First published in Architects Journal, 20/02/25 – How do you kickstart an infill housing boom? Could more infill housing give the government a swift but significant win in its rush to build 1.5 million new homes by 2030? Richard Waite looks at the issues holding back small-scale development and suggests some solutions Last month, the chancellor, Rachel …
First published by Grow Places, 12/11/24: Podcast — Grow Places Every project needs a good client, so today we hear from one! Colm Lacey, whose deep experience being a Client on built environment projects in public housing and education for entities such as Brick By Brick, provides the insights. Colm’s journey from housing development to …
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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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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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In this episode of Accelerating Careers in Real Estate, I get to sit down with Colm Lacey, Founder and Director of Soft Cities, Chair of London’s CLT, and Group Director of Capital Projects for New City College. Colm discusses his impressive career in housing and regeneration, sharing insights from his time at Brick by Brick, …
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 …
Mary Duggan and RUFF complete ‘pavilions in park’ housing in Croydon Read More »
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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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 …
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
First published in BD Online, 05/10/20 – https://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/well-look-back-and-spot-the-monuments-to-this-terrible-time/5108135.article. Six more months of working from home will leave an ugly mark on our towns, warns development chief. The pandemic will leave a lasting legacy on the design of our towns and cities in the form of joyless “lockdown schemes”, a leading developer has warned. In a …
We’ll look back and spot the monuments to this terrible time Read More »