Take Five
Architects Lanre Gbolade and Tara Gbolade of Gbolade Design Studio (image: Tamed Designs).
The slang expression ‘take five’ is an invitation to have a short break, to take some time off from an arduous task. The usage example given on dictionary.com is “we’ve been at it long enough, let’s take five.” Architects Tara Gbolade and Lanre Gbolade have taken five to reflect on and present the five years of work they have done since founding their architectural practice Gbolade Design Studio in 2018.
“We turned five years old and that was just an excuse for a party,” explains Tara, laughing. Given the occasion, they thought why not make an exhibition as well? They approached The Africa Centre, a community space designed by a team of architects led by Freehaus and interior designer Tola Ojuolape. Nestled into the back-streets of Southwark the space opened its doors in this new location in 2022 and is just down the road from Gbolade's studio. “Look, we're turning five, do you have some time to squeeze us in?” Tara recalls their pitch. “They've got very busy programme but they managed to have this slot free. So we said ‘we’ll take it!’”
Called Breaking Ground: A Regenerative Approach, the exhibition was a chance for the studio to take five to reflect on their first few years of practice together. “It has been a really good process of going back and seeing some of the earlier projects,” says Lanre. “Sometimes when you're in the midst of it, you don't stop and take stock, you actually don't appreciate what you’ve achieved.” It was also an opportunity to show off their studio's graphic identity which is mirrored in the exhibition's graphic design. The striking section titles, vinylled onto the walls, are in a style that Lanre says “harks back a little bit to our [Nigerian] heritage.” He explains that the typeface is called Charvet. It has roots from the African continent having been created by Kevin Karanja, a Kenyan graphic and motion designer, and originally commissioned by The Nest Collective, a multidisciplinary creative business working in Kenya. “It reminded us of Nsibidi ideograms from West Africa, where our origins hail from and we were keen to embed this heritage in our branding identity.”
Hosting a self-initiated exhibition is reflective of the Gbolade’s ethos: making their own opportunities and creating a space for themselves to work on things that they are interested in and passionate about. “As a practice we are quite entrepreneurial,” explains Tara. So it is not often that the studio – which has now grown to five people – has the time to reflect, busy as they are with projects that stretch across disciplines from private residential projects to public commissions to policy making.
To date, Gbolade Design Studio projects have included: designing 50 new build, energy efficient homes in Littlehampton; working with Epping Forest council on a strategic Sustainability Guidance which will impact future planning applications and prioritise protecting the landscape; creating a Sustainability Checklist and policies for the Harlow and Gilston Garden town for the next 20 years; retrofitting and extending homes for private clients; and redeveloping a community centre in Brixton with a focus on creating a space suitable for the activities that take places there including the Brixton Immortals Dominoes Club and the Brixton Soup Kitchen. And, they are currently working on the development for the Waterloo Station Masterplan which aims to reinvigorate the area surrounding the busiest transport hub in UK. Led by Grimshaw Architects, Gbolade are focusing on the regenerating the public realm and the community-driven aspects of the masterplan. Not much time for resting then.
They have covered a lot of ground in their five years of practice, bringing a sense of urgency from their backgrounds in design management, policy development and work for other architecture studios. In the exhibition, the studio presents five key areas that are central to their practice: city- shaping, retrofit, net-zero homes, community-building, and innovation in construction. "As a practice, we very much focused on sustainable development” says Tara, explaining that this work is rooted in the idea of regenerative architecture and holistic sustainability which considers social, economic, and environmental factors to ensure, as much as possible, each projects’ longevity.
Given this focus on long-term sustainability, it seems pertinent that the studio is making time for themselves to reflect and asses before forging forwards with their practice once again. Taking a moment of pause.
Disegno visited the exhibition and walked and talked through it with Tara Gbolade and Lanre Gbolade, reflecting on a few key themes and projects. It was a pleasure to take five with them.
Disegno Your studio is still quite young but you work on such a variety of projects, how did this come about?
Tara As a small practice, we work quite differently. We don't just work on small projects, we work on a real breadth from city shaping and policymaking right through to really interesting, detailed retrofit projects. So we wanted to use this as an opportunity to say that on all different scales, we should be able to make a difference.
Lanre Traditional architecture practice is normally based on a trajectory of growing your project scale with the size of the practice, but we have been very intentional about making sure that we can have conversations at a large strategic scale, as well as getting into the nitty gritty of the technical design retrofits of passive houses [homes that conform to a voluntary standard of energy efficiency – ed]. We think that marks us out a little bit. It enables us to have conversations quite broadly, as well as getting quite deep.
Tara It keeps us on our toes.
Disegno What would you say defines your practice?
Tara All of our projects are embedded with an understanding of who the community is. They are driven by getting data and insights before we make decisions, or as we make decisions, because we feel it's really critical.
Lanre Some of these insights are around holistic sustainability – social, economic, and environmental. The idea [of the exhibition] is to try and get a rounded view of what sustainability means from our perspective.
Tara Particularly as we are, I think, as an industry moving – or trying to move – beyond what sustainability means, because we know there's so much greenwashing. It's about trying to recognise that we are in a climate emergency now, that we have to do everything that we possibly can to go beyond just doing less bad and starting to do a net positive. That really is the focus. We might not have figured it all out yet, but as a practice we try to experiment and learn as we go with each project.
Disegno Do you find the urgency of regenerative architecture difficult to communicate to clients, to get them onboard?
Lanre A lot of clients come to us because they can see that we're passionate about holistic sustainability. It’s something that they are looking for, so that makes the conversation easy to start with. For those clients who are maybe not necessarily there yet, it's a case of us working with them to take them on a journey. We recognise that we can't get to passive house immediately, it's about helping them to understand what the long-term benefits are – but also the short term opportunities as well. So we often start projects with a client workshop that will break down what sustainability is and how it connects to some element of the business case for them.
Tara The majority of our clients come to us because we already set out our stall, so a lot of the conversations are a little bit more nuanced. It's not really [a question of] is this going to be sustainable? It's just to what degree, to what targets? Are we meeting the criteria? We made a commitment a few years ago that we are going to dedicate ourselves to doing the best we can. And for us, it means that our projects have to reflect that.
“This community hub building was about bringing forward regenerative materials in terms of things like moss walls to alleviate air pollution.”
Disegno So there's a growing willingness from clients to consider sustainability?
Lanre We're finding that conversation has definitely moved on from where it was five years ago, from 10 years ago. It's a really exciting time, actually. We’re enthused and happy about the fact that, actually, the conversations have been easier. We're beginning to be able to have more influence from a sustainability perspective in terms of thinking about how people navigate and use the environments around our projects. We're considering more than just a building now and thinking about things like transport too when we talk to our clients.
Disegno Community-building is chapter of the exhibition, could you tell me about your thinking behind the regeneration of the Lloyd Leon Community Centre in Brixton?
Lanre This community hub building was about bringing forward regenerative materials in terms of things like moss walls to alleviate air pollution as it's on a very busy road. The idea there is that some of the main issues, society-wise, are stemming from poor health and wellbeing. If we can address that through regenerative materials and how we go about creating clean micro environments, we can start resolving generational issues – rather than just the immediate short-term ones.
Tara The majority of the people who use the community centre come from Black and Asian backgrounds, who face high levels of respiratory health challenges. So it's very important for us to connect those two pieces, to understand who was using the building and have the building respond to that.
Lanre The occupants of the building are the Brixton Soup Kitchen and the Brixton Immortals Dominoes Club.
Tara They're world-renowned Domino players! They taught us to play.
Lanra As part of our process of community engagement, we get involved as much as possible to understand the mindset – the ways of being – of the people who use the building and the places that we're designing. We were immersing ourselves during volunteering days to get involved and learn how to play dominoes as well. It’s really worthwhile. You should go down in the summer and get some chicken and play some dominoes – you might even get some rum as well!
Tara It turned into a [spatial] analysis. You can start dominoes with two people on the table, or four, and everybody's trying not to give away their answer. But we found that they're drinking, so they have drinks or beers next to them. So actually, the space required is slightly larger than what you initially imagined. Then you realise that the space gets even wider, because people are always looking over the players’ shoulder. And that required space increases as people move around between between players. It was an interesting way of looking at the special requirements of something that is quite a simple game, because it completely changes the normal design approach.
Disegno What were your intentions in doing a self-initiated exhibition?
Lanre The idea, really, is to try to inspire people.
Tara We strongly believe that the built environment should be designed and built by those who live in it and experience it everyday.
Lanre Which is everybody.
Tara Luckily, The Africa Centre has connections with local schools and we reached out to quite a few. So over the course of the next couple of weeks, we'll have them come in. And the mission is, hopefully, to get more people into the built environment.
Lanre The school kids that are visiting are quite young, and the idea is to get them to look at the built environment in terms of how they occupy it, how they play, where they go to school, but also, hopefully they can use some of the exhibition's content to help them to understand a little bit more about what architecture means by playing some games. Our team has been putting together a little pack that will enable them to go around and find particular things, it might be an element or brick material. It aims to get them to think about themselves as an individual within the built environment and how they interface with the public realm as well.
Tara We also have QR codes that link to 3D walkthroughs or videos where they can see and experience construction on site. We also wanted it to be fun.
Words Lara Chapman
Photography Tamed Design
Breaking Ground: A Regenerative Approach is on display at The Africa Centre until March 31 2023, 66 Great Suffolk St, London, SE1 0BL.