Derwent at 40: Lessons on succeeding in London

Paul Williams has been man and boy at Derwent London. This year marks the firm’s 40th year in business and Williams’ 40th year with it. To celebrate and reflect on four decades of investing in London, chief executive Williams gathered a collection of his colleagues, consultants and occupiers to discuss the capital’s leading position in sustainable development and Derwent’s influence on what everyone agreed is the greatest city in the world. For Williams, investing in London over the past 40 years has been an “amazing journey” and an adventure in finding opportunity in some unloved places where Derwent can add some of its special “fizz” to create new buildings that it hopes will breathe and endure for 40 years and more to come. For the host of experts gathered – from founding director of architecture firm AHMM Simon Alford, AKT II co-founder Albert Williamson-Taylor and Buro Happold sustainability lead Duncan Price, to Derwent’s executive director Emily Prideaux and director of development Richard Baldwin – London’s ability to lead, particularly from a sustainability point of view, is key to its success.[caption id="attachment_1083060" align="aligncenter" width="847"] Paul Williams[/caption]And while Alford admits the UK capital is one of the hardest places in which to work with a plethora of rules and regulation, he says it does force people to be clever and to innovate, to think about how buildings can be designed, engineered and operated in a way that allows them to flex and breathe beyond just the one use and one time period. “We’ve got to think about delivering buildings for the city,” he says, “and if the city changes, that those buildings are generous enough because of their volume or their light, or the quality of air and the atmosphere, or the way they engage with the street, to adapt to that change.” And that was something he believes Derwent has learnt over its four decades in operation. “You’ve learnt what’s flexible and adaptable and what is essential and what isn’t,” he says. “All of that to me, plus your financial independence within reason, means you’re small enough to be able to make some slightly awkward decisions and go slightly with what you think, rather than being audited to death as a plc.” “I believe that Derwent is absolutely at the forefront of creating the type of spaces that people really want to come to work in,” says Baldwin. “They enjoy the community, and they enjoy the space that they’re in.” Listen, learn, respond For Baldwin, what will be vital for Derwent heading into the next phase of its existence will be adapting the buildings that it has already built. “Key to adaptation is the ability to adapt your buildings to any kind of use in the future,” he says. “Will White Collar Factory be an office building in 40 years’ time? I can’t really predict that. But what I can predict is that you could use it for anything, and it’ll still be strong.” Prideaux says that strength comes from ensuring that the business is open to change and adaptability. “That’s the key,” she says. “There’s always a listen, learn, respond mantra at Derwent. You’ve just got to keep listening to all the various inputs, learn from the successes, but also from the mistakes and then respond by delivering the best offices in London. That’s our aspiration. “I think there will be all sort sorts of things that we don’t know about that will be coming our way in the next 40 years and it about being ready to adapt to these,” adds Prideaux. “It’s about looking at the real estate through the lens of whoever it might be that’s going to be occupying it. And that sort of slightly bottom-up approach of industry. “I think it’s really important as we look ahead that we remember that we are making places for people to be in and ensuring that that experience and that feel, and that humanised nature of real estate isn’t forgotten in all the noise of the sophisticated world that we live in.” “Not just buildings” “Derwent’s buildings are not just buildings,” says AKT II’s Taylor, “they are part of the community. They are part of the townscape.” And it is that, alongside all the bells and whistles that come with making a building sustainable, technological and just plain cool, that will enable London and Derwent London to continue to thrive. Buro Happold’s Price, a tenant at Derwent’s Featherstone Building in Old Street, EC1, perhaps explains it best. “When we moved from the West End to Old Street we were really clear on how the space had to have high sustainability credentials, but it was really about the quality of the place and the offer to people,” says Price. “And, ultimately, the acid test is do people want to come and be in the building? And they do. This is probably our most highly occupied building globally.” “In 40 years’ time, people will still want to congregate, to be together,” adds Williams. “We see more and more people want to be together, to collaborate, to learn from each other, to be part of whatever they’re going to do.” Because of that, he says, his firm has a responsibility to keep “doing a Derwent”.  And, adds Derwent’s Baldwin: “All buildings do need a bit of fizz. You do need the bubbles on the top.” Images from PR and Pexels/Zvolskiy