Box Architects
Areas of expertise: commercial, creative, sustainable.
Box Architects supports client ambitions to develop new ideas, support ESG and sustainable development goals while delivering on commercial imperatives. They work with clients long-term through multiple projects and through these sustained relationships they aim to understand and drive commercial opportunities for developments and produce buildings that work for our clients, occupiers and society.
Box Architects provide a client-centric service that balances robust viability with creative energy and the teams meticulously support delivery to ensure projects are achieved. Whether its student and retirement living, office development, public sector facilities or leisure projects, they are thinking about efficient design, modern methods of construction, and projects that support a sustainable future.
Phone +44 113 2441 133
Address 1 Foundry Square, The Round Foundry, Leeds, LS11 5DL
Website www.boxarchitects.co.uk
LinkedIn Box Architects
Twitter @box_architects
CEO Graham Place asks: “Can next generation senior living delivery ESG benefit, that’s good for clients and society?”
Box Architects recently joined European Senior Housing and Healthcare Association and as the first British architects in membership and we found that the conversation has shifted. Commercial developers previously focused on planning and delivery are now thinking about a balanced approach to schemes which deliver commercial, environmental and societal value. Impact investment is now good business.
We have a major global crisis and we can’t keep developing more of the same. As a creative industry we can provide leadership and schemes that have a positive impact.
Client collaboration is key and having worked with McCarthy Stone for over a decade, we have seen innovation flourish and together we have achieved a sea change in design, construction and delivery.
Planned for the site of the old Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool, Springfield Park development is a great example. The project embraces modern methods of construction (MMC) to create next generation senior living. Following detailed design, it will have a factory manufactured structure, assembled on site providing a less wasteful, quicker construction with improved levels of performance, where the impact on the neighbours and residents is at a minimum.
Environmental gains are significant making use of brownfield land and introducing landscaping which supports biodiversity. Energy use is top of the agenda, both in the amount necessary to create the homes and amount occupiers will consume.
Factory-controlled techniques provide improved thermal performance generating the warmth required in the first place and maintaining it in the homes, while energy solutions embrace solar and air source heat pumps coupled with new levels of insulation.
With quality of living at the heart of the project innovative solutions are providing better daylight, air quality, noise attenuation, space and comfort, creating more interesting architecture that has a positive environmental impact.
Much is said about MMC creating cookie-cutter buildings, but we see good design as creating sympathetic architecture while embracing innovation. We’re working on Poppy Grange, a retirement living development on a canal side location where the local architecture is of particular importance.
The project will use low-impact MMC to reduce energy bills, waste and construction times, but the design will still respect the local vernacular with the use of red brick and pitched slate roofs. Not all MMC buildings are the same, and this development is a good example of how the method is just as applicable in a traditional setting as in a modern one.
Creating the next generation of retirement homes using eco-friendly modern methods of construction is predicted to cut development times by as much as 50% and this will fast-track the delivery of housing for older people. Its good business and its good for the environment and society.
Across our business, whether its student and retirement living, office development, public sector facilities or leisure projects, we are thinking about efficient design, modern methods of construction and projects that support a sustainable future.
Find out more about the RIBA Chartered Practices attending MIPIM 2024.
