- Our user manual for urban dreamers -
1. The walls can feel
Each of the locations we have chosen across London has a soul. You can see it in the smiles on street corners, in the hundred year-old trees and the church spires, on the roofs of schools and walking alongside you on the pavement. It is the thing that survives accelerated urban development.
Every place has an aura, and that is the starting point for each of our projects. We remodel each space in harmony with its environment, while infusing it with our own vision of conviviality and of the collective: elegant and responsible design, fluid forms and open spaces, local products served by your neighbours, who are energised and happy to be there.
Cherishing the spirit of the neighbourhood. Amplifying it and breathing life into its ecosystem. These are the critical first steps for building a happy community. Because living together is also part of our heritage.
2. Growing your way to the top
All of our pubs, hotels, restaurants and housing schemes have green spaces. Patios, balconies, rooftops — we bring in dirt, and with it a bit of nature and wilderness to bring together plants and bricks, living and city development cycles.
Rooftops are painfully underused in big cities: our mission is to activate these spaces to sow and grow. Our vegetable garden supplies our kitchens, introduces us to new plant life, but more than that, forms a bond, builds trust. Roof-to-table is the future, and besides, the higher up you
get in the sky, the less polluted the air.
We don’t compete with local growers, on the contrary. We simply contribute our solution through an approach that is thoughtful, concrete, and developed around the needs of our urban community.
We are proud to be known for our rooftop vegetable gardens. Beyond the architectural project lies an important and vibrant symbol: the earth in bloom in the sky.
3. Humility and determination
Why be cynical when you can make a difference: our community’s mantra is contagious. You could spend your time looking back on the mistakes, dwelling on the shoulds and coulds, or you could just get it done.
For us, the biggest driver of action is humility. Being able to say: it’s not enough, we can always do more, but at least it’s something.
If we can improve our collective spaces intelligently, honour the living world, plant trees, undo some of our bad habits, then together we can significantly reduce urban pollution. We can choose to redefine our environment, the city.
Step by step, hand in hand, our teams build bridges between hospitality, real estate, design, sustainability and agriculture.
4. Passion breeds sustainability
Ethical Land is our first sustainable farming collective site.
Spread out over several hundred square yards in central London, Ethical Land provides our team with urban allotments to grow fruit and vegetables, medicinal herbs, and to measure the positive impact of their actions season after season.
Sustainability is no longer a lifestyle choice but a civic duty, a moral promise for a better future. We believe in the power each and every one of us has to enact change, and in the need to empower everyone with the means to make a difference.
Built around the dreams of the collective, tomorrow’s urban utopia starts now, with concrete
action. We have a responsibility to future generations. Let’s not dwell on the negatives: let’s activate the solutions.
Our playgrounds
Working across four core areas to rethink and reshape urban living.