Best of 2020 part 1. The MBA drawing prize 2020 delivered by zoom on 20 June. The prize has been given for ‘drawing space’ since 2016, and this is the first year it has been associated with the BA theatre course at Wimbledon College of Art. Four emerging artists aged about 21.  Ruth Badila, Jawon Kim, Pip Terry, Youngjun Chang. The tipping point was “pertinence to us now… what we can learn about life by thinking artistically.”

MB’s comments on ‘the theatre of everyday life” begin at 2.07

New Lion gates at Oriel College, Oxford.  We tried to make the lions minimal, scary, powerful and welcoming.  Laser cut and hand worked by artist blacksmith Ben Prothero.

We have comissioned architectural photographer Marcus Peel to carry out a photo shoot of the UCS sports pavilion in north London. Here is shot of the Marci sizing up the south elevation.

Planning permission was granted on 20 August for MBA’s sophisticated, understated, highly sculptural mixed use scheme at Upper Green East in Mitcham.

The development will provide a shop unit of about 5,000 sq. ft. with twenty > all-dual-aspect< flats above. Councillors voted 9-1 in favour.

• “… Fantastic design, a fantastic addition to this part of Mitcham Town Centre “
• “I’ve lived in Mitcham for 30 years. This is the best, best thing I’ve seen happening to Mitcham right now”
• “… Great development. Mitcham needs new development. Mitcham does need new housing, we need to build this”
• ” No design work in this at all, it’s just squares, it’s not complicated.”

Planning permission and Listed Building Consent were granted on 11 August. This is our first collaboration with Stanton Williams Architects who are designing a £37 million scheme which will radically transform this Grade II* listed building. Our role was to research the cultural significance of the building, landscape and setting, advise Stanton Williams on conservation and design aspects of the proposals and help them overcome the many conservation challenges during prolonged discussions with Oxford City Council and Historic England. It was fascinating to go through the Rhodes Trust archives to track Herbert Baker’s design development and the late evolution of the plan to incorporate what is now the Rotunda, the original correspondence sprinkled with sketches and diagrams, some on folded scraps of tracing paper. I seem to be following Cecil Rhodes around, after spending 5 years on the Rhodes building at Oriel college, where a major refurbishment by MBA added an extra floor. By adding another layer of history architects can add nuance and cultural context to our built heritage.