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About

General Office is a new architecture and urban design practice based in South East London. General Office concentrate on projects of urban significance. The Directors have over 30 years of combined experience across the range of scales, types and uses that make up the contemporary city. Our work is focused on housing, workspace and all forms of social infrastructure. We employ pragmatism, openness and a conscious economy of means to develop architectural projects that support and expand the potential of urban life. General Office is a majority female owned micro-enterprise. Indeterminate specificity: All General Office projects are concerned with balancing a specific response to the circumstances of a project with an opened-ended attitude to use. We avoid over-deterministic organisations, instead opting for a multi-functional architecture beyond the use envisioned in the original commission. This attitude is based on a long-term view in which buildings and spaces are judged on their urban contribution and usefulness as stable frameworks for changing demands. We believe that this robust and accommodating approach is essential for sustainable urban development. Pragmatism: Entering the profession just before the financial crisis of 2008, we have witnessed instability and uncertainty, boom and bust. We have become resourceful and nimble, developing a realist attitude to architectural work. General Office is excited by reality. We invest time in understanding what is required and identifying possibilities. We extract ideas from the facts of each project, translating conditions and constraints into opportunities. Everything has the potential to be extraordinary. Openness: Good architects are curious. We are deeply interested in what people think, what places are really like and what we are being asked to do. We put high value on the role of clients and collaborators in the design process. We believe that discussing and developing the brief is the most important step in a successful project. All projects begin with analysis. The point of this is to give our clients the best possible response to their requirements. We draw on all available knowledge and remain open to unexpected opportunities and exciting surprises. Clear communication is essential to how we work. So is talking to the right people at the right time. We want to understand and be understood. We avoid jargon and work hard to make complex ideas plain. Economy: General Office operate strategically. We design with intention, economy and precision. We like to locate design where it counts. We have enormous respect for what exists. This is not just about nice old things, but about looking for the potential in everything. We have to use less, think of the long term and make the most of the resources available to us. Words like ‘maintenance’, ‘repair’ and ‘upgrade’ need to become as commonly heard as ‘regeneration’ and ‘development’. We treat all projects—whether new build or adaptive reuse—as a form of urban retrofit. Every project can engage positively with what there is. City: General Office is passionate about the everyday life of cities. This interest spans scales and territories, from the post box to the office block, and from the centre to the periphery, suburbs and infrastructure that constitute the urban landscape. Our work is always conscious of the scales of engagement and responsibility inherent to architecture. We look for the wider connections, relationships and contributions possible within a commission, independent of its size. Work: General Office is skilled in and open to the following work: — Housing. — Workspace and commercial. — Education and community. — Adaptive reuse and retrofit. — Urban design. — Strategies and visions. — Feasibility studies and brief development. — Public realm. — Domestic. We are especially excited by projects with complex briefs or challenging sites.

People

Emma Rutherford

Director

Architect

BA (Hons) DipArch MA ARB

 

Emma is an architect and Director of General Office. Prior to founding GO, Emma was an Associate at Maccreanor Lavington working on complex residential buildings with a focus on large-scale city centre affordable housing projects.

 

She has led projects ranging in scale from self-initiated temporary interventions to expansive urban studies and complex residential buildings. She has previously also gained experience of working client-side both in local government and in the private sector. In all capacities, she is interested in exploiting the urban potential of a brief regardless of its scale. In 2011 while studying for her Diploma she began developing this approach, co-founding a practice called Scout who undertook both self-initiated and commissioned work.

 

During 2015-17, she expanded on Scout’s London work through a large-scale reuse project in Philadelphia. Emma and Richard were co-Design Directors of the project, which converted a 31,000m2 decommissioned vocational college in the south of the city as affordable workspace with community, leisure and recreational facilities. Their work spanned from brief-development to the delivery of key spaces over a two-year period, and established a clear strategy for works continued after their departure.

 

Emma is committed to supporting younger members of the profession and is part of a number of mentoring programmes as well as initiatives such as Accelerate. This enables sixth form students interested in studying architecture to gain skills and an insight into the profession through tutorials structured around a design project.

 

She teaches at the Welsh School of Architecture in Cardiff, having previously taught at the London School of Architecture. She was educated at Manchester University, London Metropolitan University and the AA.

 

 

Richard Hall

Director

Architect

BA (Hons) DipArch ARB

 

Richard is an architect and Director of General Office. Prior to founding GO, Richard worked at OMA in Rotterdam, Scout in Philadelphia and East in London.

 

During his 15 years at East, Richard led a range of architecture, landscape and urban design projects for public and private clients, across a range of scale and workstages. His work at East focused on projects that combine architecture and public realm in a single commission. In recent years he was especially involved in designing large-scale residential schemes.

 

During 2015-17, he took sabbatical from East to work on a large-scale reuse project in Philadelphia. Emma and Richard were co-Design Directors of the project, which converted a 31,000m2 decommissioned vocational college in the south of the city as affordable workspace with community, leisure and recreational facilities. Their work spanned from brief-development to the delivery of key spaces over a two-year period, and established a clear strategy for works continued after their departure.

 

Since 2019 Richard has also pursued various research activities connected to the subject of ‘economy’ in architecture and the design process. In 2021 he curated the ‘Economy Class’ symposium for the Architecture Foundation, hosting a range of international speakers to discuss the topic. He has had articles published in leading international journals and is currently pursuing research on the working methods of OMA.

 

He teaches at the Welsh School of Architecture in Cardiff, having previously taught at London Metropolitan University. He was educated at the Leicester School of Architecture, London Metropolitan University and the AA.

Contact

We are very interested in hearing from potential clients and/or collaborators. Please get in touch for a conversation:

office@general-office.co.uk

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