Russell Curtis
@russellcurtis.com
I'm a professional cynic but my heart's not in it.
Director of RCKa, but everything here my own. Barnet, London & Europe. Chair of Barnet QRP. Spatial research 🌆, planning 🗺️, pro-housing 🏘️ & yimby 👍🏻.
https://russellcurtis.co.uk
Director of RCKa, but everything here my own. Barnet, London & Europe. Chair of Barnet QRP. Spatial research 🌆, planning 🗺️, pro-housing 🏘️ & yimby 👍🏻.
https://russellcurtis.co.uk
How do you like them apples?
November 18, 2025 at 6:40 PM
How do you like them apples?
Quite the restoration job
👇🏻2018 2025👇🏻
👇🏻2018 2025👇🏻
November 9, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Quite the restoration job
👇🏻2018 2025👇🏻
👇🏻2018 2025👇🏻
Slight detour while in Croydon for a client meeting yesterday to swing by @anfurman.bsky.social’s exquisite tiled facade at Croydon Colonnade. You just want to rub your hands all over them. Delicious.
October 30, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Slight detour while in Croydon for a client meeting yesterday to swing by @anfurman.bsky.social’s exquisite tiled facade at Croydon Colonnade. You just want to rub your hands all over them. Delicious.
Reposted by Russell Curtis
Great post from @russellcurtis.com
I've been banging on about this
1 - Para 84 comes from gummers modern mansions - retained in NPPF. Result: only self builds going are > 200m2 monsters with super big budgets. 1/n
russellcurtis.com/2025/10/18/g...
I've been banging on about this
1 - Para 84 comes from gummers modern mansions - retained in NPPF. Result: only self builds going are > 200m2 monsters with super big budgets. 1/n
russellcurtis.com/2025/10/18/g...
Going Solo - Russell Curtis
"Micro" development: the case for a new category of planning application to remove the planning barriers for single family homes.
russellcurtis.com
October 27, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Great post from @russellcurtis.com
I've been banging on about this
1 - Para 84 comes from gummers modern mansions - retained in NPPF. Result: only self builds going are > 200m2 monsters with super big budgets. 1/n
russellcurtis.com/2025/10/18/g...
I've been banging on about this
1 - Para 84 comes from gummers modern mansions - retained in NPPF. Result: only self builds going are > 200m2 monsters with super big budgets. 1/n
russellcurtis.com/2025/10/18/g...
Someone paid a lot of money for this
October 26, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Someone paid a lot of money for this
"Despite numerous difficulties including securing Planning Consent, consents from the Environment Agency and United Utilities, as well as other statutory bodies, a scheme was agreed in 2019 and the footbridge laid in place in 2020."
Here's the infrastructure project that required these permissions:
Here's the infrastructure project that required these permissions:
October 8, 2025 at 5:29 PM
"Despite numerous difficulties including securing Planning Consent, consents from the Environment Agency and United Utilities, as well as other statutory bodies, a scheme was agreed in 2019 and the footbridge laid in place in 2020."
Here's the infrastructure project that required these permissions:
Here's the infrastructure project that required these permissions:
Reposted by Russell Curtis
"There are other questions the CPRE does not ask. Chief among them: if there is so much brownfield land available in the middle of a housing crisis, then why on Earth aren’t we already building on it?" Everything continues to be awful so I've returned to my comfort zone.
No, brownfield land won’t solve the housing crisis
Brownfield building sounds too good to be true – and it is
www.newstatesman.com
September 28, 2025 at 9:57 AM
"There are other questions the CPRE does not ask. Chief among them: if there is so much brownfield land available in the middle of a housing crisis, then why on Earth aren’t we already building on it?" Everything continues to be awful so I've returned to my comfort zone.
Difficult to believe my suggestion didn’t make the cut, but here it is anyway: a recommendation for a series of new settlements on the train line between London and Cambridge, including Ashwell & Morden…the most isolated—but well-connected—station in England.
russellcurtis.com/2024/11/10/g...
russellcurtis.com/2024/11/10/g...
Get on board - Russell Curtis
A submission to the New Towns Taskforce proposing how 100,000 people could be housed around south Cambridgeshire's rural train stations.
russellcurtis.com
September 27, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Difficult to believe my suggestion didn’t make the cut, but here it is anyway: a recommendation for a series of new settlements on the train line between London and Cambridge, including Ashwell & Morden…the most isolated—but well-connected—station in England.
russellcurtis.com/2024/11/10/g...
russellcurtis.com/2024/11/10/g...
Our Highgate Newtown Community Centre for Camden Council—including 41 beautiful homes for refugee families and a 2,000 sqm community facility—is shortlisted for the New London Awards.
nla.london/projects/hig...
nla.london/projects/hig...
Highgate Newtown Community Centre
HNCP transforms a former drill hall in Camden into 41 affordable homes for refugees and over 2,000sqm of flexible community space. The scheme delivers an inclus
nla.london
August 22, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Our Highgate Newtown Community Centre for Camden Council—including 41 beautiful homes for refugee families and a 2,000 sqm community facility—is shortlisted for the New London Awards.
nla.london/projects/hig...
nla.london/projects/hig...
We’ve been here before, right? The halfwits’ moral panic seems to work on a 25 year cycle.
August 21, 2025 at 7:12 AM
We’ve been here before, right? The halfwits’ moral panic seems to work on a 25 year cycle.
I’m not sure we’re in for a good night’s sleep.
August 20, 2025 at 10:43 PM
I’m not sure we’re in for a good night’s sleep.
We really enjoyed being part of this fantastic collaboration between design team, contractor and manufacturer. Full integration, from strategic planning policy to turnkey installation.
www.bdonline.co.uk/home/rcka-in...
www.bdonline.co.uk/home/rcka-in...
RCKa installs prototype modular solution to housing crisis outside City Hall
The home can be installed in under two hours and a prototype scheme is planned for Havering later this year
www.bdonline.co.uk
August 20, 2025 at 1:31 PM
We really enjoyed being part of this fantastic collaboration between design team, contractor and manufacturer. Full integration, from strategic planning policy to turnkey installation.
www.bdonline.co.uk/home/rcka-in...
www.bdonline.co.uk/home/rcka-in...
The alabaster windows at Orvieto cathedral really are something.
August 20, 2025 at 10:00 AM
The alabaster windows at Orvieto cathedral really are something.
Allotments have been in the news this week, so I've done a bit of mapping work to understand whether building homes on them might help solve the housing crisis.
(Spoiler alert: it won't).
russellcurtis.com/2025/08/09/g...
(Spoiler alert: it won't).
russellcurtis.com/2025/08/09/g...
Growing Pains - Russell Curtis
Building homes on London's allotments won't solve the housing crisis. The capital's comedic carrots and amusing marrows are safe, for now.
russellcurtis.com
August 9, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Allotments have been in the news this week, so I've done a bit of mapping work to understand whether building homes on them might help solve the housing crisis.
(Spoiler alert: it won't).
russellcurtis.com/2025/08/09/g...
(Spoiler alert: it won't).
russellcurtis.com/2025/08/09/g...
Reposted by Russell Curtis
Very useful analysis from Seattle of the prices charged when one home is replaced with one or more new homes. A 1-for-1 replacement results in a home nearly three times as expensive, but replacing one home with 9+ new ones involves average prices that are around half the original.
To me, this is the most important chart in the study. It compares the sale price of housing in these zones before and after redevelopment. For 2-unit projects, the price of the new homes is 80% higher than the original house. This falls as the number of replacement homes rises.
July 30, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Very useful analysis from Seattle of the prices charged when one home is replaced with one or more new homes. A 1-for-1 replacement results in a home nearly three times as expensive, but replacing one home with 9+ new ones involves average prices that are around half the original.
Reposted by Russell Curtis
RCKa has submitted an application for a new ‘kit of parts’ 2,200m² adult education college on Sutton High Street, south London
RCKa reveals proposals for new college on south London high street
RCKa reveals proposals for new college on south London high street
www.architectsjournal.co.uk
July 30, 2025 at 2:51 AM
RCKa has submitted an application for a new ‘kit of parts’ 2,200m² adult education college on Sutton High Street, south London
Aah, this is lovely—well done wonderful RCKa team.
RCKa has submitted an application for a new ‘kit of parts’ 2,200m² adult education college on Sutton High Street, south London
RCKa reveals proposals for new college on south London high street
RCKa reveals proposals for new college on south London high street
www.architectsjournal.co.uk
July 23, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Aah, this is lovely—well done wonderful RCKa team.
Went to Nansledan today. It was...odd. Poorly built (paint already peeling; grubby render), rather too twee, and felt like it was trying to be a quaint coastal town without any of the intimate car-free streets that make proper Cornish villages so delightful.
June 9, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Went to Nansledan today. It was...odd. Poorly built (paint already peeling; grubby render), rather too twee, and felt like it was trying to be a quaint coastal town without any of the intimate car-free streets that make proper Cornish villages so delightful.
Reposted by Russell Curtis
I don't know why I bother, but this is piss poor from the Grauniad (and IPPR, who should know better). www.theguardian.com/politics/202... The landbanking contention was disproved by CMA and the data used to derive the 1.4m figure is specifically caveated as not being appropriate for that use
June 4, 2025 at 6:24 PM
I don't know why I bother, but this is piss poor from the Grauniad (and IPPR, who should know better). www.theguardian.com/politics/202... The landbanking contention was disproved by CMA and the data used to derive the 1.4m figure is specifically caveated as not being appropriate for that use
Reposted by Russell Curtis
We need a revival of the 1970s 'loose-fit, long-life' architectural movement where buildings can be easily and cheaply repurposed as residential or commercial space depending on demand.
May 15, 2025 at 6:55 PM
We need a revival of the 1970s 'loose-fit, long-life' architectural movement where buildings can be easily and cheaply repurposed as residential or commercial space depending on demand.
The Greens consistently aligning themselves with the tweed-clad misopedists at the CPRE is a terrible, terrible look.
The Mayor’s green belt proposal won’t solve London’s housing crisis. It’s just more luxury homes dressed up as a good deal for Londoners.
What we need is need rent controls, a freeze on Right to Buy and to take back control of the thousands of empty homes across the city.
@cprelondon.bsky.social
What we need is need rent controls, a freeze on Right to Buy and to take back control of the thousands of empty homes across the city.
@cprelondon.bsky.social
May 10, 2025 at 8:29 AM
The Greens consistently aligning themselves with the tweed-clad misopedists at the CPRE is a terrible, terrible look.
RCKa's exploration into the potential for England's rural stations to deliver new homes and our longlisting for this year's #DavidsonPrize both feature in this week's @bigissue.com.
April 22, 2025 at 6:00 PM
RCKa's exploration into the potential for England's rural stations to deliver new homes and our longlisting for this year's #DavidsonPrize both feature in this week's @bigissue.com.
Really not enamoured by this printed throw seen in a shop window in Hitchin.
April 19, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Really not enamoured by this printed throw seen in a shop window in Hitchin.
Lovely to be asked to judge the #AJ100Awards again this year, and a special privilege to be helping decide which firm gets the coveted Practice of the Year prize. Should be fun!
We are delighted to announce the #AJ100Awards 2025 judging panel, a distinguished group of industry leaders, architects and experts who will be selecting this year’s winners. View the full judging panel: bit.ly/42uSN0g
April 10, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Lovely to be asked to judge the #AJ100Awards again this year, and a special privilege to be helping decide which firm gets the coveted Practice of the Year prize. Should be fun!
Reposted by Russell Curtis
Highest earners from A+U Framework revealed
Highest earners from A+U Framework revealed
www.architectsjournal.co.uk
April 9, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Highest earners from A+U Framework revealed