APPROACH
The more people are connected to their environment, the more they care for it.
Our approach to architecture is inclusive; with environmental, social, practical and economic issues integrated within the process. We see architecture as a dialogue and we involve selected experts, consultants, stakeholders and users across all professional fields, communities and walks of life in every stage of the process to achieve the best possible solutions. Our approach goes beyond fabric first environmental principles to incorporate an understanding of the building’s interaction with light and nature to connect people to their environment and engender a sense of care for their immediate and wider world.
We are members of:
RIBA 2030 Challenge
UK Green Building Council
Passivhaus Trust UK
Chartered Membership of Landscape Institute
Register for Architects Accredited in Building Conservation
Net Zero Pathway Peer-to-Peer Group
Organisations we champion:
London Wildlife Trust
The Conservation Volunteers
Spitalfields City Farm
The Nature Conservancy
World Wildlife Fund
The Woodland Trust
Lightening our carbon load
Our design principles are efficient and sustainable to reduce a building’s carbon footprint. Coffey Architects’ comprehensive approach is both energy efficient and beneficial to people’s wellbeing. We are committed, with our clients willingness, to achieving Net Zero in line with the RIBA 2030 Challenge.
Light, time and circadian rhythms
We are committed to creating architecture that connects users to their circadian rhythms through design with natural light and nature. Circadian rhythms affect people’s sleep, mood and overall well-being. Considered lighting design can align the natural rhythms of light and dark with the building’s inhabitants, improving their sleep patterns and promoting alertness during the day. This leads to better health outcomes, increased productivity, and overall improved well-being.
Biophilic principles
Biophilic design addresses our inherent need to connect with nature in the modern built environment. As we become more urbanised, we have reduced connection to nature. Biophilic design seeks address that issue and satisfying our instinctive need to associate with nature in modern buildings and cities.
Designing for people’s delight
Our designs create spaces that not only promote well-being but also bring delight to those who experience them. These spaces evoke a sense of tranquility and awe, making the experience of being in the building more enjoyable and memorable by composing natural light and nature to create memorable light and shadow.
Passive Design
We are a passive house trained practice with years of experience in delivering considered passive design for the good of the building's inhabitants and the wider world. Passive house design is a sustainable building standard that aims to create comfortable, energy-efficient buildings that have a minimal impact on the environment. We believe that passive house design is an important part of creating sustainable, low-carbon buildings, and we have a wealth of experience in delivering high-quality, low-energy buildings that meet the needs of our clients and the communities they serve.
The future is green and bright
Greening the city improves the health, sustainability, and quality of life in urban areas for people of all ages. Together, these benefits may help alleviate some of the stresses that people in metropolitan areas face in the future. We are committed to incorporating landscape and green space into all of our designs for the benefit of our ultimate clients, the users of our buildings and places.
“In the end, we would all rather be outside.”
—Phil Coffey
We prioritise people while creating places.
Social value in design is crucial to creating sustainable and impactful spaces that benefit communities and enhance quality of life. Prioritising people while creating places ensures that the spaces we build better our society with their focus on inclusivity, accessibility and overall well-being.
We are members of:
Social Enterprise UK
Social Value UK
FLUID Diversity Mentoring Program, Built by Us
Londonon
Organisations we champion:
PATCH Collective
Matt + Fiona
Blueprint for All
Community involvement
We strive to include as many voices as possible to ensure that the buildings we design reflect their users and the wider communities that they serve. We particularly encourage community involvement, volunteering and participation in the design and planning process, to ensure that the green spaces and nature preserves are accessible and enjoyable for all members of the community.
By creating an architecture that connects people with their environment, we believe we can create places people want to be, places that inspire and engage, and places and buildings that will last. In order to do this we need to be informed by a truly inclusive design process, one that actively engages all groups irrespective of role or familiarity with the design and/or development proces.
Education and learning
We promote office-driven social initiatives such as school and university lecturing and mentoring initiatives. Our team has volunteered time and resource to: Blueprint for All (previously the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust Building Futures programme), Built By Us FLUID Diversity Mentoring Programme and Matt+Fiona Mega Maker Lab Institute. We have also worked with Diamond Education Service and the Erasmus exchange programme to offer work placement opportunities for students from various geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds. We often keep in touch with those students and hear from them as they enter university to pursue careers in architecture and design.
Encouraging diversity
Coffey promotes diversity by supporting and engaging with diverse communities that promote outdoor activities, encouraging employee participation in volunteering, and fostering a more inclusive workplace culture.
External collaboration
We value cross-sector collaboration to create places for all people.
Coffey & Croissants: To meet and build relationships with a variety of consultants and potential teammates, we have run a diverse and varied weekly speaker series since 2018. Our focus has largely been on women-owned and ethnic minority-lead practices in order to broaden our network and industry view by listening to those typically under-represented in the built environment industry.
PATCH Collective Residency: We’ve partnered with design collective PATCH to run a series of events and creative interventions centred on the idea of ‘holding space’. The residency asks: How do we make room for acts of care? How do we make room for acts of care in London specifically? How can we, in effect, ‘hold’ onto these spaces of respite and care, and ensure their durability in our rapidly transforming city? Is this loose and changeable meaning become a source of solidarity or provocation? What does holding space mean to you?