Hasta La Ideas

Swedish studio Råk-Arkitektur have won a competition to design a cultural centre for a north London site believed to have once been the legendary realm of King Arthur.

The proposals comprise a 36-metre-high mirrored and faceted building, intended to resemble the stone that the king is said to have pulled a sword from in the 5th Century.

Evidence that the site could be the historical location for Camelot includes archeological findings of thick stone walls, a huge drawbridge and a subterranean dungeon.

A skylight will be positioned atop the structure, which will form a pointed glass shard on the ceiling inside.

By night, lighting directed through this hole will create a bright line across the sky above Trent Park.

It is hoped that the centre will serve as a meeting place for different faiths, as well as a venue for theatre or music.

The competition was organised by the Organization for Mythological Protection and Promotion, who are working to deliver the project.

Here’s some more text from Råk-Arkitektur:

With Trent Park being once the home of King Arthur and Camelot we drew inspiration for this project from the story of him drawing the sword Excalibur from a stone.

The 36 meter high stone shaped structure will have a surface that reflects its woodland environment, creating a less imposing structure whilst rendering the inside with an impressive airy void.

A 7m glass structure in the shape of a swords tip will let in light from outside and during the night a light will beam from the hole, illuminating the night sky, becoming a beacon for Trent park.

With the sites rich historical and mythological past we suggest that the future for Trent Park and this site will hold a multi faith meeting place and cultural centre. With London being known for its religious diversity we want this place to act as a spiritual sanctuary were people of all faiths and beliefs are welcomed alike. The building will also be able to host events such as theatre, opera and other cultural happenings.

Climbing plants grow in the recesses of this mysterious steel fence, which conceals the entrance to a renovated coach house in north London.

Completed by London studio Moxon Architects, Murray Mews is now a residence with an entrance courtyard occupying the coach house’s former service yard.

Glazing behind the fenced facade and courtyard provides a view into the open-plan living room and kitchen, while an extended, projecting entranceway leads inside.

The building’s original concrete ceiling is retained on the ground floor, as are the existing steel joists.

Secure bicycle storage is provided in the entrance lobby, while bin stores are integrated into the rear of the steel fence.

We’ve published a few London extensions on Dezeen – see our earlier stories about a barrel-vaulted conservatory and an extension with a flower-covered roof.

Photography is by Edmund Sumner.

Here’s a full description from Ben Addy of Moxon Architects:

257 MWS / Murray Mews

This modest project comprises the renovation and extension of a coach house on Murray Mews in the London borough of Camden. Murray Mews comprises a uniquely varied and idiosyncratic, but also beautiful, collection of small scale domestic architecture – a concentration of robust one off houses and conversions that nonetheless retains a coherent charm.

The project brings new use to the service space at the front of the property as a private courtyard, while the internal spaces comprise a carefully composed mix of pre-existing and new elements. The utilitarian character of the building’s former function is retained and complemented by new insertions to provide for the requirements of a modern home.

The pre-existing boardmarked in-situ concrete ceiling is retained alongside exposed bolted steelwork and engineering brickwork. New structure and services are incorporated as background elements of volumes and planes.

In order to maintain security and privacy to the living areas, steel screens are used for the street facing boundary of the site. These screens also incorporate a bin storage area to reduce visual clutter at street level.

Behind the boundary screens a single storey lobby extension provides both a secure entrance space and cycle storage. Next to the lobby a private front courtyard space has been created to turn an otherwise disused private car parking space into provide external family / play space.

One of the fundamental characteristics of Murray Mews is the variety of attitudes to the streetside elevations. Proportions, fenestration and massing along the street frontage vary greatly, creating a rich vocabulary of material and structural methods along the length of the street.

The approach to boundaries also varies along the street; some houses are set back creating private courtyards, others built up to the kerb. These extensions are natural developments over time and are informal in architectural massing terms – this informality is what gives the road its identity and ongoing vitality, this project is intended to take its own identifiable place in this context.

The vigorous nature of the mews streetscape is complimented by the tough materiality and direct simplicity of the boundary wall. The monolithic nature of the wall matches the functional approach to brickwork and painted timber screen walls elsewhere in the mews.

The steel used in forming this boundary is stepped in plan to provide structural depth for stiffness while also providing opportunities for planting in the recessed portions of the wall, presenting a green face to the interior of the property.

Client / Private
Budget / Confidential
Stage / Completed

London’s Design Museum have unveiled designs by British architect John Pawson for their new home in the former Commonwealth Institute building in west London.

Top: new design museum, second floor
Above: new design museum, second floor showing the permanent exhibition 

Due to open to the public in 2014, the £80 million plans include galleries for permanent and temporary exhibition spaces, an auditorium and a library, which will accompany a separate housing development by Dutch firm OMA.

Above: new Design Museum, entrance foyer

The former Commonwealth Institute, which was completed in the 1960s, hasn’t been used for over ten years but will retain its hyperbolic paraboloid roof structure in the refurbishment.

Above: new Design Museum, exterior view

New glazed entrances will lead in towards the galleries located on the ground floor, basement and second floor, giving the museum three times the exhibition space of its current home at Shad Thames on the Southbank.

Above: existing Commonwealth Institute building, exterior view

See all our stories about the Design Museum here and listen to our podcast interview with John Pawson here.

Above: existing Commonwealth Institute building, interior

Visuals are by Alex Morris Visualisation. Photos of the existing building are by Luke Hayes.

Above: existing Commonwealth Institute building, interior

Here are some more details from the museum:

£80m PLANS UNVEILED TO CREATE WORLD’S LEADING DESIGN MUSEUM IN LONDON

The Design Museum today unveiled plans to create the world’s leading museum of design and architecture at the former Commonwealth Institute building in Kensington, London. Designs for the site have been produced by two of the world’s most innovative architectural practices: John Pawson has redesigned the interior of the Grade 2* listed building and OMA has planned the surrounding residential development.

The move will allow the new Design Museum to become a word class centre for design, nurturing British talent and its international influence on design of all kinds. It will bring the museum into Kensington’s cultural quarter, where it will join the V&A, Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Royal College of Art and Serpentine Gallery, creating a platform for the promotion and support of the next generation of creative talent.

The new building will open to the public in 2014, giving the Design Museum three times more space to showcase its unique collection. The museum aims to double its visitor numbers to 500,000 a year, and will greatly expand its education and public events programme with state of the art facilities.

The 1960s Commonwealth Institute building has lain dormant for over a decade. Its refurbishment will give a neglected London icon a new life and purpose and will revitalise an important area of West London. In July 2010 the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea granted planning permission to Chelsfield Partners and the IIchester Estate to modify the Grade 2* listed building and for a residential development. The design team for the new project has been assisted by Lord Cunliffe, a leading member of the original architectural team for the Commonwealth Institute in 1958, and by James Sutherland, the building’s original structural engineer.

The new Design Museum, which is an £80 million project, will open in 2014. The Design Museum fundraising target is £44.66 million of which it has secured more than 60% through the support of a number of individuals and trusts and foundations.

The Museum announced today that The Dr Mortimer & Theresa Sackler Foundation has pledged to support the project, making a generous donation to create The Sackler Library, a learning resource at the heart of the new Design Museum. Other major donations include The Conran Foundation, which has pledged £17m, The Heritage Lottery Fund which has made a first stage grant towards an application of £4.95m, The Wolfson Foundation, The Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement, The Hans and Marit Rausing Charitable Trust, The Atkin Foundation and, in addition, a further £2.75m has been raised in early stage fundraising from a small number of individual donors.

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey, said “It is immensely exciting to see the plans for the new Design Museum at the Commonwealth Institute in Kensington. The UK leads the world in design and architecture and it is entirely appropriate that we should be creating the world’s greatest Design Museum at this iconic London landmark. The new Design Museum will be a truly outstanding visitor attraction, learning resource and celebration of the best of British creativity. It is only through the generosity of others that this has become possible and I would like to extend my gratitude to all those who have made this possible.”

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said “From the Olympic Park to the new bus for London, our city is a hotbed of creativity, the epicentre of design, and deserves a world-class museum to celebrate the amazing work being created here in the UK and around the world. Housed in an iconic architectural landmark and offering state of the art learning facilities, this new museum puts design firmly in the spotlight and will become a must see destination for visitors as well as designers and students.”

Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum, said “This is an important step forward for the Design Museum. We are very excited by all the work that John Pawson and the rest of the design team have done. They have put forward a brilliant strategy to bring the former Commonwealth Institute back to life, which will allow the public to see the essential qualities of this historic listed building, and make a wonderful new home for the Design Museum.”

John Pawson, architect, said “The most exciting thing about the project is that, at the end of it all, London will have a world-class museum of design, with galleries for permanent and temporary exhibitions, education spaces and a library. There is particularly nice symbolism in the fact that in making this legacy for future generations, we are saving a work of iconic architecture. I hope the result will demonstrate that you don’t need to demolish old buildings to make wonderful new public space.”

Reinier de Graaf of OMA adds “In conceiving a new future for London’s former Commonwealth Institute, we pay tribute to a period that continues to inform contemporary architecture.”

Sir Stuart Lipton, Chairman, Chelsfield, said “We are delighted to be supporting the Design Museum to realise its vision of becoming the world’s leading centre for design and architecture. Britain’s designers are taking the lead internationally and it is fitting that there will be a world-class centre for design and architecture in London.”

ARCHITECTURAL STATEMENT
JOHN PAWSON

A centre of design for London

The goal of the project is the creation of a world-class museum of design in the heart of London, with galleries for permanent and temporary exhibitions, education spaces and a design reference library. The architectural vision developed to realise this goal has been profoundly shaped by the fact that the new Design Museum’s permanent home is within the skin of an existing building – the Grade 2* listed former Commonwealth Institute, designed by Robert Matthews, Johnson-Marshall & Partners, which opened in 1962. Driving the process of reclaiming this iconic example of post-war British Modernism as a contemporary cultural space has been the wish to preserve and enhance its inherent architectural qualities for future generations of Londoners and visitors to the city. The outcome should be a building that feels as though it has retuned itself.

A new public space in Holland Park

This process of natural evolution and readjustment begins with the character of the relationship of the new Design Museum with its setting in Holland Park. Freedom of access will allow the public to move comfortably from the green spaces of the park to the interior spaces of the building in a relaxed, open and instinctive manner. In line with the wider design strategy for the building, greater transparency is introduced on the north and east facades. Glazed entrances are created to the ground floor foyer and the existing stained glass windows, currently installed on the south façade, are relocated to the north façade, adjacent to the new entrance from Holland Park.

Dynamic spatial experiences

Once inside, visitors will be naturally drawn up through the atrium space towards the hyperbolic paraboloid roof structure – the defining architectural gesture of the original design. The central staircase leads to the mezzanine level – an echo of the original dais, at the centre of the exhibition building. As in the original building, this level offers a chance to view the whole building, as well as providing space for exhibiting a key piece from a visiting exhibition or the permanent collection. As one moves upwards through the central void, so the framed view of the roof will widen and transform, assisted by the enlarged openings in the top floor slab, creating a dynamic experience that will change according to the time of day and the light conditions. Providing sightlines to all of the building’s principal spaces, the central void acts as a key medium for orientation and navigation. From the entrance foyer, a visitor will see the entire route through the building, winding up from the central platform around the opening at first floor level to the permanent exhibition space on the top floor and the sweeping curve of the roof. The material palette is purposefully restricted, with concrete terrazzo floors at basement and ground levels and hardwood used for the remaining floors and also for wall panelling.

Layout

The programme is split between five floors, providing a total around 10,000m2. The museum’s main exhibition space is located on the ground floor, together with the café, bookshop and design store. The first floor contains the administration and learning departments, design reference library and an area of open storage where the museum’s collection may be accessed for research purposes. An exhibition of the permanent collection, designed by Studio Myerscough, is located on the top floor, where the roof soars up to 16m above one’s head, alongside the restaurant, event space and the members’ room, all of which will enjoy views over Holland Park. The second exhibition space and the auditorium are located at basement level, which also accommodates curatorial spaces, workshops, kitchen and back of house areas.

Opening up sightlines to the hyperbolic paraboloid roof

In the existing building, the central concrete section of the roof rises up through the building on two structural supports, arches over the central space and then down towards the top floor. The floor slab opens up around the structure, allowing it to pass through to the floor below. To give the central roof structure the same freedom, two new openings are formed in the new top floor slab. The larger opening relates to the central void and an additional smaller opening visually connects The Sackler Library on the first floor to the permanent exhibition space. The creation of the second opening allows further views up to the roof from the first floor level, as well as allowing views into the workings of the museum for visitors to the permanent exhibitions on the second floor.

Horizontal elements

A key part of the design rationale is for the floor slabs to be clearly expressed as strong horizontal elements. The slab edges are therefore finished in white, as in the original building, contrasting with the timber walls and defining the volumes of the first and second floors. To reinforce this idea, all volumes, including the lift cores on the top floor, are located around the perimeter of the building.

Structure

One of the key elements to the building is the structural design developed by Arup to retain and preserve the original roof structure. These complex proposals will allow the internal floors of the existing building to be demolished, a new basement to be built across the site and the new structure of the museum building to be constructed under the roof.

The existing fabric of the building has shaped how the new structural design has developed. The rhythm of the edge support mullions sets up a typical structural grid of approximately 9m x 9m. Shear walls, built in as part of the service cores distributed through the building, will brace the structural grid.

A series of piles, temporary beams and trusses will be built around and through the existing structure to support the internal roof support columns and the roof edge support mullions. The external walls and internal structure will then be demolished and the new structure built up around the temporary works until it can support the roof. The temporary supports will then be removed and the new structure completed, to allow the fit-out work to commence.

Architects CZWG have completed a bronzed, hexagonal library that leans across a dock in south London.

Situated beside a public square in the area of Canada Water, the four-storey building has a perforated facade of anodised aluminium and a green sedum roof.

The two-storey-high library is located at the top of the building, surrounded by an overlooking mezzanine providing study areas.

Rows of skylights let daylight illuminate the zigzagging bookshelves and a central staircase thats spirals down to the floors below.

On the ground floor are a performance space seating 150 spectators and a cafe, while community meeting rooms and offices occupy the first floor.

CZWG also recently completed a Maggie’s Centre for cancer care in Nottingham – see pictures of it here and here.

Photography is by Tim Crocker.

Here’s some more information from CZWG:

Canada Water Library, Southwark

In response to Southwark Councils brief, CZWG’s key challenge was to design a space which would accommodate the distinctly different requirements of the main users groups – adults, children and young persons in a building where the floor area required for the library space was far larger than the available footprint for the building on the given site.

The design of the new library needed to avoid multiple levels which would have cut off the interaction between the different user groups and also demanded a higher level of staff to service the library. CZWG’s solution to this problem was to create an inverted pyramid for the overall form of the building.

Besides allowing for the main library space to be on one floor – this design solution also positively responded to other design considerations such as minimising solar impact on the south elevation which needed big windows to enjoy the views over Canada Water basin.

The diagonal wall also reduced the external envelope area (the diagonal wall is less than the sum of a vertical wall and a horizontal soffit) and also catering for the requirement for raked seating in the community performance space.

The design keeps the uses on the ground floor to the necessary and welcoming ones, so as to minimise the footprint of the building for the benefit of the surrounding public space, the plaza and views, particularly of Canada Water Basin.

A public plaza space is proposed to the north of the library enclosed to its north and east by buildings with residential upper floors above commercial space at ground floor.

There are opportunities to provide active frontage to the plaza; create a “fifth elevation” on the roof which will be visible from surrounding developments and incorporate a green roof.

Shops and cafés spill out onto the plaza from both these buildings and the library encouraging short visits and interactions with the library other than to go to study.

The library will sit at the edge of a new civic plaza which has been designed to allow for a farmers market, large TV screenings, festivals and a host of other events and activities.

Click above for larger image

Together they will form part of a dynamic new town centre for Canada Water, which includes approximately 900 new homes, new retail and public space.

Click above for larger image

The building is clad in aluminum sheets that are anodised in a light bronze with sequined perforations, giving it sculptural appeal and striking visual effects. The library also has excellent green credentials, with a ground source heat pump, grey water harvesting and a green sedum roof.

Click above for larger image

From the double height atrium, a timber-lined central spiral staircase travels up to the expanding shape above which is the library floor. On the library floor level the Children’s and Young Adults areas have been designed to ensure a flexible layout space to cater for multi-use activities.

Click above for larger image

There will be designated areas for study and contemporary methods of learning will be incorporated throughout the building including free Wi-Fi access.In addition to the study facilities there are meeting rooms for hire.

Click above for larger image

At ground floor level the café space will encourage people to enter the building from the plaza to discover all the facilities the library has on offer – they may participate or enjoy an event, attend a reading group, check their emails, browse the new books or have a quiet time with a coffee and a daily paper.

Click above for larger image

Project name: Canada Water Library, Southwark
Client: Southwark Council
Address: Canada Water, Southwark, SE16 2YS
Status: Completed
Construction Start: Summer 2009
Completion: November 2011
Construction Cost: £14.1m
Area: 2,900 m2
Contract Type: GC/Works/1 With Quantities (Traditional)

Engineers for web giant Google can lounge on sofas or draw on the walls at their new London headquarters by designers Penson.

As well as computer workstations, the offices include game rooms, music studios, lounge areas and an auditorium.

The lounge areas, named “flight pods”, are filled with two-tiered sofas, while the walls are lined with white-boards.

Corridors are also used as informal meeting spots and are furnished with faceted stools.

Monochrome table and chairs furnish a dedicated coffee area and overlook a lawn of artificial grass.

The offices also house studios for mobile web developers Android, containing electrically adjustable tables and magnetic walls.

We previously featured another office for Google in London, with a giant logo in the lobby – see it here.

Here’s the full press release:

PENSON “Strike 1” for Google Engineering HQ London

One of the world’s most up & coming architecture & interior design brands PENSON, has released their first project for Google engineers, in Buckingham Palace Road, London. This first release forms part of PENSON’s overall programme for Google, covering super cool office spaces for Googlers this year at Central Saint Giles & Belgrave House London.

This first release is a starship enterprise-come-space module-come space-city affair, which is shrewdly functional whilst laying down some really clever & fresh thinking workplace strategies. In summary it’s yet another brilliant to the point release by PENSON.

Henrique Penha of Google commented: “Working with the team at PENSON was a pleasure, they truly understood the functional and aesthetic attributes we were after when redesigning Google’s new engineering offices in London. Together, we pushed the ambition of the project into every phase, giving the Engineering teams in London a place to incubate and execute on numerous Google projects and products.”

The floor provides a mixture of spaces, gaming rooms, music studios, a park, coffee lab, flight pods, lounges, micro-kitchens, an amazing auditorium labelled Tech Talk & an abundance of very clever collaboration & working spaces.

Most walls across the space are magnetic white board laminates, which allow scribbles across the entire floor. In small or large nooks & crannies, Googlers collaborate in alone, in pairs or in spaces that can present casually to 100 people. It’s very clever, loose & natural in that the space works around Googlers & not the other way around. The laminates give a spacious glossy jointless feel. It’s simply fab.

Flight pods are a PENSON invention exclusively for Google. These pods solve a number of programme, landlord & technical matters in the interests of supersonic fit-out speeds. They also look amazing, solve acoustic issues & provide semi private slouching-come-formal seating opportunities that simply look & feel amazing. These are true kick off your shoes & meet spaces. The days of meeting rooms are perhaps numbered!

Knowing PENSON well, it’s of course no surprise to us that the Coffee Lab is in fact made from compressed sheets of spent fresh coffee shavings. Clever! The space overlooks the internal park, with music & gaming rooms creating a space with amazing acoustics for collaborative speeches or as per opening night an electronic violinist.

The space also covers the Android studio, which is responsible for development of all Android matters. The space has electrically adjustable studio tables for working whilst standing or collaborating at low-level. The space has magnetic walls throughout for pin-up presentations of software or new patents currently under development.

Corridors no longer exist through other clever ideas, which mean that footprint usage of the floor plate is maximised. Through shrewd space, planning using techniques that only PENSON seem to dream up, the floor has been totally max packed, however, the spaces feel incredibly loose & spacious. Large isles of walkways with inter-connecting orange lines create a joined-up approach, which breaks up floors. Floors alone are different here, again through PENSON’s young creative commercials.

Desking looks different & fully integrated into the space, thanks to that orange banding. 100% of the desks are fully height adjustable. Screens that divide, whilst allowing group wide social connection, are framed with self-illuminating perspex, which add zest.

Other aspects to the scheme which are also very well considered are acoustics, day-lighting, zoning & socialising. All of these things happen naturally in that the space works, its comfortable & relaxing.

Lee Penson founder of PENSON Groups says: “This project for Google underlines our position within the media & office sectors, not only exposing our supersonic design flair, but also our delivery capabilities. Handing over 300,000sq.ft for Google in less than a year from start to finish to this level of detail is no mean feat & as the remainder of the Google programme is released, the underline will simply get thicker! This is a good looking, functional, commercially & forward thinking project!

It’s a special place that presses all of the right buttons at all levels. Statistics, workplace strategies, styling, atmosphere & forward thinking for Google’s Googlers. Magic!