building is elevated above the tree canopy on slender columns and features gently undulating floorplates arranged into three wings to maximise the potential for natural shading and ventilation.

In total, 54 residences ranging from 2 to 5 bedrooms have been included across 21 storeys, each bathed in light and benefitting from unique 270-degree panoramic views across the city’s skyline through expansive floor-to-ceiling windows. The spacious apartments offer refined layouts including dynamic private and entertaining spaces that seamlessly connect to generous planted terraces and gardens, marrying the outdoor environment with the comforts of home and creating a natural barrier to noise and air pollution.

A variety of dedicated resident amenity spaces complement the healthy living experience at the building, promoting resident wellbeing and active lifestyles. The lush landscape level has been raised above the ground and houses a pool, jacuzzi, meditation deck, concierge and intimate residents’ pavilion. The sky terrace, which occupies the 14th floor and includes a gym and lounge, private function room, and additional outdoor space, contributes to the building’s striking form.

The tower is optimally positioned to take advantage of the best that Singapore has to offer, sitting near the iconic Orchard Road and a short distance from the Botanical Gardens, Chatsworth Park, Embassies, Consulates and top restaurants. It is expected to receive the Green Mark Gold rating in recognition of its environmental credentials.

Park Nova has been designed by PLP Architecture for Shun Tak Holdings and is being delivered in collaboration with Southeast Asia-based P&T Group. It is PLP’s first residential high-rise tower and marries the practice’s noted expertise in sensitive luxury residential development with its experience creating innovative tall buildings throughout the world. The practice is currently designing other projects in Singapore and is exploring the establishment of a long-term presence in the Republic.

April 6, 2021

PLP Architecture is part of an international team that includes OUTCOMIST, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, CRA - Carlo Ratti Associati and Arup that has won a major competition to realise Parco Romana, an urban-scale redevelopment project in Milan’s Porta Romana district. The project interprets the industrial legacy of the site while reanimating it with contemporary programs centred on an ethos of sustainability.

The scheme rethinks a large railway yard that has divided the area for more than a century. It stitches together a fragmented urban realm, reconnecting surrounding neighbourhoods with a vibrant mixed-use district rooted in the principles of inclusivity, biodiversity, resiliency, connectivity and wellbeing. Built around a new Great Park that serves as the green heart of the development, Parco Romana celebrates its layered histories while offering shared environments for living and working that unite a diverse community of residents, students, office workers, athletes and visitors.

The park itself forms a unique topographic feature extending over the active railway that currently bisects the site, creating an accessible and multifunctional green space for the neighbourhood. The Suspended Forest -- a linear elevated greenway that helps to contain, rather than erase, existing railway infrastructure -- includes hundreds of trees providing dedicated walking routes with unexpected views overlooking the surrounding area. A biodiverse woodland and wetland Eco-zone interspersed with community gardens runs alongside the tracks at grade, offering a range of communal activities focused on health and wellbeing while dovetailing with Milan’s Rotaie Verdi environmental network.

Framing these open spaces, a series of urban blocks with landscaped courtyards reference the scale and form of historic Milanese urban planning. The Eastern Gateway district provides a new business core for the city, with well-connected buildings facing the Eco-zone and Suspended Forest. At the western edge, a mixed-use residential district will initially house athletes for the Milan 2026 Winter Olympics; after the Games, it will be adapted into a permanent intergenerational residential community. This area includes a major public piazza that anchors a variety of flexible environments for outdoor exercise, food trucks, co-working, and cultural events - all integrated inside and around renovated historic train repair sheds.

The site’s high-profile location and outstanding local connectivity has inspired extensive mobility solutions that integrate with and expand upon existing local infrastructure. Parco Romana brings the latest thinking about the 15 Minute City to Milan, aiming to provide everything needed for daily life within a short walk from the district’s living and working environments. A focus on pedestrians and cycling minimises reliance on automobiles and activates new paths to and through the site, forming corridors integrated with new public plazas that act as natural gathering places at the intersection of major pedestrian routes.

A radical sustainability framework combines ecological and human systems throughout the development to form a self-reliant but integrated model of urban growth. It focuses on decarbonisation, climate adaption, resilient communities, health and wellbeing, circular economy and biodiversity. Low-carbon construction and green technologies deliver renewable energy, clean water, and fresh food to ensure the project becomes a net generator of resources rather than a burden on municipal services.

Led by a globally recognised group of Principals, the winning team was selected through a major international competition that included 47 teams comprised of 329 studios. The selected team is collaborating with Gross.Max, Nigel Dunnett Studio and LAND for landscape design; Systematica for mobility; Studio Zoppini and Aecom for Olympics Advisory; Artelia on technical advisory; and Portland Design for brand and story development. Parco Romana is being developed by a consortium that includes COIMA, Covivio and Prada Holding.

As a project for the city and people of Milan, Parco Romana will be developed with extensive engagement and consultation with the municipality, local citizens, and stakeholders over the coming months, including a series of public outreach and feedback events beginning this month.

March 15, 2021

PLP Architecture and PLP Labs have, as part of an Urban Land Institute (ULI)-led team, launched a new report ‘Zooming in on the “S” in ESG: A road map for social value in real estate’. The publication gives guidance to the industry on incorporating social value into corporate strategy, business practices and even investment theory.

The report is a response to globally growing interest in the social dimensions of sustainable development, the key concepts of social value, and a rise in impact investing. It hopes to bridge large gaps in the shared understanding of what these ideas mean for the real estate industry and to set out a common approach to describing and measuring social value.

The report was funded and supported by a select group of ULI members participating in a steering group, including CBRE Global Investors, Credit Suisse, Estabona Management, Fore Partnership, Ivanhoé Cambridge, Jacobs and PLP Architecture.

February 24, 2021

PLP Labs, Centric Lab and Comuzi have launched Know Your Health, an online tool and downloadable guide to help people living in cities identify how their environment is impacting their health, and then empower them to improve their situation and long-term health resilience as individuals and a community.

The team of architects, designers and data and neuroscience researchers has created a quick and anonymous online survey that helps individuals determine the extent to which their local environment provides them with the resources to achieve an everyday baseline of strong health. The survey will also allow the team to identify and publish wider health trends that are occurring in our cities.

Taking this survey then unlocks the download of a detailed ‘playbook’ exploring seven key areas: housing, biodiversity, mobility, nourishment, social spaces, governance and infrastructure. Each section includes suggestions for positive steps people can take, resources to use and inspiring case studies from around the world.

Ultimately, Know Your Health creates a new way of engaging with people around important issues of health and the environment. The same methodology can be used to create similar tools that enable a better dialogue between decision makers and citizens, asset managers and their tenants, or developers and their communities – on any issue.

Visit Know Your Health.

February 25, 2020

PLP Architecture is working with Native Land to create Bankside Yards, a vibrant new destination on London’s riverside between the Tate Modern and Southbank Centre.

Last night, Bankside Yards, Eastern Yards received full planning consent. It is comprised of 5 towers housing 341 residential units (with 37 affordable homes), a luxury hotel, office and cultural amenities along with a series of public spaces.

The full £1bn development will open up and will reinvigorate a 1.4m ft2 area focussed on the historic railway viaduct leading towards Blackfriars Station. Construction is underway on Western Yards, with completion expected in 2023.

February 20, 2020

The Fair Cities Platform has been officially launched at a kick-off event, attended by guests from a wide range of industries and backgrounds and organised jointly by the Fair Cities Platform steering group, which is comprised of PLP Labs, Connected Places Catapult and Gehl.

During the panel discussion, speakers were asked to share their expertise and consider new possibilities for some of the most pressing problems affecting our cities. The conversation covered topics such as the role of developers and public authorities in shaping who the city is for, as well as issues of unfair taxation, land ownership and value, access to quality housing and urban spaces, and potential ways of measuring fairness.

The Fair Cities Platform aims to create a space where conversations about conceiving, delivering, operating and managing fair cities can take place. It establishes an honest dialogue between communities, developers, action groups, investors, local authorities and architects. Through inclusive discussion, working groups and knowledge sharing, our industry can plug the gaps in knowledge and policy to overcome the hurdles that obstruct positive change in our cities.

The panel of experts was moderated by Connected Places Catapult’s Justin Kliger and included Dr Shira de Bourbon Parme (ForeGrounds), Matt Bell (Grosvenor) and Michael Edwards (UCL’s Bartlett School of Planning).

January 07, 2020

The Collective Stratford has received a resolution to grant planning permission from the London Legacy Development Corporation. The 22-storey scheme will feature short-stay co-living rooms, a community and events hub as well as affordable workspace for small businesses and local entrepreneurs. Plans for The Collective Stratford High Street were developed following extensive engagement with local businesses and community organisations to ensure the scheme meets their needs and is well integrated into the local area.

The Collective Stratford High Street will comprise 287 short-stay co-living rooms along with shared amenities and community space for local residents, charities and business and an art hub to showcase local talent and host a variety of weekly cultural events. Small businesses and local entrepreneurs will have access to office space including flexible and affordable co-working space.

The project will also include improvements to the adjacent Channelsea River, connecting it to the High Street via a landscaped forecourt.

The building is central to the Collective’s Community Investment Programme involving partnerships with local groups and charities to increase their outreach and social impact.  James Penfold, global planning and communications director at The Collective, said: ’We’ve spent a lot of time in active dialogue with the community and as a direct result we’re proud to launch our Community Investment Programme, which will identify, fund and provide free use of our spaces for local charitable and creative enterprises. This is just one of the ways we endeavour to effect a long-term positive impact in every community we enter.’

Andrei Martin, partner at PLP Architecture, added: ’Our design for The Collective Stratford laminates work, cultural, social and accommodation spaces within a hybrid typology. Complementary uses and collaborative spaces supplement a compact arrangement of private living quarters so that working, living, creating, exchanging, socialising and entertaining all occur within a formal arrangement that operates more as a vertical neighbourhood than an individual building.’

Construction is due to start at the end of the year and to complete in 2023.

December 19, 2019

PLP Architecture and the developer Provast have won a major international competition for a new tower on a key redevelopment site in Rotterdam. The project, dubbed “Tree House,” focusses on creating a lively, inspiring, open and sustainable environment for residents and visitors in the city centre. At 140-meters and 37 storeys tall, the building will sit next to the Central Station as the tallest hybrid structure in the country and will be a bold new addition to the local area.

Tree House’s glazed facades are punctuated by long external timber-clad balconies, including some connected by staircases to help animate its urban presence. The upper levels will house 275 apartments, with 185 set aside for private rentals and 30% reserved for the mid-market sector. Below this, 15,000m2 of office space will be geared towards innovation and technology companies and include coworking areas curated by operator TQ. A seventh-floor restaurant will face a lush planted terrace, while at the ground floor, shops, cafes and a multi-function events and performance space help to draw the public in and provide a mix of amenities for the city’s use. The project team is working with De Dépendance, Rotterdam’s diverse platform for culture and debate, to create socially relevant programming throughout.

The building is being designed to stand at the forefront of architectural sustainability and will feature a part-timber structure with a concrete core, significant reused and recycled materials, rainwater collection and reuse and CO2 storage. External balconies and terraces feature plantings and greenery, spreading up towards a crown of three glazed greenhouses filled with trees and gardens to emphasise a commitment to biodiversity.

Partner Ron Bakker from PLP Architecture said, “We enjoy designing buildings that push boundaries, and this is an innovative, sustainable, mixed-use tower, with a hybrid timber structure, almost on top of Rotterdam's Central Station - a new typology for future cities.”

The project was selected from a group of three international team submissions including UN Studio and Group A. Construction is expected to begin in 2021, with completion in 2024.

November 26, 2019

PLP Architecture Partner Midori Ainoura spoke to Mapiq about the future of work and the role technology is playing in it. She addressed three thought-provoking statements about the future of smart offices with her unique insight. Midori helps lead PLP’s innovation in workplace design and strategy through her architecture and pioneering work with PLP Labs, and regularly speaks on the topic around the world. She was a driving force behind The Edge in Amsterdam, which was designed as the world’s smartest and most sustainable office building.

www.mapiq.com

November 4, 2019

COIMA City Lab, a think tank focussed on the research and development of sustainable urban regeneration projects, today presented its first charter “Undertaking for Great Cities”, which sets measurable standards and establishes guidelines for sustainable urban regeneration in Milan.

Lee Polisano, president of PLP Architecture, is one of the primary members of COIMA City Lab. Lee developed and endorsed the charter alongside other members, Manfredi Catella (COIMA), Stefano Boeri (Stefano Boeri Architetti), Elizabeth Diller (Diller Scofidio + Renfro), Gregg Jones (Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects), Carlo Ratti (Carlo Ratti Associati), Cino Zucchi (Cino Zucci Architetti) and Christopher Choa (AECOM).

The charter states that urban regeneration projects must: serve the common good, create an identity and generate a ‘sense of place’, be in harmony with its surroundings, be resilient and adapt over time, contribute to a healthier environment, encourage integration, promote diversity and green culture. The City Lab Charter identified measurable objectives and uses a score card to track and measure whether a project meets the targets.

May 31, 2019

PLP Architecture was one of the trailblazer practices that helped put together the Modern Apprenticeship Standard for Architecture. We are excited to be offering a level 7 Architectural Apprenticeship Programme (equivalent) to RIBA Part 2 & 3) for potential candidates who want to become architects.

If you are considering a career in architecture, but you are not sure if studying full-time at university is for you – or if you’ve completed part of your architect training and want to earn a salary whilst undertaking the next step – then a degree apprenticeship could be the right route for you. Apprenticeships combine practical experience in the workplace with academic training provided by a university. A minimum of 20% of the apprentice’s contracted hours must be spent undertaking this formal training.

Any student wishing to do their Part 2 may apply. The details of the specific apprenticeship programme will be available from the University.

For more details please email [email protected] with the subject heading Apprenticeship programme.

May 13, 2019

The tallest building in the City of London has ceremoniously topped out, celebrating reaching its highest point in the structure of 294.520mAOD. Representatives from across the project team, including Multiplex, AXA IM – Real Assets, on behalf of an international consortium of investors, Lipton Rogers Developments and PLP Architecture attended the ceremony on Friday to mark this significant milestone for the project.

www.architectsjournal.co.uk

April 6, 2019

‘Forget tech, what about the humans?’ PLP’s Hala El Akl spoke at the MIT World Real Estate Forum as part of a panel discussion on the human dimensions of technological growth in our cities. A huge thanks to panel moderator Marie Puyaraud (JLL) and fellow speakers Jeroen de Swart (EDGE Technologies), Kate Langan (ANZ), Peter Prischl (eFM) and to the MIT Center for Real Estate.

Hala also spoke to audiences about the changing role of the architect in today’s world. She talked about how we must balance calls for growing human comfort with an awareness of the environmental impacts this can have; how collaboration and shared ideas can be the driver of real change; and how we must be adding value to cities outside of our traditional remit.

January 28, 2019

PLP Architecture’s proposal for the extension of Krea University in India, has been successful in an invited international design competition.

The campus will create over 450,000 sqm of innovative academic space, alongside staff and student accommodation, support, sports and leisure facilities. The 220 acre site will be an integral element of Sri City, a new industrial and business hub in the Andhra Pradesh region of South-East India.

The new interdisciplinary university will be assembled around a core academic centre. A Learning and Teaching hub will provide a diverse array of learning spaces from traditional Harvard style lecture theatres and seminar rooms to contemporary and dynamic creative zones collected around circulation routes. The approach is to create a technology-rich environment, data driven and adaptive to the student’s needs, with science merged with the creative arts. Laboratories, shared technical spaces and exhibition areas are brought together as a collaborative whole.

The University aspires to create a different and progressive learning environment, with direct correlations to real world interaction in business and industry, and so the design of the campus will facilitate this teaching ethos. A new library building, including special collections and digital media, will be the emblematic soul of the campus: an iconic presence and focal point for independent research, whilst the Student Centre will be the social hub of the University, providing space for dining, events, clubs and academic support. The University is keen to forge direct links with local business, and so an Innovation Hub will provide accelerator space for start-ups and growing business, conference facilities and teaching areas for evening classes and professional development. The wellbeing of students has driven the masterplan, with a focus on healthy living and vitality. A sports centre with a range of recreational fitness facilities spills out into external sports fields, which form part of natural ribbon of green public realm that links the north-east and south-west boundaries of the site. Edge plots will be used for local farming as a laboratory for agricultural research, and a way of producing fresh and sustainable food for the Campus, which will be fully residential, accommodating 10,000 students, 1000 staff and visitors.

January 22, 2019

In a joint venture with Newcastle University, we are pleased to announce the first year of student applications for the Gavin Eldred and PLP Architecture Bursary. Gavin Eldred, 1965 - 2017, earned his degree in Architecture at Newcastle University. Passionate about architecture, Gavin worked to support his studies. He travelled to New Zealand to practice, and after settling in London became a Director at PLP Architecture. Among the significant built work that Gavin helped deliver are The Four Seasons Hotel in Abu Dhabi; NOVA-Victoria in Westminster; and 22 Bishopsgate, the tallest office tower in the City of London. In honour of Gavin’s love for life and Architecture, PLP Architecture will offer a bursary in the amount of £2500 to one student, to encourage the study of Architecture. The bursary will be awarded in four consecutive years to four different students.

For more information, please visit:

www.plparchitecture.com/NSA/

November 26, 2018

The construction of Tower Ten, the new expansion of the World Trade Centre Amsterdam, officially began last week at a Ground Breaking Ceremony launched by deputy director Sandra Thesing of the City of Amsterdam and Ronald van der Waals of CBRE Global Investors, the Fund Manager of the Fund that owns the building in the Zuidas central business district.

Since gaining planning approval from the city last year, the site has been decanted and prepared ready for part demolition and reconstruction. Much of the structure and slabs of the existing facility will be re-used, though Tower Ten will present a radically different appearance from its predecessor, adding 32,000 sqm of new office space and amenities in the process.

The original World Trade Center was built in the 1980s as a rational sequence of gridded blocks of concrete frame and glazed curtain walling. A thorough refurbishment of the four original towers, as well as a substantial extension to the campus, were completed over a decade ago by the design team led by Ron Bakker and Lee Polisano of PLP Architecture. PLP has now returned to the campus to deliver the third major iteration in the history of the Center’s development.