The Broadgate Exchange House in London, celebrated for its simple yet ingenious structural system that unifies design and function in the mid-century Modernist tradition, was selected for the 2015 AIA Twenty-five Year Award. Designed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM) and completed in 1990, the Exchange House is a recognizable presence in central London. Its distinctive facades, defined by two parabolic arches against grids of windows, derive from SOM’s strategy to vault 10 stories of offices over the tracks that feed Liverpool Street Station. Far from droll, the grid and arch combine to improve extraordinary public spaces beyond. The arch on the Exchange House’s plaza size appears as an abstracted, amphitheater backdrop. The opposite arch, along narrow Primrose Street, soars upward and down again as you walk along, offering not just visual relief for office workers hustling to Old Spitalfields Market for a quick lunch. It encourages everyone to look up and see the building for what it is: a perfect marriage of form and function.
A Mobile Italian Garden transforms the terrace at Alexandra Palace into a welcoming area with exceptional views over the city.
Drawing inspiration from the architecture of the palace, the proposal breaks the monumental proportions of the main building to meet visitors with a more intimate scale on their first encounter with Alexandra Palace. The theatricality of the terraced view is accentuated by the enclosed viewing amphitheater to contemplate the surrounding landscape: bringing to stage the gardens and the city of London in the background.
Following Transport for London’s (TfL) tender for proposals to improve pedestrian links across the river, Heatherwick Studio and actor and campaigner Joanna Lumley have developed an idea for a new pedestrian ‘Garden Bridge’ across the River Thames; a scheme to connect North and South London with a garden. As one of the greenest cities of its size in the world, this precious new piece of landscape will add to London’s rich and diverse horticultural heritage of heathlands, parks, squares, allotments and community gardens and support many indigenous river edge plant species.
‘A Pound of Flesh for 50p’, by Alex Chinneck is a life size construction of a house made entirely from wax bricks that has been gradually melting since October, as part of London Bankside’s MERGE Festival, celebrating art and science. The house is due to finish melting this week and will leave a pile of wax with just the roof on the pavement. The artwork explores the science of melting points and celebrates the history of an area that once housed the largest candle-making factory in Southwark. Architectural features such as double-glazed windows, drainpipes and a tiled roof will enhance the installation and bring it to life.
A competition was launched by Network Rail and RIBA in December 2007 for the redesign of the proposed façade and Atrium area. The contest sought to find a visionary concept designer to create a landmark building and example of cutting edge architecture. Six practices were short-listed in February 2008; CRAB Studio, Foreign Office Architects, IDOM UK Ltd, LAB Architecture Studio, UN Studio and Rafael Viñoly Architects. The winning scheme of Foreign Office Architects was unveiled on the 18th September 2008.
Located in the heart of Clerkenwell in London and situated between the Hat & Feathers and Clerkenwell Green conservation areas, 63 Compton is a new 4-storey apartment building, created for Nord Development. It replaces a 2-storey disused electrical substation and adjoins a locally listed former public house. It is designed to Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4 and includes a green roof and photo-voltaic panels.
LONDON: In the culmination of a nearly yearlong reconstruction project, multi-Platinum/Academy Award-winning producer Paul Epworth (Paul McCartney, Adele, Coldplay, U2, Lorde), has announced the completion of stage one of a massive renovation of The Church Recording Studio. Reconfiguring the legendary Studio 2 Live and Control Rooms, and creating a unique totally new Writing Room, engaged the design skills of the Walters-Storyk Design Group, and the studio installation/operational expertise of Miloco Builds.
Squire and Partners’ RIBA Regent Street Windows design for Brooks Brothers, the oldest American apparel brand, was conceived following a discussion about shared values of heritage, craftsmanship and quality. The concept draws on the iconic Golden Fleece, the historical symbol of wool merchants and the Brooks Brothers trademark since 1850.
Lee Boyd has recently collaborated on the exciting new visitor centre for Beefeater Gin at their distillery in central London which now provides visitors an insight into the history of gin and an understanding of the process of gin making. A bold new extension providing a point of entry to the centre, links the different parts of the distillery and allows visitors to move from the exhibition floor to the stills house without interrupting the day to day workings at Beefeater. Beefeater Gin is the world’s number one premium gin and has been made in the heart of London for over 150 years, the only international brand to have its distillery in the capital. Beefeater is uniquely placed to call itself the Home of Gin and tell the intriguing story of the entwined history of London and Gin.
To conceive a skyscraper growing vertically is a very pertinent idea, particularly natural and adapted to London. The considerable financial investment required by such a building justifies this approach allowing to modulate its surface according to the interested investors. For this reason amongst others, we have chosen to develop a most realistic possible approach of the project that could be realised under the present advanced technologies.
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