Pedalling with a Purpose for B Corp Month

In celebration of B Corp month, we joined 11 other B Corp-certified businesses at The Building Society, unfolded our Brompton bicycles, and headed out into London, stopping to see purpose-driven projects along the way.

The theme of B Corp month 2024 - This Way Forward - underscores the importance of collaboration across the built environment to accelerate positive change. It was inspiring to see like-minded engineers, architects, developers, and others come together to celebrate B Corp month and share best practices across our industry.

Our first B Corp month since our certification in July 2023, it was the perfect opportunity to come together for a bike ride with a purpose. Brompton Bicycles, also a B Corp, generously came on board to support the ride with bikes and marshals from the charitable group Ride for their Lives.

Our bike trail included some of our projects but also those of other built environment practices. Including the adaptive reuse of furniture workshops into modern workspaces by General Projects, the innovative reuse of Portland stone facades in a new build by MAKE Architects, and the contemporary extension of a Grade II Listed theatre by Bennetts Associates.

Twenty Brompton riders, eleven B Corps and five purpose-driven projects.

Our B Corp Ride

38 Berkeley Square by Elliott Wood

The ultra-prime Mayfair development includes office, retail, gallery space and landscaped gardens and is due to be completed in 2024. A steel frame with CLT floor panels was used to achieve our client's vision of a ‘beautiful, sustainable and human workspace’.
In 2021, this project became the first CLT frame commercial building to comply with SWECO Building Control regulations, which have become more stringent. The journey to achieving compliance inspired us to collaborate with developers, insurers, and architects on developing the Commercial Timber Guidebook.

180 Piccadilly by MAKE Architects & Elliott Wood

The workplace development by MAKE Architects and Elliott Wood will use over 500 tonnes of existing steelwork salvaged from a demolition site in the City of London.We helped facilitate the reclamation of approximately 1,700 tonnes of the 1990s steelwork for client GPE to reuse on their development projects. This industry-leading work is proving the process of reusing steelwork at scale and, to our knowledge, is the largest steel reuse project in the UK.

Shaftesbury Theatre by Bennetts Associates

Our first stop was the extension of a historic theatre in West End by Bennetts Associates. Their works include a fly tower extension made from weathering steel, an expansion of the venue’s capabilities and new office spaces.
They have conserved an iconic building but also made it relevant and useful for today's needs. Ensuring the theatre can continue to contribute to London's vibrant arts sector for years to come.

29 Marylebone Road by ADP

ADP's live adaptive reuse project for the University of Westminster will refurbish and extend the existing building to create a new hub for enterprise and industry.
Accessibility, inclusivity, and sustainability are at the heart of ADP’s design. The existing structure will be reused and retrofitted to provide collaborative creative spaces for local businesses, event and exhibition space to showcase student enterprise and achievements, as well as state-of-the-art training facilities, including a digital studio and maker space.

The Manufactory by General Projects

General Projects has reimagined and reinvented the Grade II* Listed Heals’ Building into a characterful workspace.
The complex of nine buildings are the former workshops where Heal & Son designed, manufactured, sold, and dispatched its furniture. They have now been meticulously refurbished and stitched together to create a best-in-class case for repurposing our existing building stock.

The Acre by Platform

The Acre by Platform is an ongoing project to renovate and restore a neglected Brutalist building from the 1970s in Covent Garden. The refurbishment will breathe new life into the existing office areas, expand the building's space, enhance its performance, and create new public space on the ground level.

Selfridges & Co by Stanhope

Stanhope project managed the major refurbishment of the iconic department store, Selfridges & Co. The project has brought coherence to the store's identity and improved circulation.

The Building a Brompton Riding Society

Our partnership with Brompton extended to our co-working space The Building Society. During March, we had a pool four Brompton bicycles available for members to use, free of charge, when heading out for meetings, errands, or site visits.

The initiative was designed to help our members switch up their mode of transport and promote smarter, greener mobility solutions.