Hasta La Ideas

A team of illustrators and graphic artists camped out for a week in this Rococo-style dome hidden under a carpark in Soho, London, covering every surface and arch with a sinister, sprawling illustration for new restaurant and bar Meat Liquor.

Interior architects Shed of London and Singapore commissioned design collective I Love Dust to adorn the walls for food brand Meatailer, which is making the former Italian restaurant its permanent home after touring major festivals in the form of a partying burger van called the Meat Wagon.

Referencing factories and butchers, Shed fitted out the interior with an industrial rubberised floor, an eight metre-long stainless steel bar and blood-coloured banquettes, plus industrial lighting hung from galvanised steel hooks and red cords.

The restaurant opened to the public on 11 November.

Other recent projects by Shed include the Harrods Shoe Salon, and flagship store for fashion brand Spencer Hart.

Photographs are by Adam Luszniak.

Here are some more details from Shed:

The Meat Wagon; a legendary food offer known by keen foodies and avid trend forecasters alike. The infamous burger van has globetrotted it’s way around any festival worth mentioning, spearheaded it’s own events and become synonymous with great food, delicious drinks and relentless parties. Now the legend continues, but instead of four wheels, it will be presented in a more permanent fixture.

When interior architects Shed first collaborated with the Meatailer enterprise, a design formula was created that would mean no two establishments would ever be the same; originality and nonconformity are at the heart of the Meat Wagon’s philosophy so all environments had to embody this ethos while taking on their own character.

The concept: to take an idea borne of location and environment and mince that up with the Meat Wagon’s utilitarian ‘no nonsense’ approach – all materials in their raw form, all elements explicit in their function.

Lurking beneath a car park just behind Oxford Street resided the perfect site for Meat Liquor – the Meatailer’s next venture. Previously the site of an Italian restaurant, the site was appropriately kitted out with an impressive Rococo style dome and a mass of ornate columns and architraves. So with this influence the idea came: a modern day mural to make Michelangelo weep, a ’tattoo’ that would envelop and intertwine with the obscurity of the building. A scene that would tell some of the Meat Wagon’s story so far and mutate the classical architecture into something far more appropriate to the Meat philosophy.

Shed commissioned the prolific design collective ‘I Love Dust’ to administer the monumental illustration. in just a week, a team of illustrators and graphic artists camped out on site to adorn as much visible surface as possible, with colourful tales from the Meat Wagon’s past, culminating in an extreme and almost hallucinogenic visual experience.

Red ‘liquor’ signs have been suspended in the windows to splay dull light over the dyed oxblood red, leather banquettes. Industrial cage lamps are hooked and gathered around galvanised steel hooks and suspended over blackened steel framed tables. Red cord is looped from the centre of the dome to reach salvaged industrial work lamps, positioned to highlight poignant images trapped within the trailing mural.

Industrial rubber flooring and an 8-metre long stainless steel bar with corrugated sheet façade resonate the sterility of a factory environment. Occupying the floor is a small army of vintage industrial seating, all powder coated in just two utilitarian colours. A length of ‘butchers’ curtains contains the lower level ‘Pit’; the Meat Liquor’s VIP area where guests can enjoy the thoughts of Hunter S Thompson that adorn the walls.

Shed are delighted to have had this opportunity to venture out of the realms of the corporate world. ‘A project like this comes up once in a lifetime. To have a chance to push boundaries of what may be considered indecent, inappropriate and down right wrong, and to have this concept whole heartedly backed by the client is one in a million. The history of the Meat Wagon has been the driving force behind every aspect of this project but what remains now is an entirely new beast.’

74 Welbeck Street,
London W1G 0AB

British architects Liddicoat & Goldhill constructed their own north London home using black engineering bricks and slabs of white marble.

Named the Shadow House, the two-storey building is located on the compact site of a former parking garage.

Walls inside the house are of the same dark brickwork as the exterior and contrast with a stark white concrete floor.

Larch beams supporting the ceilings of both floors remain exposed inside every room and bare light bulbs hang from them.

Household appliances including the television and washing machine are concealed inside specially designed cupboards in the ground floor living rooms.

A bedroom and library occupy the first floor, as does a bathroom with a glazed ceiling.

Above: photograph is by Tom Gildon

This house was nominated for the 2011 Manser Medal, which was won by another north London house – see our earlier story about the winner here.

Photography is by Keith Collie, apart from where otherwise stated.

Above: photograph is by Tom Gildon

The following text was written by Liddicoat & Goldhill:

About The Shadow House

Because our budget was so tight, we planned to carry out as much work as possible ourselves and limited our palette to primary materials. We found these limits liberating rather than restricting: there is great poetry in practical things, so we reveled in finding simple means of assembling the house. It is built inside and out in slim-format Dutch engineering brick, a robust material with a delicate black glaze. Interior structure and window reveals are in raw larch, while polished concrete floors flow between each of the rooms.

One small luxury we allowed was to buy two slabs of bookmatched Statuarietto marble, which we used throughout house as a reflective contrast to the brick walls. The whole design revolves around this play of light & dark; carefully controlled moments of intensity and quiet shadow. We wanted to create interior spaces with maximum emotional effect. The bright first floor bathroom has a huge sheer glass ceiling (which needed to be craned into place) that contrasts with the intense atmosphere of the living spaces.

Above: photograph is by Tom Gildon

We created the sensation of being outside; showering in full sunshine or bathing under the stars. We playfully carved space into the walls for everyday clutter; the TV and its cables are concealed behind a black glass wall, the loo roll has its own marble niche, the washing machine is in a secret cupboard behind the loo, discreet storage fills every spare corner while the kitchen extract is buried into the brickwork. In order to give a sense of space to what could feel like very constrained rooms, it was important for us to modulate the section and vary the ceiling heights. By changing the floor level and building roofs at different heights we created a range from 3m in the living room to 2.1m in the entrance area.

Above: photograph is by Tom Gildon

This allowed us to give each space its own sound quality and sense of cosiness or airiness. Just building a house doesn’t make a home: we also designed our fittings and furnishings; the minimalist Zero larch bedframe; kitchen cabinetry in elm, stainless steel, marble and spray lacquered matt doors; The Shadow Lamp, a granite and laser-cut timber table light; soft furnishings using amazing African fabrics, Nyaradza bedspread and Akwasidee cushions.

How We Made The Project Happen

The Shadow House is our own home, but is also an experiment in making a generic small city house. While working for other practices, we designed luxurious houses for private clients and worked on complex urban social housing developments; we were keen to extend this experience into building more modest single houses. Finding a site was an exhausting process. We cycled around London, exploring the backstreets and peering over fences, looking for a forgotten scrap of land. We knew we could only afford a site that was too challenging for developers or ‘Grand Designs’ hopefuls.

We eventually discovered a derelict parking garage – home to rats, foxes and local junkies – just behind the Kings Cross goods yards in NW1. At only 390sqft, it seemed almost impossibly small. Our task was made even harder by its location in the fiercely-protected Camden Square Conservation Area, and by the previous owner’s failed attempts to win Planning Permission. We knew the project could only become a reality through our skills of designing in historic areas, and negotiating with neighbours and local Planners. Our time and energy were our greatest resources, so we re-drew the design constantly to eliminate costs, and carried out much of the work with our own bare hands.

Architect and Main Contractor: Liddicoat & Goldhill LLP
Site: 38a St. Paul’s Crescent, London, NW1 9TN
Client, Architect and Main Contractor: David Liddicoat & Sophie Goldhill
Structural Engineers: Peter Kelsey Associates
Completion date: Winter 2011
Gross internal floor area: 77m2
Total construction cost: £210,000

A 1960’s residence renovated by London architects Duggan Morris has won the RIBA Manser Medal 2011 for the best new house in the UK.

Located in a conservation area in north London, the two-storey Hampstead Lane house is constructed from fair-faced concrete blocks, which the architects cleaned and restored.

The original aluminium-framed windows have been replaced with similar alternatives and a new steel structure replaces previous load-bearing internal walls.

A new blanket of sedum covers the roof, which was also repaired.

Previous Manser winners include an extension to a mill-keeper’s house and a seafront timber residence.

Photography is by James Brittain.

Here’s an account of the project from Duggan Morris:

Hampstead Lane

Background, Site, Context and Planning Considerations

Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live with an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, engaged in the protection of its character. This building, a low rise modernist property built in the 1960′s, was designed and built by a well-known local architect couple, who had lived there throughout the remaining years of their lives; Douglas Stirling Craig and his wife Margaret.

Stirling worked for Coventry City Council, Stevenage Development Corporation, and with Margaret, set up architectural practice in the late 1950′s completing a number of notable projects for a number of private residential clients adopting a Brutalist style of exposed surfaces inside and out. This approach is clearly evident in the design of 3A Hampstead lane built by 1968.

The Original Building

The original building, featured 4/5 bedrooms, along with reception rooms, a kitchen, dining room, utility room, two bathrooms, an integrated garage, and a 60ft garden overlooked by a glass-dominated rear of house. The primary palette of materials consisted of a light coloured fair faced blockwork skin (inside and out) with a silver sand and white cement mix, punctuated with mill finish aluminium window frames and coping with flush pre-finished white hardboard faced doors to the front and flank elevations. To the rear, the primary material was glazing again in mill finish aluminium, with panels over in a clear laquered birch ply, whilst the window surrounds were completed in a plain deal pine and the window cills in mahogany.

Internally the floors were a white flecked vinyl asbestos tile. All the interior joists and woodwork were in plain wood, except for the top of the T and G planking on the 1st floor. There were no skirting boards or door trim and the only places with a dropped ceiling were the kitchen, entry and utility room. The original heating was under-floor electric embedded in the screed.

Introduction to the Project

In winter 2008 Duggan Morris Architects were invited to consider proposals for the refurbishment of a house in Highgate Village on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath. The building was however, no run of the mill Georgian Villa, but a late 20th Century Modernist building, designed in the brutalist style, by a well-known local architect. The clients were themselves also highly successful Architects, working on national and global stages for separate well known practices, but with too little time to develop the designs for the project themselves.

The tri-part involvement of three generations of architects on such a humble building seems highly relevant in the current political, economic, and environmental climate. It seems appropriate to state that the importance of good design cannot be overlooked in this respect. Brutalism continues to influence current generations of architects, whilst much of the public and indeed central government continues to chastise the movement for its perceived failings. In this case, a building which has clearly contributed in a unique way to the local conservation area has been saved from demolition by the enthusiasm and foresight of an informed client and design team.

The Brief

Working closely with the client in a highly collaborative manner, a brief emerged which sought to carry out a full ‘renovation’ of the building fabric, whilst also intervening carefully to create a contemporary dwelling, of a more fluid arrangement of spaces, rather than the celluralised original. The brief also sought a greater connection of the living spaces to the gardens, which themselves would be completely redesigned. At roof level, it was intended to replace the existing membrane with a modern version, whilst the services were completely overhauled to modern day standards.

In addressing the building, the design team has taken a measured approach to the condition of the as found, aiming to retain and re-use wherever possible, removing only the surface layers of detritus and cladding which has accumulated over the years.

The design of the scheme thus is perceived as a ‘renovation’ rather than a refurbishment, with most of what we found remaining in-situ. Thus the external skin of blockwork has been renovated through a painstaking exercise of washing and scrubbing and repointing to ensure a further 50 years of life. The roof membrane was retained and repaired and a new sedum blanket of plug planted specimens added over, creating a mini eco system for local wildlife. The landscape too has been added to, rather than removed with a large number of mature trees added to front and rear.

Internally things like the stair, balustrade, floor boards (first floor) and most of the original doors have been retained and reused. Where we have adapted and altered space, we have done so sparingly and simply. The main overhaul was the ground floor slab replaced with new insulation, screed and a wet underfloor heating system connected to a new energy efficient boiler.

In the main, what we have done is simple, light but aimed at a general improvement of the environmental condition and performance.

The Interventions

The renovation works focussed on retaining the integrity of the original house, through extensive research and analysis of historic documents, drawings, photographs and archived material.

Much of the work involved a cleaning and restoration process for the exposed block work, whilst the glazing system was designed to closely accord with the original single glazed system, but achieving modern standards and U-Values.

Where interventions to the layout of the internal spaces has been required, this has evident through the clear communication of new structural elements; a new dark grey steel frame which spans the key spaces, in place of previous load bearing walls. The project also includes a full integrated scheme for the landscape, which now has a greater connection to internal spaces.

Summary of time-table
Commissioned: February 2009
Negotiated Tender: July 2009:
Construction: Sep 2009
Completed: July 2010

Dezeen Wire: architecture critics are having their say on plans unveiled yesterday by Foster + Partners and engineers Halcrow for a new transportation hub in the Thames estuary (see our story on Dezeen).

Writing in the Financial Times, architecture critic Edwin Heathcote claims the proposal is “a genuinely innovative and radical plan,” and describes the architect as “a tenacious and consistent innovator,” akin to the pioneering engineers and architects responsible for creating Britain’s urban infrastructure in the Victorian era.

The Guardian‘s architecture critic Jonathan Glancey says the plans are “bold” but expresses concern over whether the country is ambitious enough to implement Foster’s “big-spirited vision of Britain.”

Tom Banks of Design Week says that the proposal may initiate a “call to arms” within the design industry to be more ambitious, adding that it “has put the value of huge, design-led national infrastructure projects firmly in front of Government.”

The BBC reported that not everyone thinks the Thames Hub is a good idea, citing members of Medway council who say its proximity to the world’s largest liquefied natural gas terminals makes it “the daftest in a long list of pie-in-the-sky schemes.”

See our story on the Thames Hub here and all our previous stories about Foster + Partners here.

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Lazarides and Pret A Diner collaborate to create an underground feast for the senses

As a follow-up to the extraordinary Hell’s Half Acre, Steve Lazarides and his merry band of radical street artists have teamed up with KP Kofler’s Pret A Diner dining experience to create The Minotaur. Set once again in the dark depths of London’s Old Vic Tunnels the space has been transformed into an atmospheric feast for the senses for London Art Week.

After singeing eyeballs with the impromptu rendition of Dante’s Inferno at Hell’s Half Acre last year, this time the creative inspiration comes from another classical myth—that of Theseus’ quest to kill the Minotaur in the maze, with the help of Ariadne and her ball of twine. This dark tale of bravery and hubris is interpreted in many ways by different artists throughout the suitably-labyrinthine underground space.

Unnerving from the start, the exhibition begins with an entrance that uses light and shadow spooky effect as Lucy McLauchlan‘s trash collage sculptures and Zak Ové‘s black magic voodoo creatures throw monstrous shapes on the walls. Soon enough, we discover Atma’s crucified form of the Minotaur suspended from the ceiling, illuminated by candles, while the discordant soundtrack to a slow-motion film of bull-fighting sequences plays nearby.

As we progress through the space, other versions of monsters emerge from the shadowy arches—in one corner is Jonathan Yeo‘s leonine portrait of high-society plastic surgery queen, Jocelyn Wildenstein, while in another, Rupert Murdoch looks down from on high, chipped out of a wall in Vhils‘s trademark graffiti style.

Commentary on contemporary culture as “beast” also comes in the form of Antony Micallef’s works of genetic perfection. Highly-idealized, airbrushed images of women looking eerily like blow-up dolls seem to represent the daily modern sacrifice of fair maidens manipulated in our media maze.

Other work was more overtly repellent, like David Falconer’s enormous ball of rats, entertainingly titled “Vermin Death Star,” on view on the way to the show’s highlight, a beautifully-hypnotizing video installation by Doug Foster. He has recast the form of last year’s Heretic’s Gate as a smoking swirl of reflected and mirrored forms, out of which gleaming eyes and horns fleetingly emerge, then disappear into a silvery mist.

At the center of all the visual drama is the Pret A Diner space which, in the evening, turns into a bacchanalian feast of high gastronomy. Interior designer Nora Von Nordenskjold has created a space that, in her words, recalls “ancient civilizations and forgotten worlds. How it would be to feast with the gods in exile.” This decadent underground tavern is dripping with candle wax, vine leaves and grapes, illuminated only by flickering candles and Pret a Diner co-founder Olivia Steele’s neon writing sculptures.

Four star chefs have been invited to create rotating menus to amuse the revelers’ palates: Portuguese Londoner Nuno Mendes, Sushi sensei Ollysan, Germany-based Spaniard Juan Amador and Michelin-starred Matthias Schmidt. This deliciously-indulgent experience has the sinister undertones of being one’s last meal before being sacrificed to the Minotaur, yet remains entirely enjoyable. One fellow guest we overheard probably put it best when describing the whole experience as something akin to a terrifying carnival ride you want to go on again and again.