AT chats to Jerry Tate about tracking down brilliant clients, taking advice from Joe Morris and why UKREiiF is more fun than MIPIM.

What brings you to UK REiiF/what do you hope to achieve?
There are two of us representing Tate+Co at UKREiiF this year, myself and Rebecca Hall. We first went attended in 2022 when we were on a panel about Regenerative Design in developments with a client of ours based in Leeds, Keyland Developments (part of Yorkshire Water). The practice has been going ever since. The event provides a really great opportunity to catch up with many clients and friends, as well as meeting new and interesting people. The best advice I ever got about attending a conference like UKREiiF was from Joe Morris who said “just think of it as intelligence gathering”. Once you have that mindset, it is all about learning what is happening right now in the industry, and the conference is brilliant for that.

If you could change one thing about UK REiiF what would it be?
First of all, I should say that I used to attend MIPIM in Cannes, and I much prefer going to UKREiiF. It feels more in tune with the real world, so the following comment should be framed around that. The main issue is that there are many small venues which makes for intimate events, but numerically there are too many of them. It becomes impossible to calculate all the events you should go to, and inevitably with so many of them, lots of the sessions end up sounding very similar. Complaining about too much choice might sound odd, but in a way it would be easier to have two or three ‘main stages’ at the conference. Having said this, you often find yourself missing all the talks, as you catch up with someone over coffee or a beer!

Working alongside igloo Regeneration for The Crown Estate, Tate + Co is creating 75 highly sustainable new homes in Knutsford, designed to foster a vibrant community with nature at its heart.

What are you working on at the moment?
Lots of different lovely projects! So split into sectors we have:

Housing
We are delivering a range of innovative housing projects focused on sustainability, community, and sensitive placemaking. Working alongside igloo Regeneration for The Crown Estate, we are creating 75 highly sustainable new homes in Knutsford, designed to foster a vibrant community with nature at its heart. Other projects include new-build apartments at Snaresbrook Hall, heritage barn conversions and contemporary homes at Coles Green in Suffolk, and a major 134-home development at Cheney Hill in Norfolk, integrating green corridors and existing town patterns. Additionally, The Wheelwright is a super low-energy new-build house in Essex, harking back to our roots as sustainable housing specialists.

Education
We are delivering a diverse range of education projects, with a strong focus on retrofit and regenerative design. At York St John University, we are creating a new Design Centre by refurbishing a Victorian building and adding a timber-framed extension. For Truro School, we are building a new Music School and retrofitting a performance space to support wider music education outreach. At the University of Bedfordshire, we are enabling their campus masterplan by transforming an existing building into teaching labs and professional spaces. Other projects include Fairley House Senior School’s relocation and new Student Wellbeing Hubs at Birkbeck University.

Leisure
We are working on a number of leisure projects right now that celebrate nature, heritage, and community. Highlights include refurbishing and extending the listed Eshott Hall Hotel for the Wildhive Collection, and creating a beautiful new garden in Regent’s Park, in collaboration with HTA Design, in memory of Queen Elizabeth II. We are also building a summer camp for Over the Wall charity, supporting Crystal Palace Park’s regeneration, and masterplanning the Conkers visitor centre in the National Forest. Other exciting projects include Phase 2 of the Brunel Museum masterplan and sustainable tourist lodges at Badgells Wood for the Birling Estate made with timber from the site itself.

The Knutsford project is one of current Tate + Co housing projects focused on sustainability,  community, and sensitive placemaking.

What keeps you awake at night?
I will be completely honest, the first thing that keeps me up is how to make sure our buildings deliver the very best outcomes, for our clients and also for the three touchstones in our practice:

• carbon & energy
• nature & biodiversity
• people & community

We constantly review our schemes to ensure this but sometimes I fear we are not hitting the top note and I am relentless until we get the best solution. The second thing, of course, is how to keep finding more of the brilliant clients we have worked with to date, who want the kind of work we can deliver. Our work spans three sectors – housing, education and leisure – but is always for a certain type of person or organisation!