We are thrilled that our collaboration with Bloqs and Enfield Council to create the UK’s first open access factory at Meridian Water has been named number one in Oliver Wainwright’s best architecture of 2022 in the Guardian.
A big shed in Edmonton in London might make an unlikely contender for one of the best buildings of 2022. But the arrival of Bloqs to this unloved corner of the Lower Lea valley is quietly revolutionary. Standing next to a cash and carry warehouse and a ready-mix concrete supplier, this new temple to fabrication provides affordable shared machinery and studios in an “open-access factory”, as the capital rapidly loses industrial workspace elsewhere. As a nimble retrofit and extension of a dilapidated warehouse, by 5th Studio, it is a model for a new kind of productive local economy that could be readily replicated across the country.
Read more about the project here.
Image: Claudia Agati