Architects’ Journal, August 2023

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Rob Wilson profiles our masterplan for London Borough of Camden’s regeneration of Central Somers Town, a landscape-led urban framework. The masterplan involves collaboration at multiple levels, alongside partner practices Adam Khan Architects, dRMM, Duggan Morris and Hayhurst&Co.

Wilson’s piece assesses the project after its Phase 1 completion in the summer of 2023, and observes the protection of local community and publicly accessible green space on a site surrounded on all sides by expansive development schemes.

Before taking the lead on developing the masterplan, DSDHA had been appointed as landscape architects for the project. With the site divided into separate building appointments, feedback from the different architects on the existing masterplan led the project in a new direction. As a result, DSDHA’s role was expanded to masterplanning. The masterplan continued to be informed through co-design workshops with local teenagers, held by EDIT.

Landscape remained a central component to the project. In this article Edward Jarvis, client design lead on Camden’s team, said DSDHA’s iterative and interactive design process ‘felt like doing masterplanning in 3D, rather than just on plan.’ The resulting vision for Central Somers Town is a melange of buildings and open spaces that are related by continuous movement in the landscape.