Irineos (Renos) Charitou, ARB, ETEK

Involved in several invited new build and refurbishment competitions and feasibility studies for commercial and residential schemes of varying scales in London, Prague, and Ottawa:

• Collaborative Concept design and pre-application consultation with SOM for 1 Silk Street in the City of London. Carried out extensive site analysis including heritage, LVMF, Rights of Light and planning constraints to generate massing opportunities of appropriate height, bulk and architectural expression, structure and MEP system analysis and development to generate carbon and energy efficient proposals, core design development, public realm design development.
• Design lead for Project Good Day, a feasibility study for a tower and adjacent trading building in the centre of the Eastern cluster in the City of London.
• Provided technical and planning support for the design of new interior finishes to achieve ESG standards for a listed building with a sitting tenant at 14 Cornhill, City of London; revised lobby and entrance sequence, lift lobby and WC layouts.
• Feasibility study for the refurbishment of Beaufort House (City of London), a 1990 office building to meet ESG standards; core design, massing adjustments, change of use studies.
• Feasibility study for a new market and small office tower incorporating listed medieval and 19th C structures at 158-164 Bishopsgate, City of London; massing development scenario studies, core layouts development.

Additional duties involved setting up office wide systems, policies and manuals, providing Part 3 mentorship to junior members of the team, as well as providing ongoing support to the founding director of the practice (US registered) leading towards her registration to the ARB.

Under the direct supervision of one of the founding Partners, involved in a number of invited and open competition entries, feasibility studies for office, residential, change of use and mixed use developments for projects in London and the rest of the UK, France, Cyprus and Canada, notably:

• Design Lead for a media HQ building study in Canary Wharf, and a study for the refurbishment and change of use to residential of a Seifert building in central London.
• Design Lead on a 14 storey residential & ground level retail development in Ottawa, Canada, named The Azure. Following a 6 month design process as part of a team of two involving close collaboration with the local architect and structural M&E consultants and landscape architects, planning documentation was prepared and submitted. The project received planning consent in late 2012.
• Design coordinator for a number of residential buildings for The Goodsyard, a mixed-use development in Shoreditch, setting up the project team, training junior staff on 2D/3D/Digital Fabrication processes, analysing a highly constrained site, carrying out massing, orientation, material studies and preparing client, local authority, local community and GLA presentations. The project was submitted for planning in early 2014.
• Design Lead for a Charette on a number of residential blocks forming part of a large mixed use masterplan in East London, the development of a masterplan for a 45 acre site in West London and competition for a mixed use building in Larnaca, Cyprus.
• Design Lead for the competition entry of 4 Cannon Street, a new office development for Fidelity on a highly-sensitive site facing St. Paul's Cathedral in the heart of the financial district.
• Design lead and coordinator for 22 Bishopsgate, a new tower in the City of London composed as a vertical community with shared amenities, creating a workplace to attract talented individuals and proposing innovative solutions to improve the pedestrian experience, all nestled below London's highest free-to-access public observatory. Completed in late 2020, the building has been designed to reuse the majority of substructure previously constructed to support the stalled Pinnacle to significantly reduce the embodied carbon of the foundations. Involved in all aspects of the project, leading concept development including extensive wind tunnel testing, legal, all planning applications and condition discharge, providing general design support to a team that grew to 25, while also developing rainscreen cladding and external works packages.
• Design lead for 30 Minories in the City of London, involving the redevelopment of the existing St. Clare House to provide high quality, flexible and sustainable office accommodation with landscaped terraces or biophilic balconies at every level. This will lie above an activated ground level, offering a variety of uses that support the office workers, engage the community and welcome external patrons. The project also includes the retention of Writers House, a non-designated heritage asset, which will have its lower levels reconfigured to facilitate access and provide community floorspace. The development overall, aims to enhance the local public realm and improve upon biodiversity by providing much needed greenery, widened footways and a new publicly accessible open space. The project was submitted for planning permission in March 2023 and received planning permission in January 2024.

Additional duties involved providing Microstation training support to new and old staff in the office, acting as Part 3 mentor for a number of colleagues.

Trained, qualified and acted as a First Aider with British Red Cross (First Aid at Work).

Also acted as a member of the Practice's Health & Safety Committee and was an active member of the Directors Group which held regular workshops to discuss and help improve the Practice's workings.

• Under the direct supervision of one of the company Principals, involved in generating feasibility reports for a number of office developments (City of London, Hamburg, Berlin). The work involved generating outline proposals in response to client briefs, and general cost planning.
• In December 2003, and as part of a team of 4, began work on The Pinnacle, a high rise (288m) development located in the City of London. The project is designed for a private client and comprises of approximately 95,000 sqm of office and retail space, with a significant contribution to the Public Realm at the base and the top of the building (cost approx £600m). Have been involved in all aspects of a long-term design and research process including extensive wind tunnel testing, as well as close consultations with the City of London, CABE (including two formal review committees), English Heritage (including the London Advisory committee) and the GLA. Prepared and coordinated documentation for 3 Planning Submissions on the project. Following promotion to Associate Principal in May 2007 took on the role of Design Coordinator on the project, completing RIBA Stage C and developing the design through to Stage F. Demolition and piling have been completed, statutory utility diversions took place, basement was constructed and concrete core completed to level 9 before the project came to a halt due to lack of funding. Duties on project were reduced following further promotion to Senior Associate Principal in January 2010 (Legal, Planning and condition discharge liaison, general design consultant, preparing and attending marketing presentations to seek tenants for the building, Security, Public Realm Design, Ext works package) to enable involvement on more projects in the office.
• From March 2010 to November 2010, also involved on two projects in Delhi, India; as joint design lead on a 3-office building development (approx. 90,000sqm) close to Indira Ghandi International Airport. Duties involved co-ordinating the overall design and leading the facade package in collaboration with local M&E, Structural and Facade Engineers, Schematic Design was competed in October 2010. Also acted as designer on the masterplanning phase of a large residential development in the Guargaon district.

• Involved in the language and summer school, aiding students develop verbal skills within an architectural context, improving presentation techniques during crits and personal interviews.

• Mainly involved in the design development for the regeneration of Bermondsey Spa, a large scale, mixed-use scheme incorporating sustainable housing, retail, local community facilities and landscaping, playing a key role in the masterplanning process.
• Also involved in a series of small projects, including developing proposals and submitting a retrospective planning application for remedial work to mitigate the adverse impact of the installation of a central heating system on the facade of a Grade II listed, Art-Deco housing estate in Wandsworth, London, and re-designing the layout of a loft conversion in Chiswick, London, to remedy faults caused due to the poor quality of construction drawings.