Award winning architects, interior designers and placemakers - Press — 74

The Headline

‘The design treatment for the two amenity spaces was aimed at enabling residents to relax immediately on entering the building and to feel at home.’

Material Source 1 December 2021

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The Headline

‘Light, soft tones – a mix of neutrals with feature soft blues and greens for the ground floor and the addition of a strong orange/rust colour in the Sky Lounge – combine to create a striking and fresh palette, with refined and minimal contemporary detailing throughout, as well as strong statement furniture and dramatic feature lighting.’

Design Insider 23 November 2021

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Bianca Yousef chooses favourite materials

‘Sometimes the materials we should be looking at aren’t necessarily new, but the innovation lies in the process that brings them to us.’

Designer Magazine 19 November 2021

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The Headline

‘74 have brought the outside in via greenery and natural materials to prioritise resident wellbeing. A feeling of quality is provided by the scheme’s materials, which include solid surface finishes, such as beautiful porcelain floor tiles and natural light oak.’

mixinteriors.com 11 November 2021

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The Headline

‘The site’s newspaper heritage influence can be seen in the choices of set dressing – from typewriters and a series of eight wall clocks showing the time in major cities throughout the world – through to the influence of printing production rails, whose echo can be seen in the dramatic, curved framework rails 74 designed around the booth and sofa seating in the centre of the ground floor space’

Archilovers 4 November 2021

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David Holt talks post-pandemic tech

‘Ironic but true that our communications actually evolved during the pandemic!’

Interior Designer November 2021

The Green Rooms

‘A vibrant space that reflects the style and charm of the urban landscape’

Distrito Oficina (Spain) October 2021

Bianca Yousef on using colour

‘As a practice, we always design with the full user experience in mind and try to take the individual along a choreographed journey through our spaces. Although all sensory factors play a part in this, utilising the visual impact of colour can be a particularly powerful tool.’

Designer Magazine July 2021

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David Holt in Profile

‘As a studio, we have a culture of debate, in which everyone has an equal voice and where we all critique work all the way through…Strict hierarchies don’t encourage debate and really end up meaning decisions are just from one person’s perspective. This approach on the other hand definitely leads to results that are more than the sum of their parts!"

Material Source 4 June 2021

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The Green Rooms

‘The emotional feel of a space that would speak to a number of different domestic aesthetics was also important, with this feel was defined as sophisticated and strongly linked to the neighbourhood and local community, creating a relaxing and hospitable sanctuary feel, as well as being inviting, inspirational and collaborative.’
Interior Contracting & Design Annual 2021-22
June 2021

David Holt chooses his favourite songs

‘People often get misty-eyed when they talk about Manchester club The Haçienda and it’s been much hyped over the years. For me, it represented the pinnacle of the house music experience that I was obsessed with during my late teens and early twenties.’
Designer Playlist, Designerati 16 April 2021

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The Green Rooms

‘Where art meets technology’
Lepa & Screcna (Serbia) April 2021

The Green Rooms

‘The design of the scheme’s extensive ground-floor amenity spaces has been undertaken by Manchester-based architecture and interior design practice 74, who already have a strong reputation for award-winning student amenity spaces and are now bringing that expertise to the BTR market.’
MIX Interiors March 2021

Knight House

‘A vibrant and spacious interior delivers comfortable living for the latest addition to Sheffield’s student accommodation’
Designer Magazine March 2021

The Green Rooms

‘Artistic touches, bold colors, and a combination of dynamic spaces for members to work and play’
Hospitality Snapshots, 15 March 2021

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The Green Rooms

‘The emotional feel of a space that would speak to several different domestic aesthetics was also important’
Dexigner 17 February 2021

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The Green Rooms

‘Interior inspiration: Design Week’s picks…some real-world interiors projects from the hospitality sector that have caught our eye’
Design Week 9 February 2021

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The Green Rooms

The urban landscape fed into the design narrative by reflecting local building forms, patterns and lighting, and interpreting this into furniture, fittings and finishes.
Archilovers 28 January 2021

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Knight House

‘Knight House was named after feminist pioneer Anne Knight and a notable public art piece dedicated to Anne Knight now greets visitors in the building’s lobby in the form of a mosaic wall installation by artist Coralie Turpin.’
Education Snapshots 15 December 2020

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Knight House

‘Although the planning process was challenging, we developed a very positive relationship with the urban planning team’ (David Holt)
Dexigner 14 December 2020

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Symons House

‘The interior design needed to represent a step change from the bright-and-cheerful approach that had previously dominated the student amenity sector’
London Design Awards 19 November 2020

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Knight House

‘74 designed the building form, the proportions of the apertures and spaces between to create an elegant overall building appearance, exemplified by the slender vertical emphasis of the façade articulation.’
Premier Construction 11 November 2020

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Knight House

‘The brief for the building was to design a high-quality landmark structure to serve as a focal point for the area and to sit harmoniously within the context of both large- and smaller-scale existing buildings in the vicinity.’
E-Architect 7 November 2020

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Knight House

‘New landmark student accommodation Knight House in Sheffield has been masterplanned and designed by Manchester-based architects and designers 74, who additionally created the project’s full interiors scheme, including bedrooms, corridors, wayfinding and all amenity spaces.’
Archilovers 29 October 2020

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Bianca Yousef’s Desert Island Choices

‘I love a good horror story and a desert island, full of strange and unknown sounds, would only increase the pleasure! I’d definitely take some Ira Levin and plenty of Stephen King. I could read Pet Sematary any number of times without getting bored.’
MIX Interiors September 2020

David Holt comments on the future of John Lewis

‘John Lewis holds assets in key locations across the UK, which, with the right development partner, could be unlocked to create much-needed housing. If this were aligned with the company’s particular combination of brand values and reputation for good value, decent quality products and excellent customer care, these are attributes that would be very welcome in the housing market.’
Retail Gazette 6 August 2020

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David Holt on post-Covid business

‘We’ve all learnt to be more pragmatic and flexible about how we do business, understanding better how to achieve results from flexible premises and time.’
Designer Magazine August 2020

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Symons House

‘Student living at its finest.’
MIX Interiors July 2020

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Bianca Yousef online interview on Symons House

‘The client always knew what they wanted from the beginning’
DARC TV 10 June 2020

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Toybox

‘We drew on the concept of raw, industrial workshops.’
Interior Contracting & Design Spec 2020/21 Annual June 2020

We-Are-74-PRESS-Symons-House-Designer.June-20.jpg — Symons House

‘The colour palette features neutral colours throughout with subtle, darker highlight areas in browns, greys, deep blues and olive greens.’
Designer Magazine June 2020

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David Holt on the return to work

‘My greatest concern is staff wellbeing. How do we substitute our much-developed intuition for people’s moods at a distance?’
Design Insider 29 May 2020

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Symons House

‘The interior design treatment for the amenity spaces took initial inspiration from the building’s architecture, where the materials palette references a recognisable local residential vernacular, with a broadly 1930s feel, including brushed brick with a pale-yellow tone and bronzed anodised aluminium window frames.’
Archilovers 7 May 2020

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Symons House

‘The design of the amenity spaces represents a step-change away from the bright-and-cheerful approach that dominates the sector, where spaces are often saturated with primary colors.’
Dexigner 1 May 2020

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Toybox in Architecture Magazine

‘Manchester-based architects and interior designers 74, alongside architects Corstorphine + Wright, have created the new 355m2 ground-floor social and study amenity space within The Toybox, a new-build, 15-storey student accommodation block located on Bishopsgate Street in Birmingham.’
Architecture Magazine April 2020

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Hox Haus

‘Now, Hox Haus is an eye-catching and dynamic two-storey building that creates two new interventions constituting a double-height, 44 sq.m. gatehouse to the building’s east elevation and a 35 sq. m. covered terrace section on the first storey.’
IFJ (India) March/April 2020

74’s Bianca Yousef on Toybox for DARC Magazine

“The initial client brief and narrative for the scheme were extremely strong and didn’t waiver,” continues Yousef. “This allowed the scheme to evolve naturally, while layers were added at each design stage, resulting in a coherent and rich design that utilises every detail to tie the concept and compelling story together.
DARC March/April 2020

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ICE at Exchange Quay

‘Not only will this architectural upgrade improve working lifestyle through the relevance of its design, externally, ICE – along with this family of buildings – will create a more coherent waterfront along the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal.’
IFJ (India) January/February 2020

Radical Thinking from David Holt for FX

‘The first practice I worked for was over a hundred years old and I then went to the historic Glasgow School of Art to do my post-grad, so I’ve always had a great respect for the past and for design fundamentals that haven’t changed for centuries. I still firmly believe that going deeper into the past is the best possible way to enable the best for the future, but the new building design interface lies undoubtedly between those fundamentals and technology, particularly users’ interactive control over lighting, sound and surfaces – and whatever else is still to come.’
FX December 2019

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Hox Haus featured in FX

‘Student living now requires far more sophistication than ever before, with materials, lighting and furniture more akin to high-end hospitality than the bright and basic halls that were the norm until the past five years or so. 74, an architecture and design practice with around 100 student residences under its belt, is well-acquainted with this fact, and has been at the forefront of providing newly desirable, comfortable and well-appointed student-living facilities.’
FX December 2019

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Toybox

‘The design concept for the space was inspired by the location’s history and especially its industrial past, including the metalworking and the gold- and silver-smithing workshops Birmingham is famous for…. ‘We drew on the concept of raw, industrial workshops and contrasted that with the decorative and ornate items produced that would have been produced there’, 74 Associate Bianca Yousef commented. ‘This manifested as exposed ceilings and wall treatments, plus tarnished metals and metal tubing, along with laser-cut and geometric patterns, dramatic feature lighting, button references and spindle detailing on the timber furniture.’
Archilovers December 2019

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David Holt predicts architectural changes for the 2020s

‘Housebuilding needs to change massively and become modular. The problem is that housebuilders are resistant and want to carry on as before: building phase 1, stimulating demand and then building phase 2 with increased sales prices. Modularisation across construction generally needs to broaden and become more competitive. Only a handful of companies do it all right now and there’s always a concern about supply.’

Design and Build Review December 2019

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David Holt talks about his major inspirations to Architecture Magazine

‘I was still at school when I first came across I M Pei’s Bank of China in Hong Kong and I was blown away. The building was everything in one; bold, dynamic, sculptural and unlike anything I’d seen before. The form was in complete contrast to its surroundings, with four towers rising up in succession and the way its façade looked as though it had been been wrapped, with the surface almost folded over the structure, was amazing. It’s a wonderful contradiction: simple and complex, artistic and engineered, beautiful and brutal.’
Architecture Magazine December 2019

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David Holt talks co-working with MIX Interiors

‘Why has coworking suddenly become the force it is today?’
‘Coworking offers low start-up costs, short leases, spatial flexibility, shared resources and larger company sociability for new entrepreneurs. Plus, there’s often an incubator, mentoring culture and strong interior style to create a feeling of belonging. There are still practical challenges, however, including privacy and acoustic controls. I look forward to seeing how we, the design community, can work with experienced users and operational teams to evolve these environments into more mature workspaces.’

MIX Interiors October 2019

David Holt included in Property Disruptors 2019 list

‘David Holt has led architectural practice 74 to continued growth, building on a strong portfolio of projects. The team are particularly comfortable working on large-scale residential schemes as well as placemaking projects, offices, student accommodation and hospitality. During the past year, 74 has won work with Grainger and Royalton, and strengthened relationships with developers iQ, Future Generation and Moorfield Group.’

Insider Media 17 September 2019

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ICE at Exchange Quay

‘As part of the project, 74 designed a newly expanded ground floor space to serve tenants of the whole development, including a reception, large meeting room (ICE Cube), lobby lounge and enlarged bar/social space to allow tenants to work, meet, socialise and relax, as well as a first floor lounge and co-working space directly above the new bar. The remainder of storey one and all of storeys 2-5 were then given a Cat-A fit-out, ready for new tenants looking for a cross between a corporate Grade A environment and a more stripped-back co-working environment.’
Office Snapshots 5 September 2019

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ICE at Exchange Quay

‘Manchester-based architecture practice and interior designer 74 has completed the refurbishment of Building Three – rebranded as ICE – at Salford's Exchange Quay.The project was carried out for Ekistics Property Advisors and Hunter REIM. It comprises a social, meeting and bar space, a co-working zone and five upper storeys of lettable offices across 26,000 sq ft.It forms part of 74's ongoing involvement with the 435,000 sq ft Exchange Quay development; a collection of seven buildings offering remodelled grade A accommodation.’
Insider 31 July 2019

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ICE at Exchange Quay

‘This is very much a return to Exchange Quay for some of the designers at 74, who had previously worked with the original clients to revamp the whole tenant experience by creating a new public plaza, reorganising the vehicle and pedestrian flows and enhancing the amenities by way of a post office, canteen, creche and bike store, which includes showers and changing facilities’
Mix Interiors May 2019

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Rachel Withey of 74 on definitions of hospitality

‘Hospitality is defined by words and phrases like 'welcome' 'warm reception’ and ‘friendliness’. In interior design, it has typically been associated with F&B and hotels, but, as a designer, I feel hospitality shouldn’t be restricted to a specific sector or type of space.’
‘Ask the designer’, Interior Designer Magazine In
May 2019

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Bianca Yousef of 74 chooses her favourite space

‘The Berliner Philharmonie Concert Hall by Hans ScharounI clearly remember standing in this large concert hall and being fascinated by the way each individual element had been designed to create a perfect environment for listening to music. It gave me the early realisation that, as designers, we have the opportunity to affect and hopefully improve people’s experiences'.’
‘ONE’ for Design Insider 29th April 2019

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Bianca Yousef appointed Associate

‘We are delighted to reward Bianca for her hard work and commitment in this way,’ company Director & Founder David Holt commented. ‘Over the last four years, we’ve had the pleasure of seeing her creative ability and ideas grow in stature, along with her increasing ability to control and deliver entire projects.’
Space 5th April 2019

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Bianca Yousef appointed Associate

Yousef’s role will also include increased responsibility within the business in terms of project-running and resourcing as the company continues to grow in size and range.
‘This is a really exciting opportunity for me to make a positive impact on the future of 74 and to get more involved in the running of the company,’ Bianca Yousef added. ‘As well as overviewing project work and reviewing and critiquing the team’s designs as they evolve.’
DARC 5 April 2019

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Rachel Withey answers ‘What’s on your desk?

‘My pencil case and notepad. I always need these to hand, whatever tasks I’m doing and wherever I am. I constantly jot down, doodle, sketch and brain–dump thought processes and ideas to capture them in that exact moment and in their purest form, so that I can ground my thinking and process and formulate it later.’
Design Insider Live 14 March 2019

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David Holt of 74 quoted in article on Manchester’s rising skyline

‘It’s fantastic to see that Manchester has got real ambition. It is thinking big. If Manchester wants to be truly ranked amongst the world’s greatest cities, it needs to have belief and conviction – two things Mancunians are well known for, thankfully.’
ILoveManchester.com 5 March 2019

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Hox Haus

‘The vision for Hox Haus was to encompass a number of important practical, social and unifying functions for its student users, including serving as a welcome point and gatehouse; parcel pick-up area; workspace for single study or group study and a downtime amenity with TV and games lounges, offering video-gaming booths, pool and table football. The building will also serve as the campus hospitality hang-out, offering free soft drinks, tea points and vended snacks and has also been flexibly designed for easy reconfiguration as a special event space, with moveable furniture and built-in bar points able to house pop-up catering.’
Architecture Magazine 1 January 2019

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Hox Haus

‘Architecturally, Hox Haus is a stylish, eye-catching and dynamic 2-storey building that seeks to blend its original Victorian brickwork with two new glazed ‘light box’ interventions, creating a light-filled and largely transparent overall space that brings the outside in, references the building’s semi-rural location and offers a warm, comfortable and relaxing home-from-home for students.’
Architonic October 2018

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Hox Haus

‘74’s site analysis was expansive, not only looking at the building and the site, but the wider area and national picture, including calculating distances from local transport and other amenities and comparing site provision to the on- and off-site amenities at more central or urban campuses nationwide.’
Refurb Projects October 2018

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Interview with Rachel Withey on student wellbeing and design

‘We considered social psychology throughout the planning stages of the interior. Whilst students spend as much time as they wish on their own in their individual rooms, the idea here was that individual activity would always have a social aspect, so that no one feels isolated by their location. Gaming booths, for example, have been designed with glazed screens and without doors in order to retain connectivity at all times. We have introduced several planting elements within the scheme additionally to introduce a strong biophilic aspect and enhance students’ sense of wellbeing, as well as new glazed extensions that increase natural light throughout.’
Work in Mind October 2018

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Who are the 2018 Property Disruptors?

‘David Holt, Director & Founder, 74.
Working in the placemaking, architecture and interior design sector, Holt says 74 brings together “often departmentalised design disciplines into a single design function”. The approach, he says, gives the company opportunities to influence the creation of new communities and buildings that have “real heart and soul”.’
Insider Media 13 September 2018

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