Threesixty Architecture

Gold Award

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Company

Threesixty Architecture

Summary

We are now in our 20th year working together from our studios in Glasgow and Inverness. We’ve generally been going quietly about our business, relentlessly investing in our capability and seeking out the projects and work streams we enjoy and believe are meaningful. The last year really feels like things are falling into place.

We have a team who are curious, collaborative and passionate, working from award winning studios and on projects with increasing socially utility. Our approach to design and how we go about our business is aligned with our shared and published vision and values and measured and substantiated by the rigour of our BCorp accreditation.

Our work is diverse but our approach is consistent: no lazy answers – challenge everything and push for the best outcome. We develop concepts that take everyone on a journey and makes them proud to be involved whether they are client, consultant, builder or council officer. In this we strive to be positive ambassadors for our profession and bring a humane, textured approach to our built environment that is rich in narrative.

The achievements of last year are reflected in several just completed projects:

- Port of Leith Distillery - a technically complex, beautifully detailed and striking mixed use tower at the entry to Leith harbour. The first vertical malt whisky distillery in Scotland and a beacon for the new identity of an industry.

- SRUC Veterinary College, Inverness – a life sciences HQ packed with narrative and designed around the stringent RIBA 2030 sustainable standards.

- Dundreggan Visitors Centre– the world’s first ever rewilding centre, designed around a depth of connection with the landscape and embedding a Gaelic narrative.

- Victorian Market Food Hall, Inverness – the retrofit and reinvention of an ‘urban room’ that physically manifests our research on the design of Foodhalls; their cultural/community impact and ability to incubate businesses.

- A Vision for Glasgow's Golden Z – a phenomenally complex and compelling roadmap for the next 20/30 years, unique in the UK in both depth and scope.

This year we have further reinforced our position as UK leaders in the repair of our urban centres and delivered visions for Hamilton, East Kilbride, Fort William and Dumbarton. This builds on the methodology / guidance developed with the government and is a continuing opportunity to demonstrate the wider skills and relevance of the profession in proactive leadership and with an innovative, humane and optimistic approach.

What sets your practice/agency apart from others?

We have a clearly defined culture based on shared values (CODE: Care, Openness, Design and Excellence) and we work hard to ensure all our activities reflect this in how we work with our clients, collaborators and colleagues. We love what we do and we want everyone else to enjoy it too. Our activities that reflect this include: A democratic design process: we have always sought to ensure all our practice are involved in our collaborative design process – allowing a collective sense of ownership and pride while teaching and honing a high level of design excellence and curiosity. This ensures we bring the full intellect of the practice to focus on projects no matter what scale, type or location. We do not progress without an agreed concept or design narrative and we believe this leads to a depth of meaning and relevance in our work. We always strive to use this concept narrative to excite our Clients and Collaborators and it is important to us that they feel a sense of ownership and pride in what we collectively deliver. CODE Lectures: we love welcoming peers, friends and strangers into our studios we have an in-house auditorium space from which we have hosted a variety of events for up to 100. Most notably, we have continued a series of lectures in-house based on a wide variety of topics, many deliberately outwith architecture. The series includes: - YBLM – Why Black Lives Matter – a lecture by Ron Mardenboro (Strathclyde University). - Food Writing and Recipes as Ways of Looking at the World – a lecture by Rachel Roddy, The Guardian food correspondent and author - Carbon in Construction – Atelier Ten - When Architecture and Music Meet – Acoustics in Parisian theatres by Seb Jouan - People Make Glasgow Horsepowered – Lecture by Professor Janice Kirkpatrick OBE - Pop-up Poetry – What Stops Poetic Structures from Collapsing - A lecture by Peter McCarey - Invisible Women – Gender bias in classical music and its implications on wider society (album launch) - Alice Allan, musician Links with Academia: teaching and participating in academic research are important to us. We continue to support Glasgow University’s Urban Design and Masterplanning Masters course through tutoring, workshops and crits hosted in our auditorium. We continue to host international and UK student groups to present key project streams and, with Strathclyde University host / mentor students for the Experience of Practice programme. Our younger members of the practice also convene a ‘Routes through Practice’ lecture for Architecture students in GSA and Strathclyde. This advises students on how to prepare and what to look for and expect in their year out / leaving academia and is attended by 50-70 in each session. Town Centre Regeneration: Our work in town and city centre vision-led regeneration sets us apart in Scotland (and the UK). We have developed a methodology with the Scottish Government to map out the direction and potential for failing town centres and notably applied this in publishing visions for Glasgow, Hamilton, Dumbarton and East Kilbride this year building on a legacy including Paisley, Clydebank, Inverness, Falkirk and various locations in England. We absolutely love this workstream that allows us to use the profession’s skillset across a massive spectrum of problem solving and a high level of engagement. This work has led to us becoming an authoritative voice on the future of the high street (with BBC, Herald, Building Design, Building, Revo, High Streets Task Force). More importantly it allows us to bring a growing legacy of knowledge and really make a difference to the futures of many.

How do you go 'the extra mile' for clients and employees?

Shared Vision: This year we launched our updated practice Vision. This describes how we would like the practice to be in 2030 and gives us a shared direction. It was initially prepared by all management colleagues and then developed throughout the practice. This ground up approach has really led to a focus on the things that matter and continues to help us make choices on investment and choosing what we want to work on. It succinctly covers a variety of aspects for a values and culture led business. BCorp – Business for Good: We are the first and only BCorp accredited architecture practice registered in Scotland. We identified that the aims and high expectations of the global BCorp movement was stunningly compatible with our vision and our values/behaviours and the stringent and ongoing assessment process gave us a route to measurable improvement and the ability to demonstrate the highest standards of social responsibility – no flannel, no greenwash and nowhere to hide. It has been transformational for the practice and given real clarity in decision making. As a result of BCorp, our company articles legally require us to assess the impact of society and staff for all our decision making. A Depth of Client Understanding: some of our key clients (Mucklebrigg, Ellandi and Black Isle Brewery) have also attained BCorp accreditation and it has been refreshing to work with these like-minded companies. With all clients (Professional, one offs, Councils) we ensure we get down to the core of what they need. We resist being given a brief but rather push to take a brief – there’s a big difference. We think its important to learn how they need their project to feel and what their unique narrative is; not just a list of rooms. We’ve learned that this is where many projects go right! Looking After Each Other: we are continually improving the working conditions and benefits for employees and have invested in 3rd party EDI audit and guidance to help us achieve the ambitions of our vision. Notably this year we have implemented an industry best enhanced maternity pay of 6 months full salary and voluntarily pay above the Real Living Wage. We have a structured programme for year out placements that ensure they get a diversity of experience and ongoing mentorship. Our commitment to our team is reflected in our award winning studios that are built around our culture of creativity and collaboration with our recently relocated Inverness studio clearly demonstrating our commitment to town/city centre regeneration by activating the street (and just as importantly, making our profession visible). Society as our Clients: what we deliver or construct has an impact on the wider society and we always seek to ensure we engage widely. We also take this responsibility seriously in how we work. We have a commitment to donate a minimum of 5% of our profit to charity. Recently this was through the purchase of a £30,000 specialist wheelchair for a paraplegic child in West Dunbartonshire where we are working. We are also committed to offer pro-bono support to charitable organisations and this year supported a South Lanarkshire Trust in the design and delivery of a community Hub building. We also provide work placements for young people from low income or care experienced backgrounds through the EY Foundation.

What innovations have you introduced in the past year?

We are eternally curious and have a strong focus on research-based activities and are mindful to create a growing legacy of knowledge, ability and value in each recurring workstream. We have grown our learnings on delivering towards the 2030 RIBA sustainability standards at SRUC Inverness and have also invested in further Passivhaus accreditation. We are also a net zero company. This innovative mindset is demonstrated in the various projects under a separate award entry and has continued in other areas this year: Scottish Power – We have developed an adaptive model facility for regional hybrid work place and depot buildings across the UK. The design delivers a low embodied carbon and net zero operational carbon solution through the use of CLT construction, mass timber frame and on site renewables. The solution also embraces circular economy principles and has built in ability to ‘flex’ between administrative and operational uses. The first roll-out is in 8 locations. City Centre Industrial – we continue to deliver mixed use projects that combine self-storage facilities alongside high density residential and with ground floor incubation / start-up space for creative / light industrial businesses. We’ve developed over 2 million sq ft of this very specific industrial typology and applied lean design principles over many iterations to hone the efficiency of the model that delivers BREEAM Excellent. Although we didn’t set out to do self-storage per se we have become the leaders in Europe. More importantly, they have evolved in inner London boroughs to a mixed use solution that activates the street and is delivering responsible and attractive architecture. Engagement Materials – this year we have developed advanced multimedia packages of engagement products that leverage the skills of our in house Creative Lab Team. This has specifically been used to support our urban Vison work and storytelling through physical model, video, visuals and animations. For East Kilbride this formed the basis of a 14 day exhibition that we staffed and led to 12,000 interactions. We are carrying out similar for Hamilton and Fort William. SEC Energy Campus – we have developed the masterplan for the SEC campus in Glasgow to take it off the grid and become a net energy contributor. This has involved getting to grips with the technical specifics of river source district heating, energy storage, geo-thermal, and mass solar generation. Our drive has been to create an overlay masterplan of the physical manifestations of these technologies and weave them into the structure of the campus to project the values of an environmentally responsible approach and celebrate it architecturally.