
Hidden Voices, Hidden Gems
Southwark Council
Peckham, London
Ongoing
Funded by Southwark’s High Street Challenge Fund, this action research project uses storytelling as a method for starting conversations about the past, present and future of Rye Lane in Peckham.
231 Old Kent Road
Southwark Council
Southwark, London
2022
231 Old Kent Road community hub was designed from RIBA Stages 1 - 4 for Southwark Council and the Southwark Young Advisors community group. The Southwark Young Advisors, a group of young people from ethnically diverse backgrounds, all sharing the aspiration to create change within their local community. 231 OKR was envisioned by Southwark Council as a key part of its regeneration strategy, including its engagement with under-represented community groups in the regeneration of the Old Kent Road.Eco Home Pavilion
Open CompetitionLondon Festival of Architecture
The Square Mile, London
2022
Deft.Space, alongside collaborators from Studio DASH, came up with the conceptual design for an Eco Home Pavilion to be erected in London’s Square Mile. Our entry into this competition explored modularity and climate-adaptive design, as a means of tackling the climate crisis in building and in everyday life.

Taking Care of Business:
Migrant Entrepreneurs and the Making of Modern Britain
Exhibition Design
Migration Museum
Lewisham, London
2022
We collaborated with the Migration Museum to develop a design concept and layout for the exhibition, ‘Taking Care of Business and the Making of Modern Britain’. Our design echoed the high street experience with different themes of the exhibition arranged behind framed openings headed with shop names.
Canning Town Estate
Newham Council,
Canning Town, London
Ongoing
Deft.Space is part of a wider design team led by Jestico + Whiles to deliver a masterplan for 1,750 new affordable homes on a site of 7.5 hectares for the London Borough of Newham. We are collaborating with Jestico + Whiles to design the new homes that will be part of the first phase of the development to be built. We are also collaborating with AR Urbanism to deliver an extensive programme of community engagement and co-production.
Engagement Events and Creative Workshops
We enjoy collaborating with communities to create places, buildings and spaces that are culturally inclusive and representative of the needs of diverse groups. Our approach to engagement includes co-design workshops, prototypes and meanwhile uses as test beds and participatory installations. We are interested in implementing activities and interventions that empower communities to influence design outcomes and encourage social action.
Old Fire Station Community Centre
Selected following invited bidsHackney Council
Hackney, London
2021
Deft.Space is leading a team of consultants to deliver services covering RIBA Stage 1 and 2. The design team’s output will support future rounds of funding applications to enable the full refurbishment of the building.
East End Women’s Museum
Shortlisted following an open competitionEast End Women’s Museum
Barking, London
2021
Deft.Space developed initial concept proposals for a permanent home for the East End Women’s Museum, the first women’s museum in the UK, whose primary aim is to promote gender equality through historical and contemporary stories of women. The museum will occupy a ground floor unit in a residential development in Barking.Old Peckham Library
Invited CompetitionSouthwark Council
Peckham, London
2020
A team led by Deft.Space was invited to submit proposals for a new build social housing above a ground floor community space on the site of the Old Peckham Library. We proposed a collaborative approach, working closely with local residents and community groups to deliver a development that fit sensitively into place, knits well into the existing community and is environmentally sustainable.
