“Room for London” by Julian King Architect

Perched amid the rooftops of London, between the Thames River and the sky above, a sphere of clear polycarbonate, 7 m in diameter, encases a room of 42 s.m. The shell is joined along aluminum rings that divide the world into its four meridians. Guests ascend a gentle ramp to the raised floor. Inside, a central sky-lit shower is encircled by a 180° riverside seat. To the south, a queen size bed looks onto a roof garden. The unique envelope is coated with photo-voltaics, solidified drops of silicone on transparent film, in the shape of the continents of the Earth; providing all the energy the small room requires. LEDs on the interior surface give the room an ethereal glow at night.

From a distance, the global room appears to be a moon, or the Earth itself-and for a moment we see our own planet for the finite, singularly miraculous home that it is.

Room for London

• Architect: Julian King Architect www.juliankingarchitect.com
• Location: London, UK

At night, the room looks like the moon in the sky

Background
The competition brief asked for a small, (45 s.m. max) temporary, demountable hotel room overlooking the rooftops of London and the Thames river as a place for travelers from around the globe to stay during the Olympic year in 2012, and to ponder the plight and promise of our city-scapes. Our proposal attempts to underscore the temporary, and finite home we all live on, by providing some perspective on both the city of London from the unique vantage point of an existing rooftop, vis-a-vis our collective impact on the landscape, and our precious planet as a whole.

Plan, Section

Room for London (The excerpt from the Tennyson poem)

Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.

I am a part of all that I have met;

…And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought…
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties…

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come my friends,

‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Assembly sequence

Tags: London, UK

Category: House

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