About
New-works was founded by Architects Doug Hodgson and Tom Lewith. The pair run the studio with fellow Director and Architect Ben Rowe.
New-works was set up to respond positively and proactively to an inflection moment in the profession: The climate crisis; a growing need to focus on wellbeing in the industry; the financially precarious nature of conventional architectural practice; and the Building Safety Act demanded fundamental change.
The team believed the established model of all-services architectural general-practice needed to evolve.
New-works was formed to explore a new way of working.
The practice’s firm belief is that wellbeing in the workplace generates better relationships and better architecture.
Their passion and greatest contribution is in the early stage creative process up to detailed design (RIBA Stages 0 to 3+). By focusing their enthusiasm and energy on this stage they have the space to address these generational challenges while delivering their clients’ ambitions.
The studio collaborates with talented delivery practices, manufacturers and makers throughout their projects, and gives them space to lead the later construction design and site role, while New-works remains a key client-side advisor throughout.
The team have found this approach particularly well aligned with its clients’ priorities and the project types it works on. This mirrors the work of TDO (New-works predecessor), which can be seen in our Selected Projects.
The studio follows a daily rhythm that fosters creativity and wellbeing. The morning is for deep collaborative work, the afternoon for emails and correspondence. The working day is 10am - 5pm with the an hour at the start and end of the day for personal wellbeing: walks, meditation, exercise, exploring interests, visiting galleries and other sources of inspiration.
New-works is founded on the principles of specialism and collaboration, wellbeing and sustainability.
In 2010, prior to New-works, Tom and Doug co-founded TDO, a full-services architecture practice that regularly featured in the architectural press. Its reputation was built on its completed projects: contemporary additions to historic settings - through retrofit and new build - and as innovators with Modern Methods of Construction. The portfolio encompassed residential, workplace and community focused schemes of varying sizes. The success of the practice and its work led to both Tom and Doug being named in The Architects’ Journal ‘40 under 40’, and the studio featuring in the Architecture Foundation’s ‘New Architects 3’. TDO’s built work also featured in industry research publications and building studies. The last major project completed by the studio, Great Suffolk Yard, was described by The Architects’ Journal as a ‘contemporary idiom of originality and consequence’.
Doug Hodgson
BSc(Hons) DipArch ARB RIBA Founding Director
Doug is a Chartered Architect and co-founder of New-works. Between 2010 and 2024 he co-founded and ran TDO, a leading all-services architecture studio, which featured regularly in the architectural press.
Between 2015 and 2018 he was a Design Fellow at Cambridge University. In 2020 he was named in The Architects’ Journal 40 under 40, a major survey of the nation’s brightest talent.
Doug is passionate about improving mental health and wellbeing in the profession, one of the founding principles of New-works.
His experiences as a member of the LGBTQ+ community in the construction industry have strengthened his belief in the need for greater kindness and a sense of belonging for all. He believes space needs to be made for the LGBTQ+ members of the construction industry, which mirrors a wider national need, and he is actively engaged in bringing about this change.
Doug leads New-works retrofit agenda. His long standing passion for retrofit has developed through leading Great Suffolk Yard and more recently the successful detailed planning consent for Abbey House: a deep retrofit and mass timber extension to a 1960’s office building, significantly improving its performance, the wellbeing of the occupants and the building’s contribution to the Conservation Area.
Tom is a Chartered Architect and co-founder of New-works. Between 2010 and 2024 he co-founded and ran TDO, a leading all-services architecture studio, which featured regularly in the architectural press.
In 2020 he was named in The Architects’ Journal 40 under 40, a major survey of the nation’s brightest talent. Tom sits on the London Borough of Bromley’s Design Review Panel.
Innovation in MMC is a passion of Tom’s that continues from TDO. The studio’s innovative built work with MMC included FAB house for Urban Splash and the Low Line arches, both of which featured in industry research studies and publications. Tom is passionate about the potential applications of MMC and the lessons it offers about the profession’s need for a move towards specialism and collaboration, a founding principle of New-works.
Tom is leading on the potential applications of MMC with the practice’s Low Line arches projects, and as New-works lead for Human Nature’s groundbreaking mass-timber Phoenix project in Lewes.
Tom Lewith
BSc(Hons) MA(RCA) ARB RIBA Founding Director
Ben Rowe
BSc(Hons) MArch ARB Director
Ben is a registered Architect and Director of New-works. Prior to New-works Ben was Senior Architect at TDO with responsibility for the full architectural team and, along with the directors, oversight of all live projects in the studio.
Ben’s greatest strength is leading complex projects and teams to achieve high quality design outcomes. Ben leads the studio’s quality control and demands the highest standards of New-works’ output. His breadth of experience delivering projects on site ensures New-works’ earlier stage proposals are aligned with real-life requirements of later stage construction. Ben leads on the set-up of each project - in AutoCAD or Revit as necessary - and ensures schemes are primed for later stage coordination with our delivery collaborators.
Prior to New-works Ben led the delivery of Great Suffolk Yard to completion. In summarising the finished project - TDO’s last major built work - The Architects’ Journal said: ‘Great Suffolk Yard celebrates identity and shores up shared histories in an inner-city neighbourhood now and into the future.’
Olly Hartley
BA(Hons) MArch Part II Architectural Assistant
Olly is a Part II Architectural Assistant working towards his registration as an architect. Olly gained his first class undergraduate architecture degree at Sheffield University and his postgraduate Masters at the leading innovative design school, The London School of Architecture. Olly has been shortlisted for the RIBA President’s Silver Medal: the world’s the most prestigious architectural education awards.
Prior to New-works Olly was a Part I Architectural Assistant at TDO for three years. Olly is an exceptionally talented designer with maturity and capabilities beyond his years, producing work with diligence, skill and incredible efficiency. He is a considerate and clear communicator and proven himself to be a client and collaborator favourite across all his projects. Olly’s passions include regenerative design, which was a focus of his during his Masters.
He brings these invaluable skills to New-works in running projects, the production of information, and in his role as New-works sustainability lead.
The New-works team in the Low Line arches, Southwark Street