Abbey Wood is a landmark new development of apartments, commercial space and public realm in the London Borough of Greenwich.

Redevelopment of an exceptional riverside site for high-quality, sustainable housing.

A modern Almshouse for a more connected community.

Older persons’ social housing initiative comprising of 57 extra-care homes with shared facilities like a cookery school kitchen, communal dining spaces, meeting rooms, craft areas, and communal gardens with raised beds for allotment style food production. 2025 Stirling Prize Winner.

Appleby Blue, founded and overseen by the United St Saviour’s Charity in Southwark, is a modern almshouse, a testament to community-focused architecture. Its design targeted a 35% reduction in carbon emissions compared to 2013 Building Regulations.

The building’s fabric was optimised for thermal performance. The layout centres on a communal courtyard garden. Facing the busy A2206, a five-storey northern block houses communal and shared spaces. This positioning makes them visible and easily accessible to the broader community, while also forming a visual and acoustic shield for the garden. A lower two-storey southern block ensures year-round sunlight for the garden and main block. South-facing façades maximise daylight with solar shading to prevent overheating, and thermal mass for passive cooling in warmer weather and at night, helping regulate indoor temperatures. 

The building promotes natural ventilation. Double-height communal areas enhance cross-flow, while glazed corridors function as tempered winter gardens, opening in summer to form comfortable spaces to sit and chat.

Below ground, heating, water, and electrical systems run along corridor routes into each flat, with central plantrooms supplying water and heating to local heat interface units for added efficiency. Ventilation is provided by partially centralised roof extract fans serving clusters of flats with automatically controlled airflow. Communal areas feature smart lighting responsive to occupancy and daylight. The building also includes infrastructure for a telecare nurse call system and dual integrated fire systems for residential and commercial zones. Originally designed with CHP, the project evolved over 10 years, transitioning to PV panels that would account for 20% of the building’s carbon reduction through renewable energy.

Appleby Blue reflects a decade-long commitment to sustainable living and community connection, creating a nurturing setting where residents can age gracefully and remain integral to their community.

Awards

2025 RIBA Stirling Prize Winner
2025 RIBA Neave Brown Award for Housing - Winner
2025 RIBA Client of the Year Winner
2025 RIBA National Award Winner
2025 RIBA London Award Winner
2025 Pineapples Award Healthy Homes - Winner
2024 Housing Design Award - Winners of Winners

“We are honoured to receive the RIBA Client of the Year Award for Appleby Blue Almshouse. This project embodies our ambition to support inclusive communities in Southwark through thoughtful, innovative design, and our belief that good design should be available to all. Working closely with Witherford Watson Mann, we’ve shown that historic organisations can be bold and forward-thinking, and that social housing can and should be well-designed and A aspirational.  
The building’s design enables joyful living in the heart of the city, supports our team to deliver high-quality services, and fosters belonging across generations through the shared community centre and kitchen. This award is down to the strength and belief in of our shared vision, our very close working relationship with the architects, as well as our joint long-term commitment to the design principles that shaped every decision. We hope Appleby Blue inspires others to reimagine what growing older in our cities can look like — and to create more places like it across the country.”
Martyn Craddock, Chief Executive, United St Saviour’s Charity

We have been working over a number years on a rolling programme to upgrade the services, enhance the technical infrastructure and improve the thermal performance of the Grade II*-listed 6000m² Battersea Arts Centre, formerly Battersea Town Hall. 

Bishop’s Palace House was formerly a drab 1970s brown brick car park and shopping centre in Kingston upon Thames’ Old Town Conservation Area on the bank of the river, next to the town’s Grade II-listed bridge.

The Bridge Theatre is London's first new commercial theatre of scale for four decades. The 900-seat auditorium is the flagship home of the London Theatre Company, with Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr, who led 12 years of artistic and commercial success at the National Theatre, at its helm.

This long-running project with the Bush Theatre has achieved gradual improvements to the building over 6 years, and Phase 2 continues the integration of new with existing services.

The iconic, Grade II* Listed Chichester Festival Theatre was designed by Powell and Moya and opened in 1962. Based on Tyronne Guthrie’s Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario, it boasted the first modern ‘thrust’ stage auditorium in the country. Over the past fifty years it has been a hugely successful and influential centre for the performing arts and has been extended on a number of occasions to address changing demands, leading to a dilution of the original design.

New Build and Refurbishment in a Heritage Context

4.5-hectare heritage public realm and new Discovery Centre for the Grade I-listed Chatham Dockyard. The project achieved major environmental improvements by eliminating heating in large areas and upgrading thermal insulation and building services systems. 2017 RIBA Stirling Prize finalist.

This multi-award-winning project at The Historic Dockyard Chatham preserved key Scheduled Ancient Monuments and the 18th-century HMS Namur timbers. It introduced world-class galleries, interpretation spaces, visitor facilities, a 4.5-hectare heritage public realm, and a Discovery Centre to highlight the dockyard's significance during the age of sail.

This multi-award-winning project at The Historic Dockyard Chatham preserved key Scheduled Ancient Monuments and the 18th-century HMS Namur timbers. It introduced world-class galleries, interpretation spaces, visitor facilities, a 4.5-hectare heritage public realm, and a Discovery Centre to highlight the dockyard's significance during the age of sail.Skelly & Couch provided full mechanical, electrical, public health, and environmental design for the project. Significant energy savings—both carbon and financial—were achieved, crucial to the long-term sustainability of Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust’s strategy. These were realised through enhanced thermal insulation and upgraded building services.

From the outset, the design prioritised environmental conditions to preserve the ship's timbers. The specialist advised maintaining them in their existing condition (as floor joists beneath the floor) without heating or ventilation. To address the thermal and latent loads from visitors, Skelly & Couch developed a natural ventilation strategy.

Undercutting the old timber north and south doors by 50mm allowed cross-ventilation and ensured adequate fresh air. Provisions were made for a future fan installation in the store beneath the link bridge adjacent to the undercroft, to accommodate potential temperature and moisture fluctuations. While the bays above and adjacent to the Namur undercroft are heated, many bays in the mast house and mould loft remain unheated.

Another challenge was concealing containment routes while ensuring future service access would not damage the timbers. For instance, positioning smoke detectors required planning to place supports without disrupting the exhibit.To minimise waste, a proportion of existing cast iron radiators and coolie light fittings were refurbished and reused wherever possible.

The project successfully combined heritage preservation with sustainability, achieving both carbon and financial benefits while safeguarding its historical significance.

Awards

2016 – Civic Trust Conservation Award Regional Finalist.

2016 – Offsite Construction Awards Finalist.

2017 – RIBA Stirling Prize Shortlisted.

2017 – RIBA National Award Winner.

2017 – RIBA South East Regional Award Winner.

2017 – RIBA South East Conservation Award Winner.

2017 – RIBA South East Building  of the Year Winner.

2017 – Kent Design & Development Award Winner.

2017 – AABC Conservation Civic Trust Awards Finalist.

2018 – Civic Trust Award Winner.

2018 – RICS South East Best Tourism and Leisure Award Winner.

2018 – RICS Best Project Winner.

See BBC feature and video 

Watch a 360 degree interactive video of Command of the Oceans.

The project involved the sensitive upgrade of an existing restaurant facility on Covent Garden’s famed Opera Terrace within the historic Grade II*-listed Market Building.