MChem MCIBSE

Director 

Mark Maidment holds a first-class Master’s Degree from the University of Exeter. After graduating in 1999, he joined Max Fordham LLP, where he became a Partner in 2003. He left in 2009 to join Building Design Partnership (BDP) before moving to Skelly & Couch in 2010, becoming a Director in 2014.

Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in north London is the only permanent outdoor theatre in the UK. During summer it opens its doors to an audience of 1,240 every evening. 

Award-winning new-build for the Jerwood Foundation

A new gallery and restaurant, built in a challenging site on the seafront in Hastings. It incorporates an innovative ground-source heating and cooling system, enabling the building to achieve impressively low emissions for a structure of its kind.

Jerwood Gallery, located in Hastings, East Sussex, is dedicated to contemporary British art and operated by the Jerwood Foundation, a privately funded charity. The new build gallery is part of a wider masterplan to transform a former coach and lorry park on a key seafront site in Hastings Old Town.
Sustainability was central to the design, influencing orientation, layout, materials, and servicing. The galleries maximise natural daylight and ventilation, creating a pleasant and well-lit environment for visitors whilst minimising energy consumption.
Below-ground ducts ensure a seamless design, maintaining floor-to-ceiling levels and concealing services. Solar panels provide most hot water, and rainwater is recycled to further lessen the environmental impact. A comprehensive analysis of renewable energy options, which included evaluating life cycle costs and ongoing maintenance was also undertaken.
To meet stringent temperature and humidity control standards, Skelly & Couch developed an innovative approach to preserve artifacts. The collection galleries utilise air conditioning powered by ground source cooling, with eleven 120-meter-deep probes handling all cooling and 60% of the heating, integrating geothermal energy for effective temperature regulation. This approach resulted in 60% less CO2 emissions compared to an average museum of similar size.
The Jerwood Gallery sets a new benchmark for environmental performance in museum design. It combines energy efficiency with precise climate control, while creating a welcoming space that enhances the overall visitor experience. The project achieved an ‘Exemplar’ rating at design stage using an industry standard Sustainability rating tool. 

The iconic, Grade II* Listed Chichester Festival Theatre was designed by Powell and Moya and opened in 1962. Based on Tyronne Guthrie’s Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario, it boasted the first modern ‘thrust’ stage auditorium in the country. Over the past fifty years it has been a hugely successful and influential centre for the performing arts and has been extended on a number of occasions to address changing demands, leading to a dilution of the original design.

The Yaa Centre has provided a new home for the Carnival Village Trust, as well as the Association of British Calypsonians, Ebony Steel Band Trust and Yaa Asantewaa Arts. It includes a flexible exhibition /performance space, education and training workshops, a 60-seat presentation theatre, two dedicated rehearsal spaces for the development of steel pan music, a dance studio, business advisory services and a radio station.  

The £2.5 million theatre in north London, named after playwright Caryl Churchill, was built beside Grade II-listed Sutherland House as an extension to the University’s drama department. The theatre seats audience of 175 people on two levels, with a third level for technical operation, and features a welcoming foyer, separate rehearsal and teaching spaces, dressing rooms and workshop areas. 

With a mission to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy, the Low Carbon Workplace partnership chose Mansel Court as one of its first flagship commercial projects, transforming a down-at-heel, 1970s concrete and steel framed block opposite Wimbledon High School into a prestigious, contemporary office building. 

The project is the provision of a new containment and quarantine facility at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. This was the first building of its type in the world and a large part of the project was understanding and defining the brief to allow the building to function within the requirements under Kew’s DEFRA license, as well a commercial venture for use by external clients, and as a key operations building.  

The project was the refurbishment and conversion of an existing historic stable block into a 6^th form centre and CCF for St John’s Independent School in Leatherhead, Surrey. The building is one of a number of projects Skelly & Couch have worked on for the school as part of its delivery of a five-year masterplan for the campus. It was delivered along with a new Girls’ Day House under a phased construction programme.