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Grenfell Inquiry: moving from finger-pointing to collective reflection

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First published in Architects Journal, 16/09/24. Grenfell Inquiry: moving from finger-pointing to collective reflection (architectsjournal.co.uk) The Grenfell Inquiry reports will take a long time to fully digest. They are sad, important, infuriating documents, reflecting a variety of industry opinions and positions both genuinely and strategically held. Despite the lengthy gestation period, the reports represent only the end …

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Howells behind plans to convert Seifert’s Croydon tower into flats

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By Richard Waite. First published in Architects Journal 20/08/24: Howells behind plans to convert Seifert’s Croydon tower into flats (architectsjournal.co.uk) The 24-storey office block at 12-16 Addiscombe Road, next to East Croydon station, opened in 1970 as the headquarters of Noble Lowndes Anninuities (NLA). It is also known as No 1 Croydon as well as …

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Mary Duggan and RUFF complete ‘pavilions in park’ housing in Croydon

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By Rob Wilson.  First published in Architects Journal, 20/03/23 – https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/buildings/mary-duggan-and-ruff-complete-pavilions-in-park-housing-in-croydon. Red Clover Gardens consists of 157 homes for private sale, affordable and social rent, arranged across five facetted blocks within a landscaped park-like setting. The scheme, at Couldson in the south-east of the London Borough of Croydon, was commissioned by Croydon’s in-house developer Brick …

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Council housing is not a dirty word, says Labour as it pledges social housing drive

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First published the The Architects Journal, 27/09/22. The Labour Party has vowed to roll out a massive council house-building programme if it is voted in at the next election. Speaking in Liverpool at the party’s annual conference, shadow communities secretary Lisa Nandy set out policies to boost housebuilding by local authorities. In Labour’s 2019 election manifesto, …

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Housing desperately needs long term strategy

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First published in Housing Today, 14/07/22 – Housing desperately needs long term strategy | Comment | Housing Today. As the housing development sector backs Housing Today’s ‘A Fair Deal for Housing’ project, Colm Lacey argues for a new strategy to make the delivery of affordable housing more certain and commercially attractive. There is not much …

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Podcast: Tracks of my tyres

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Colm Lacey (Soft Cities) talks to David Taylor and Toby Fox of Velocity Magazine (https://velocitymagazine.co.uk) about housing, bikes, and taking things apart and trying to put them back together again. Oh and he eventually chooses some of his favourite songs to play too. Colm Lacey – Tracks Of My Tyres | Podcast on Spotify

Developers, we have an image problem

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First published in The Developer, 28/02/19 – https://www.thedeveloper.live/opinion/opinion/developers-we-have-an-image-problem. The public don’t trust, or indeed respect, developers and this is negatively impacting urban discourse, writes Colm Lacey, chief executive of Brick by Brick The development industry has a problem with people. In the most recent Ipsos MORI Veracity Index, those surveyed ranked almost all of the …

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