Celebrating EO Day together was a hugely energising and poignant event for shedkm this year. It can feel daunting to step away from project work for two days, but the benefits we bring back to our work in terms of shared technical learnings, awareness of our design impacts, and a renewed passion for creativity are huge.
We started our day where it all began, in ‘the studio’ extension of Liverpool University designed by our original co-founder Dave King, and a fitting location for his memorial. This celebration of his unwavering passion for architecture includes a month-long exhibition, ‘Under the Radar’, a collaboration between the university, Dave’s family and shedkm. Many of us have been either tutored by or worked with Dave and it was an inspiring way to start our time together as One Practice. While we reflected on our foundations, we had an eye to the future taking in the BA and MA students’ degree shows, exactly as he would have wanted. As one of our founding principals, Dave’s influence lives on in the practice today.
Our three studios then gathered for our annual assembly, presenting the achievements and future ambitions of the three boards and eight ateliers, which underpin our EO structure. Our ateliers cover diverse practice areas from technical innovation to social value and studio culture, and the content was compiled into a printed annual report for all to share, including objectives for the year ahead.
“in the three years since becoming an EOT, shedkm has made exceptional progress in embedding its EO principles throughout the practice in a way that is structured, inclusive and highly collaborative.”
Diane Hutchinson, Independent EO Board Trustee
At the end of an intense day, a team curry night on Water Street was in order. With studios in Liverpool, London and Manchester and projects running across multiple studios, many of us meet regularly on Teams but for some of us this was the first time meeting members of our project teams IRL!
Having spent our first day reflecting on our structure and ambitions, day two focussed on delivery in practice. We visited four shedkm projects including the modernist Civic Centre in Wigan, which we are retrofitting for Wigan Council and Capital&Centric, and Uptown, a residential new build on the riverside in Manchester, and ended the day at our new Manchester studio in the Makers Quarter at Kampus, a masterplan which we are proud to have been involved in. It was an inspiring tour of our projects and a great opportunity for us to come together to learn and socialise.
I’ve returned to London full of pride for the people in practice I work alongside and inspired for the year ahead.