Pollard Thomas Edwards

The total number of architects at Pollard Thomas Edwards has remained stable, while the proportion of women has fallen slightly in the past year from 47 per cent to 44 per cent; but this can hardly be counted a cause for concern in this most female-friendly of practices.

The highest-profile project of the past year is both groundbreaking and typical of the practice’s strengths. New Ground Cohousing in Barnet, north London, is the UK’s first senior cohousing scheme, providing 25 customised homes arranged around a shared co-house. This is both fascinating and timely, given the rising ageing population and the need to find new models for care and mutual support.

Although housing is not the exclusive output, it is the practice’s avowed strength, and its work is very much in the service of making better places to live, rather than shouty architectural statements which, in this sector in particular, can be superficial, leaving living spaces very formulaic.

So it is not surprising that PTE is involved in research. It wrote the Zero Carbon Hub ‘Builders’ Book to help reduce the energy gap on site. This synthesises research on 27 projects carried out by PTE and others. The monitoring that it carried out helped PTE write the Services Guide for NHBC and Zero Carbon Hub, which illustrates good practice in design and installation of renewable technologies, ventilation, heating and hot water systems.

PTE works from a single office in central London. It has no outposts overseas, and expresses no interest in working abroad. This is a practice that knows what it is good at and is putting its effort into continuing to do it well or, ideally, better.