Material Change: New from Old

Our long-standing collaboration with Newcastle University’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape continues to grow, as we complete another year of Studio FaulknerBrowns, now in its eighth edition. Working closely with students, the studio provides a platform to explore ideas that resonate beyond academia, connecting design thinking with the realities of practice.

Led by Senior Associate Architect Dan Burn, the studio explored the theme of reuse this year; a timely and urgent response to the environmental challenges shaping the built environment today.

At its core, the studio asked a simple but powerful question: how can we do more with what already exists? In a sector responsible for significant material consumption, waste and carbon emissions, the case for reuse is compelling. Through strategies of repair, adaptation and reinvention, students were encouraged to rethink existing structures as valuable resources, unlocking new life, purpose and meaning from what is already there.

Set within Sunderland, a city where our practice has a strong and evolving presence, the projects were grounded in a real urban context. Drawing on our experience of delivering major civic and cultural projects across the city, students explored how Sunderland has transformed in recent years, and how it might continue to evolve in the future. This shared context strengthened the dialogue between practice and academia, enriching both the brief and its outcomes.

The studio’s guiding idea of ‘new from old’ extended beyond materials to encompass ideas, identities and ways of living. Students selected sites across the Riverside Sunderland masterplan and Washington, proposing a rich and diverse range of interventions. From housing and community infrastructure to leisure, culture and environmental strategies, each project responded to complex social and ecological challenges with imagination and rigour.

The results are both ambitious and deeply considered. Projects reimagined the future of familiar places, transforming much-loved sites such as the former Crowtree Leisure Centre into new destinations for sport and community life, while others tackled pressing urban issues including housing, water management and ecological repair. Across the studio, there is a shared optimism: a belief that thoughtful, resourceful design can reshape the future of our cities.

Individual schemes demonstrate the breadth of thinking and creativity emerging from the studio. 

Oliver Walsh’s project proposes a building assembled from reclaimed components sourced from demolished industrial structures, designed to evolve over time, with materials that can be disassembled and reused again in the future. 

Olivia Roberts chose to centre her work – since nominated for the 2026 AJ Student Prize – on a distinctive local housing type within Sunderland: The Sunderland Cottage. She developed an ambitious, yet sensitive masterplan built from incremental interventions that strengthen both community and ecology.

Elsewhere, a former police station was transformed by Harry Tse into a new film school, creating spaces for making, display and collaboration, and contributing to the city’s growing cultural landscape.

Collectively, this year’s work reflects a generation of designers engaging critically with the responsibility of architecture today. It celebrates ingenuity, resourcefulness and a willingness to question established approaches; qualities that are essential as we navigate the transition to a more sustainable built environment.

For FaulknerBrowns, the studio remains a vital part of our wider engagement with education. It is an opportunity to share knowledge, test ideas and support emerging talent, while also learning from fresh perspectives and new ways of thinking.

As ever, we are inspired by the creativity, ambition and commitment of the students and proud to continue a partnership with Newcastle University that nurtures future architects and reinforces the connection between academia and practice.