McLaren Construction and developer British Land have come together, through the Aldgate Place community outreach programme, to support Stitches in Time, a local community group, with its digital outreach activity.
The Aldgate Place community outreach programme contributed vital laptops to support Stitches in Time with their continued community engagement work. The group based at Limehouse Town Hall, Tower Hamlets, E1 supports local people through a variety of projects and activities such as community development, education and arts.
The focus of Stitches in Time’s work prior to the pandemic was face-to-face outreach. The resulting lockdowns created significant issues of social isolation amongst the community, exacerbated mental and physical health effects and seriously impacted home-schooling for children, at that time. Stitches in Time recognised that there was a crucial need to introduce and develop alternative forms of outreach, such as digital and virtual engagement, and raise the levels of technological abilities amongst those facing isolation.
McLaren Construction and British Land wished to engage with Stitches in Time to offer support and contribute to their continued excellent work in the community. The donated laptops, support the digital outreach, aiding remote working in the community, enabling better teaching methods for the unique pre-ESOL ‘English for Sewing’ classes and the support of 100 marginalised women with access to online services as well as other beneficiaries wishing to improve their computer skills.
Aldgate Place phase 2, is a 136,000 sq ft residential led mixed-use development, located on the city fringe. It is bringing forward a mix of high-quality commercial office space (19,000 sq ft), retail and leisure space (8,000 sq ft) and 159 premium rental apartments. The design includes a comprehensive upgrade to the public realm with increased biodiversity and a focus on health and wellbeing.
Aligned to British Land’s 2030 commitments, Aldgate Place will be a net zero carbon development with embodied carbon of around 620kg CO2e per sqm. The development will target BREEAM Excellent on the office space, Code for Sustainable Homes level 4 on the residential, as well as WiredScore Gold digital connectivity.