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John Lees, chairman of architect Lees Associates

19/5/2010

John Lees is driving innovation and sustainability at the top end of the market. Penny Norton finds out how.

London architect Lees Associates shapes the environments of the wealthy: homes for the uber-rich, offices for big banks and top hotels and restaurants. These are clients who can afford to lead the way in sustainable and innovative buildings, and Lees Associates chairman John Lees guides them, even encouraging them to invest in a green farm scheme.

You are renowned throughout the world for using some amazingly innovative design techniques in the homes that you create for the uber-rich.  Will we see some of these designs in your commercial and other residential schemes?

We are always developing new techniques. Current examples include squeezing fabric between glass and working out how to make an 8 metre sheet of glass in one piece. We work all over the world and each client has issues which are special and unique. This makes our design life interesting and fun: we are very lucky.

How are you incorporating sustainability into your designs?

One of our recent projects had high sustainability requirements, despite being in a conservation area. We designed a terrace of Queen Anne style houses which include photovoltaic panels, rainwater harvesting and grey water recycling, vertical green walls and masses of insulation. 

The big next step will be arranging for the owners to buy a share in our green farm scheme - a new way of urban farming which uses the benefits of scale but localises production. 

There is a lot of talk about the virtual office but research shows that the workplace remains important for communication. How do you perceive the office of the future?

I think our future office will be about ‘living in a cloud', where all communication is at our fingertips and the environment relaxed.

We are designing a new wholly flexible office for the next 10 years and beyond, which is intended to strike the right balance between home and work and meet sustainable requirements for the next 20 years. This takes into account issues such as how we might travel to work, the location, and how the building will function in terms of flexibility and technology.

How important is architecture in enticing consumers to spend in this economic environment?

We all like variety and image, yet most shopping malls are built along familiar lines, with flat shop fronts and a standardized approach to branding. It is time to remove the shop fronts and reduce the logo branding, to open up the stores and allow customers to flow between the brands. There is a real opportunity for theatre in the central walkways - innovative and traditional art forms can be redeployed to entertain and inform, attracting substantially greater footfall and interest. 

Institutions such as the Science Museum should up-sticks and move to a shopping mall - the sense of theatre would quickly spread among the retailers as a result.  We are working on a new brand which literally ‘walks into the store'. Let's all be a bit more dramatic and use the skills we have learnt to help the trade, trade.

This article is reprinted from the latest issue of Industry insights, the magazine published by TTA Group, property marketing specialists. To read the full magazine, log onto the company's website.