Bell Phillips becomes first architecture practice to sign up to Thomas Heatherwick’s Humanise campaign

Bell Phillips has become the first architecture practice to sign up as an official partner to Thomas Heatherwick’s campaign to create more visually interesting buildings.

Heatherwick launched the ten-year Humanise campaign in 2023 with a mission statement to eradicate “soulless and boring buildings” from the built environment and champion designs which engage both building users and people passing by outside.

Bell Philips, a practice which works mostly on large-scale urban residential schemes, said the campaign’s objectives “align closely with the practice’s own ethos”.

It said it was “adding its weight to a movement that aims to create buildings and places that are loved, generous and uplifting”, adding that it hoped to “amplify the conversation” about how to improve the quality of housing and regeneration in towns and cities.

Founded in 2004, Bell Phillips has gained a name for deploying inventive design approaches on urban regeneration schemes including Albion Street for Southwark council and the Church Street regeneration masterplan for Westminster council.

But it said the council-led regeneration sector was one which is “rarely celebrated for ambition or delight”, being often restricted by difficult funding limits and complex regulatory frameworks.

The firm’s founding director Tim Bell said: “As a practice we have always aimed to design homes and neighbourhoods that people love, and which bring a positive contribution to the city. In that sense, our values sit naturally within the Humanise ethos.”

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He added that the campaign and efforts to reduce carbon emissions “can and should go hand in hand” through careful choices on building form, structure and materials.

Bell Phillips director Jay Morton said the government’s ambition to build 1.5 million homes by the end of this Parliament presented an opportunity to rediscover the value of architecture and “acknowledge that as a society we have lost our way a little”.

“The new house building renaissance, which we hope is coming, is an opportunity to rethink how we build and what we value. We need one thousand year thinking, with buildings and cities that grow in value to people, community and culture overgenerations,” Morton said.

Abigail Scott Paul, global head of campaign at Humanise, said Bell Phillips’ “commitment to designing places that enrich people’s lives reflects exactly what our movement is about.”

Organisations which have already joined the Humanise campaign include the University of Glasgow, Loughborough University, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Tibbalds, Bywater, Citu and Heatherwick’s own practice Heatherwick Studio.