I am an urbanist + architect, I combine practice + research to reconsider how to design our cities and the buildings + landscapes within them.

Having founded the urbanism and architecture studios HNNA + Assemblage I now work independently, and in partnership with other disciplines, designers and institutes. Together we deliver inventive solutions that creatively add value for clients who are looking to invest in the future of our built environment. I have a strong reputation for innovation and collaboration, with a focus on questioning preconceived attitudes in the midst of contemporary challenges. Through all my work lies a preoccupation with the nature of materials, the technology of fabrication and the poetics of space and solutions focus on maximisation of potential and sustainability.

As well as being an internationally experienced practitioner for 20 years I have a successful track record of teaching and research. I am a Lecturer at The Bartlett, University College London on Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape programmes teaching Design and Ethics and undertaking long-term research addressing the challenges of global urbanisation and sustainable development. I am a Design Council Expert for the Urban Environment and a member of the the Mayfair Planning and Public Realm Committee. I lecture internationally and my work has been Highly Commended at the International Women in Architecture (Emerging Architect), British Construction Industry (Commercial Property), Pineapple (Place of the Year), Dezeen (Business Building) and the AR International House Awards and also listed in Time Magazine’s World’s Greatest Places. Before founding HNNA [2019] and Assemblage [2004] I worked with Níall McLaughlin and Will Alsop and studied at The Bartlett, University College London.

Urbanism + Architecture

I often undertake projects that are very significant in size. My approach is to resolve a large-scale brief, not with big architecture, but instead create a permeable, accessible urban solution. Ideally, I take a project through from inception to completion, looking at it from the scale of the city we inhabit, to the detail of the handles we hold. My client’s value the consistency that results and the inbuilt knowledge that my continued involvement brings, avoiding the dilution of key principles over time.

With several projects I have been both the masterplanner and one of a team of designers delivering the architectural components of the scheme. This means that I can be far more considered in the process, because I understand the challenges that are faced by others. I undertake a lot of roleplaying before I commission other architects, including design development exercises to road test any proposal, ensuring its efficiency and design viability. I put just the right number of constraints in place to guarantee that innovation can foster within an efficient framework.

Having worked with Allies and Morrisons Architects on the planned redevelopment of the Greenwich Peninsula, one of the largest regeneration projects in Europe, my company HNNA were employed directly by the client Knight Dragon to be the masterplanner, design co-ordinator and one of 8 leading architects for the Design District on the Greenwich Peninsula, London's first purpose-built, permanent home for the creative industries. It comprises 16 free-standing, highly sustainable buildings composed around five courtyards, creating 14,000 sqm of workshops and studios for London’s makers.

As part of the Design District two buildings were designed by HNNA including the Bureau, an entry level coworking club which offers a range of studio and social spaces with flexible, low-cost membership.

Meet the Architects Interview with Hannah Corlett and Jemima Burrill © Design District London

Practice + Research

I pair professional practice and research, through teaching, in collaboration with others, and via in-house projects. I use speculative research to proactively generate live projects, and reactively investigate specific aspects of my work to identify developable typologies or to scrutinise possible reinterpretation or alternative applications.

I have set up research collaborations to look into contemporary issues around Mobility, Waste, Inclusion and Cultural Heritage.

Moving Spaces is a research and design collaboration with Sam Livingstone of Car Design Research. It is a new concept that harnesses the creative potential of emergent technologies in the overlapping arena of the built environment and mobility. Through a step-change in the design of cities, buildings, and vehicles, it shows the opportunity to reshape how people live for the better with associated economic and environmental benefits.

Waste Not Want Not is an awareness campaign highlighting issues and solutions around construction waste founded in collaboration with members of University College London.

Invisible Citizens is an international collaboration between designers and researchers focussed on inclusive urban design solutions that address the needs of different genders, age groups, ethnicities and sexual identities within the public realm.

Cultural Heritage is a series of lectures and publications I established to address the significance of cultural heritage within urban design and architecture from a broad range of international contributors.

I regularly undertake research collaborations with other academics and practitioners including recent inclusion in the Seoul Biennale of Architecture & Urbanism with Architects including Studio Egret West, Fosters and Partners and Arup Associates and the Venice Architectural Biennale with Níall McLaughlin and Yeoryia Manolopoulou.

Loosing Myself Architecture Biennale Venice Italy by Niall McLaughlin and Yeoryia Manolopoulou

I am a Lecturer at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London on Architecture. I currently run Unit 12 with Níall McLaughlin where we work with undergraduate architecture students to design a settlement and the buildings within in it. I also run Group 3 a seminar group that looks at the ethics and agency of construction waste through the lens of design practices and Studio 8 with Tom Budd a post graduate architectural landscape programme focussing on time and process.

I also work with a range of other universities both within the UK and internationally including University College London and Ravensbourne University in London, Syracuse University in New York and Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem.

What am I currently working on?

Together with other leading international practices including Kéré Architecture, Adjaye Associates and Diller Scofidio + Renfro I have recently produced designs for the New Head Quarters for the United Nation’s International Organisation for Migration in Geneva, Switzerland. My Swiss partners for the project are Burckhardt + Partner Architekten.

I was also asked by Argent together with Architecture 00, Gort Scott and Studio Multi to look at the development of the former St Pancras Hospital site in Kings Cross, London to be developed to include a 25,000 sqm Lab-enabled Workplace.

I have recently completed work in collaboration with AHMM, Burd Haward Architects and Coffey Architects on the £320 million redevelopment of the West Kentish Town Estate for Camden Council. The masterplan provides 880 new homes and commercial and community spaces on the site of the original 1960’s housing development.

My Mayfair Neighbourhood Plan for the whole of Mayfair has also recently been fully adopted by Westminster. The plan includes policies on a range of matters including heritage, community uses, retail, commercial, housing, cultural uses, transport and the environment.

Following this success I am working with Westminster City Council, Grosvenor and Mayfair Neighbourhood Forum on design strategies to reignite the Tyburn River Passage in Mayfair into a pedestrianised, local high street.

I am currently continuing to connect practice and research across a number of different sites. Proactively with UCL, Camden Council, Transport for London, British Land, Arup Associates and a collective of architects including AHMM to rethink current ambitions for the Euston Road area given post Covid impacts on local and national travel and working practices.

Previously I have had the opportunity to work on large scale, culturally diverse projects from a variety of private and public sector organisations in the UK and internationally, winning a string of major international commissions including the new Iraq Parliament and housing settlements for UN HABITAT.

More information about recent work can be found on my News page and by following me on the following Instagram accounts:

@hannahcorlett_com

Research @bartlett_UG12

Practice @hnna__co [former practice work]

Work featured in this site includes work by HNNA [HNNA Ltd - Urban Planning + Landscape Architecture - SIC 71112] and Assemblage [Assemblage Architects Ltd - Architectural activities - SIC 71111] which were founded in 2019 and 2004 respectively by Hannah Corlett, but are no longer active.