A Director with dMFK Architects, Jonny Wong is part of this year’s British Homes Awards expert judging panel. He reflects on the judging process as well as dMFK’s own residential work, what the key is to achieve a sense of community and best practice mixed use.
Q: How has the judging for the British Homes Awards gone this year and what were you looking for in terms of entries?
JW: “At a time when housing delivery has slowed dramatically, but the need and targets remain as high as ever, I’ve been particularly focused on using this platform to show what good design really means. With two young children, I instinctively think about how we would live in each scheme – both short and long term. So I was looking for projects that move beyond car-centric standards, that create community spaces and encourage interaction, that are generous with greenery, and in recognising how expensive construction has become, have found ways to do more with less while still creating moments of joy.”
Q: And without giving away any spoilers what has broadly impressed you about the entries this year?
JW: “What’s impressed me is practices that found clever ways to make constrained sites work harder, or to unlock real quality of life with a limited budget. There’s also been a noticeable emphasis on landscape, communal spaces and sustainable living, which feels like a positive shift in priorities. It shows that even in a tough market, there’s real ambition to build places that people will genuinely enjoy living in.”
Q: Getting on to dMFK’s own work, can you tell me a bit more about Barratt London's Nestle Factory, particularly the heritage constraints and how you overcame them?
JW: “The demolition of the Firestone Factory over the August Bank Holiday in 1980 was a watershed moment in heritage protection. Carried out just days before it was due to be listed, it prompted a public outcry and led the government to undertake an emergency survey of inter-war factories, cinemas and commercial buildings. As a result, many of the surviving works of Wallis, Gilbert & Partners like the Hoover Factory at Perivale were quickly given statutory protection. Buildings considered less significant were instead placed on local lists by boroughs rather than national designation. Their more flamboyant commissions like the Firestone and Hoover were conceived as striking
advertisements along London’s arterial roads, whereas the Nestlé Factory at Hayes was more restrained in expression, but still prominently sited and highly legible from the railway, canal, and surrounding road network.”
The Nestlé Factory fell into this latter category of being locally listed.Though less ornamental than the Great West Road showpieces, it was an early and important collaboration between Wallis Gilbert and Truscon, setting the pattern for their later work. The masterplan also embodied the ‘factory in a garden’ ethos, with landscaped grounds, sports facilities and a healthy, daylight-lit interior, while reflecting Nestlé’s role as a major local employer, continuously in use from 1914 until 2012.
Our approach was therefore to identify what aspects of the Nestlé Factory mattered most to the local community, to London’s industrial story, and to heritage more broadly, and to shape the design around those values.
Q: How does that project embody creating a place of equity, prosperity and, crucially, sustainability?
The Nestlé Factory masterplan was a collaboration between Barratt and SEGRO, and was a mix of uses across the site with light industrial, residential, healthcare, café and nursery within the site. The masterplan opened up what had been a fenced-off site, creating public access to Wallis Gardens, new routes to the canal, and embedding 35% affordable housing, a nursery, a medical centre and community spaces. Barratt delivered 1,300 new homes while SEGRO provided 22,000 sq.m of modern employment space, so the neighbourhood isn’t only housing but a balanced place where people can live, work and spend time. And we retained the key factory façades, added over three hectares of green space and biodiversity measures, and tied everything into Crossrail to cut car dependency. In that way, the project really does embody equity, prosperity and sustainability together.
Q: Can you tell me a bit about the process of successfully creating a new neighbourhood, how did you engage with local people and businesses?
A lot of the people living on and around Nestles Avenue had a direct connection to the old factory, either having worked there themselves, or having family who did. There was a strong sense of ownership of the site locally. In the early stages of engagement, people told us they didn’t want to see it sitting derelict and fenced-off; they wanted activity, and they wanted the history of the place to be respected. That gave us a clear mandate: conserve what was important, but also give the site back to Hayes as somewhere people could use and enjoy. So our approach was about balancing heritage with openness. Residents were reassured to see us keeping the significant facades, entrance tower, and spaces, but they also really welcomed the opening up Wallis Gardens as a public park, and our creating new routes through the site and providing access to the canal.
Q: Is there anything else you want to add in terms of avoid the pitfalls of commercial-to-residential conversion but then having a lack of retail/commercial space to serve the new residential community?
One of the big risks in residential-led regeneration is ending up with housing but no supporting uses like no shops, cafés or community facilities, leading to a neighbourhood lacking vibrancy. Considering meanwhile uses is crucial, because new space often won’t be commercially attractive until there’s enough footfall. A good example is Brent Cross Town, where Related Argent brought F&B tenants over from King’s Cross and delivered the landscape and children’s play spaces ahead of the residential. Of course there were incentives to make that work, but it created activity, identity and a sense of community before the first residents even moved in. That kind of thinking is essential if we want to avoid sterile, housing-only places.
Q: And finally, which other homes projects are on the horizon for dMFK that you can talk about (can be at any stage – nearing completion, breaking ground, achieved planning).
The housing market is challenging right now, with viability issues – land values, infrastructure, levies and rising construction costs – all compounded by the unanticipated effects of having to front-load design to Gateway 2. Nonetheless, we do have some exciting projects moving forward. Our landmark Kentish Town flat-iron building, on the prominent former carwash site, is being progressed by the Folgate Estate and Murphy’s, and will be starting on site soon. We’re also nearing planning submission for the Whitechapel Estate with BGO – a mixed-use masterplan that combines new hospital and medical facilities (including 120 beds) with new homes. We’re collaborating with PLP and DSDHA on the residential half of the site, delivering 65 social rent homes, 167 re-provided and improved key worker homes, 230 shared living units, and 61 market homes, all
centred on new landscape and public routes through what is currently a closed-off block.centred on new landscape and public routes through what is currently a closed-off block.
We’re also in the early stages of flexible living projects across several boroughs – too early to discuss in detail, but exciting for us as they allow us to cross over our residential and Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) experience with our amenity-rich interior design expertise. It’s an area we see as a real growth opportunity.
And lastly, we’re working with Eaglestreet to reposition another Wallis Gilbert-designed factory into apartments. As with our commercial projects, the intention is to provide more than the standard – in this case, generous resident amenities including lounges, workspaces, gyms, and expansive views from a shared roof terrace and bar.
