Returning to work today we received a beautiful, thoughtful and touching gift from our friend and former colleague Chloe van Grieken, now living and working in Canada. The following description of her gift was written in the accompanying card.

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The Inukshuk

Inuit word for “the image of man”; the Inukshuk was traditionally a stone structure used as a wayfinding device in the northern wilderness.

The Inukshuk provides direction, and guides the way. It is a marker of those that have travelled the path before us, and are watching out for us to ensure we don’t lose ourselves and our purpose.

As a structure, the Inukshuk is dependent on each individual stone, and requires balance and unity.

In more modern times, the Inukshuk has become a symbol of hope, safety and friendship, as well as symbolising the human spirit and the strength we can find in terms of adversity.

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Thanks Chloe, we’ll cherish it.

January 2017

As 2016 draws to a close we have taken time to review and reflect on what has been an extraordinary and tumultuous year, and look forward to 2017.

In early January, returning from the festive break, the staff at Hoskins Architects were rocked by the news that the firm’s hugely respected Principal was gravely ill in hospital. The gruelling week that followed culminated in the devastating news that we had lost the man who started our firm almost 18 years prior, and since cultivated our close-knit team, many of whom worked side by side with Gareth for well over a decade.

Over the challenging weeks that followed the inherent strengths of that team became ever more evident. Buoyed by the incredible outpouring of condolences from clients, contemporaries and friends alike, the team rallied to support one another, pulling together and focusing on carefully redistributing the numerous tasks Gareth undertook.

Throughout the year since, the team has been taking stock and planning the way forward for the studio. Formally implementing the changes required, engendered not least by the need for the company to adopt Gareth’s shareholding, is a necessarily lengthy process that is still on-going. To begin with though, and in recognition of the significant contributions they have made to the practice (throughout previous years as well as over the turbulent last twelve months), a number of colleagues have been promoted to new roles as Associates and Associate Directors, with our Board of Directors continuing above.

In spite of the effort required to get through this difficult period, our team not only pulled through but has continued to perform to the highest standards, delivering our customary excellence on our on-going projects, evidenced by the numerous awards gleaned for them, and winning new and exciting jobs.

During the year we’ve seen two major award-winning healthcare projects completed and opened to the public: Ballymena Health and Care Centre, in Northern Ireland, delivered in collaboration with Keppie Design; and Eastwood Health and Care Centre, just outside Glasgow which, as a hub reference design project, provides a benchmark for excellent, sustainable, and good value design for future health centres across Scotland. Eastwood went on to win the NHS Design Excellence Award, and the prestigious NHS Paul Taylor Award, with the centre at Ballymena bringing in a host of awards too.

Over the summer the £14.1 million third phase of the National Museum of Scotland’s redevelopment opened to the public, including 10 major new galleries dedicated to decorative art, design, fashion, science and technology.

Rockvilla, The National Theatre of Scotland’s £6.5 million headquarters in the Speirs Wharf regeneration area of Glasgow, completed on-site in November. The project repurposed a disused industrial warehouse, enabling the Company, for the first time to house all its rehearsal and production activity under one roof. NTS has moved in and will host an official opening in January 2017.

Also completed this year were the redesign of Berlin City Library’s interior and the first phase of our RIBA competition winning proposal for new dance and drama school for Bird College in South London.

As the year draws to a close we have a couple of projects, of very different scale and programme, finishing on-site and imminently due to complete: Hillside Gardens Lane is a project to deliver six luxurious townhouses in Glasgow’s West End for clients Noah Developments; on the other side of the country 3-8 St. Andrews Square, a significant, commercial, mixed-use development for Standard Life Investments, delivered in collaboration with CDA provides, provides 100,000 sq ft of much needed, Grade A office space, 70,000 sq ft prime retail, and a suite of luxury apartments in the heart of Edinburgh.

Currently on-site and due to complete next year is the Aberdeen Art Gallery redevelopment including its spectacular, copper-clad, rooftop extension. Also due to finish is the revitalisation of Vienna’s World Museum exhibition and visitor facilities, as well as a further two new NHS health centres in Blackburn, Midlothian and Firrhill in Edinburgh.

Work on the £16.8 million redevelopment for the Scottish National Gallery project, Celebrating Scotland’s Art, is due to start on-site in spring 2017. The project is set to treble the exhibition space for Scottish art, and vastly improve visitor access and circulation.  On nearby West Register Street, our office and retail development with client Chris Stewart Group will also start on site in 2017.

Working once again with the National Trust for Scotland, proposals for The Garden of Playfulness at Brodie Castle in Moray were recently submitted for planning, with design work progressing straight onto the next stage. Following review by the Salvation Army, revised proposals for the world famous site Strawberry Field, Liverpool have been developed and submitted for planning and we continue to develop proposals for the Royal High School in Edinburgh with clients Duddingston House.

Despite closing-in on the end of a few projects the practice remains extremely busy, with the buzz of a busy studio returned and some exciting new projects to be announced next year.

Gareth’s death – and other significant losses, felt more personally by some of our team – undoubtedly provoked reflection and re-evaluation for everyone affected. However, the arrival of no less than five beautiful, healthy, babies (and the joyous news of more to come), reminds us to look forward. With numerous new and exciting projects underway, and even more on the horizon we look forward to a relaxing Christmas break and coming back refreshed, to take on the challenges that 2017 brings us.

To all our wonderful colleagues, clients and contemporaries we send our warmest wishes for the forthcoming festive season.

December 2016

This year our Berlin office combined their annual Christmas dinner with a printmaking workshop. Hosted in an atmospheric art studio, the event combined outstanding food with printing using a range of mediums. As the wine flowed a wide range of images were produced, a selection of which accompany this post.

December 2016

SEDA’s annual Show & Tell event – where the Ecological Association’s members have five minutes each to present aspect of their work over the year – was once again oversubscribed this year. A packed Architecture + Design Scotland meeting space was enthralled by copious offerings: a community land buy-out, an ecological furniture maker, cutting-edge research into internal air quality, hempcrete building block manufacturer, as well as the more traditional low energy buildings. To everybody’s great amusement, the evening’s MC, John Gilbert Architects’ Matt Bridgestock, rigorously enforced the time limit, forcing some contributors to a halt mid-sentence.

Hoskins Architects’ Nick Domminney played a straight act by comparison, and presented the recently completed Eastwood Primary Care Health Centre for Greater Glasgow NHS Trust and East Renfrewshire Council, and identified three important aspects that are often overlooked.

Flexibility: despite the often divergent demands of GPs, most of the rooms are modular, allowing care services to be changed and redistributed over time, thus safeguarding the Centre’s use into the future. Community: the central atrium space is the hub of the complex. It is served by a community café that is based locally and staffed by locals - rather than by a global brand. Health: the two beautifully planted courtyards do not just bring natural light and ventilation into the heart of the Centre, but also provide spill-out space for physiotherapy and the gym, as well as the opportunity for growing food. A local group, including people with learning difficulties, will now plant out the courtyards with fruit and vegetables for the café, and furnish them with beehives, thus providing therapeutic activities, employment and healthy eating. Now that’s sustainable!

Visit our website for more informaiton and images on the project.

December 2016

It has been a hugely successful month for two of our recently opened health and care centres, with multiple design awards being won by each.

Ballymena Health and Care Centre – a new centre located in the town of Ballymena, Northern Ireland, which brings together a wide range of primary, intermediary, diagnostic and community health facilities – won the Primary Care Development Award at the 2016 annual Building Better Health Care awards, which recognise innovative enhancements to health and social care service sectors.

Earlier in the month at the Construction Excellence Awards, the project also took the Health Infrastructure Award, and received a commendation for the Overall Best Building in Northern Ireland. Celebrating construction in Northern Ireland, this award highlights excellence across housing, infrastructure and quality performance.

Most recently Ballymena Health and Care Centre went on to win the Glasgow Institute of Architects’ award for healthcare. Open to buildings within the UK and Ireland, the judging criteria reflects ‘good architecture and buildings, whether new or adapted, which express good design in terms of function and effectiveness as well as aesthetics.’ The project, delivered in collaboration with Keppie Design, opened to the public in early 2016. More information and photographs can be found using the link below.

The Health Facilities Scotland Awards were held in early November, during the Scottish Healthcare Facilities Conference held in Perthshire. Our very recently opened Eastwood Health and Care Centre won not only the NHS Design Excellence Award, but also the prestigious Paul Taylor Award, which recognises the best overall submission.

The HFS awards ‘acknowledge professional excellence across the wide range of topics covered by Facilities staff in NHS Scotland, which have lead to improved, lasting and replicable outcomes in healthcare provision for patients, local communities and staff.’

The project is the development of a reference design for hub West Scotland, and opened to the public during summer 2016.

More about the projects can be found using the link below.

Ballymena Health and Care Centre

Eastwood Health and Care Centre

November 2016

As part of Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival 2016, we opened our studio and welcomed visitors to see where and how we work.

We had an amazing turnout of people who came and saw our model collection, and also made their own fantastic creations. Each model formed part of a giant model city built over the course of the day. We used the activity to explain design concepts and themes about cities, and the role that designers can play in improving the fabric of everyday life.

See our short film showing the construction of the model city.

We had a great day, thank you to everyone who visited.

September 2016