Input Creative Studio has created a New York studio for a children’s portrait photographer with a turquoise playhouse hollowed out of one wall (+ slideshow).
New York-based Input Creative Studio designed a neutral space for Studio Eight Photos, then made a couple of playful additions that keep children entertained both in between and during shoots.
A custom-made playhouse area is integrated into one wall, while a full-height blackboard becomes a giant drawing surface.
“Thinking back to our childhood memories, the idea of using wooden toys as our inspiration surfaced. The simplicity, warmth and nostalgia of the toys in addition with clever engineering gave us the idea to develop a playhouse, called Toto,” the designers told Dezeen.
“The playhouse not only entices the children but also provides them with entertainment; taking them out of the digital world back to analogue as they engage with the space by pushing the chalkboard door and playing in the house,” they said.
The blackboard doubles up as the sliding door for a cupboard, while the rest of the wall integrates a desk space and a line of wooden cabinets, allowing the client to stow away his camera equipment.
The rear wall accommodates several colourful backdrops for shoots, while an orange sofa provides a seating area for parents.
Photography is by Efi Panagoula of Studio Eight Photos.
Here is some more information from the designer:
Studio Eight Photo by Input Creative Studio
Studio Eight Photos’ design is composed of modular and graphic elements in a clean and neutral palette.
Bold black lines outline the space’s vast storage units that have been designed to accommodate a plethora of photography equipment. A modular lounge can be configured in a variety of ways, providing easy staging for different shoots. The studio’s layout is a blank canvas that can be easily transformed, providing an ideal and diverse backdrop.
Scale model
Since Studio Eight focuses on artist children’s portraits, a custom playhouse has been integrated into the design providing both an ideal backdrop for shoots and entertainment for the kids. Flexible, elegant and fun; the overall design is sophisticated yet playful.
This office and workshop for a theatre designer in Osaka was designed by Japanese studio Mattch to look like a glazed box hovering between two solid curtains (+ slideshow).
Nagoya-based Mattch wanted to reference the profession of the client with the design of S-Office, so developed a building with an L-shaped outer structure that frames the activities of its occupants like actors on a stage.
“A curtain of the stage opens and becomes the background,” explained studio co-founder Takenaka Ryuji.
Each floor of the three-storey building has a different function, so was given a different-sized floor plate. The middle storey is the largest, so it projects ahead of the ground floor to shelter the entrance and create the impression of a floating structure.
Inside, a turquoise-painted steel staircase spans the height of the building and is lit from above by a large skylight.
This contrasts with a series of exposed steel ceiling beams that have been picked out in red, as well as other structural details highlighted in shades of blue and yellow.
The ground floor accommodates a double-height workshop for producing props, while an office for quiet work is located on the split-level first floor and the upper level contains a top-lit meeting room.
The office uses a half-landing as part of its floor space. It also features wall-mounted shelving units that follow the diagonal line of the exposed steel bracing.
These shelving units reappear on the second floor, this time in a horizontal arrangement. Here, they line a semi-circular alcove which holds the meeting area.
This space is illuminated by a cluster of colourful pendant lamps and looks out onto a glazed conservatory with a pitched roof.
A year after establishing their architectural practice, Canadian architects David and Susan Scott have created a timber-lined studio for themselves in a converted butcher and grocery shop in Vancouver (+ movie).
The husband-and-wife team co-founded Scott & Scott Architects at the start of 2013 but until now have been without a dedicated studio, so they set about creating one in the former shop premises below their home – a building dating back to 1911.
The architects stripped back the interior of the 70-square-metre space to create a simple rectangular studio at the front, a workshop at the back and a wall of concealed storage in between.
Douglas fir planks were sourced from a local sawmill to line the walls, floor and ceiling of the main room. These were treated with a traditional beeswax, mixed with a solvent of Canadian Whiskey to produce a gleaming surface.
The former shopfront was fully glazed, helping to bring as much light as possible into the space, but also allowing neighbours to see what’s going on inside.
“The priorities were to maximise the use of natural light, enhance the connection to the neighbourhood, use regional materials which have a known providence and acknowledge the lumber-based building culture of the Pacific Northwest,” explained David Scott.
The couple enlisted the help of local carpenters to help them build the space themselves. Wooden cupboards were constructed from plywood and stained in black, creating a contrast with the lighter wood elsewhere.
The space is completed by glass pendant lights and a series of bespoke desks, which the architects designed and made with galvanised steel frames and hand-stitched leather surfaces.
Movie is by Odette Visual, with a score by Joel RL Phelps. Photography is by the architects.
Here’s a project description from Scott & Scott Studio:
Scott & Scott Studio
A year after the launch of their practice architects Susan and David Scott have completed the refurbishment of the historic commercial space in their 1911 East Vancouver residence. Once a butcher shop and a long running grocery store, the space has been stripped back to a simple volume lined with Douglas fir boards and completed with black stained fir plywood millwork.
Using familiar materials from their region, the architects built the space themselves with a couple of carpenters. The fir was supplied from a sawyer on Vancouver Island with whom they have worked for several years. Three fir logs were selected, milled and cut to suit the width and height of the space. The work was completed in a manner rooted in traditional methodology while utilising the availability of modern tooling. The unsalvageable south-facing storefront had been infilled by a previous owner and was restored to an area of glass consistent with the original size using a single high performance unit.
Informed by a desire to create work which is fundamental in its architecture and supportive of a variety of uses over time, the priorities were to maximise the use of natural light, enhance the connection to the neighbourhood, use regional materials which have a known providence, and acknowledge the lumber-based building culture of the Pacific Northwest.
Floor plan
The architects favour materials and approaches that wear in and appreciate over time, taking on warmth with maintenance. The interior fir boards are finished with a variant of a warm applied 19th century beeswax floor finish with the solvent replaced with Canadian Whiskey.
The tables (a first of their self-produced furniture designs) are hand-stitched finished leather tops on blackened galvanised steel bases.
Japanese architect Tsubasa Iwahashi has added hanging plants and a shed-like meeting room to an office in Osaka, which workers can take a peek at through boxy windows (+ slideshow).
Tsubasa Iwahashi Architects renovated the corridor of 11 office units on one floor of a building in Osaka’s Nishi-ku district. Entitled Hut on the Corridor, the garden-inspired project creates a common area where employees can take time out from their work.
The main intervention is a wooden hut in the centre of the space, which can be used as a meeting area or a quiet chill-out zone. This structure has only three walls, so people step inside by walking around to its rear.
The hut doesn’t have any windows, but a large skylight helps to bring in light. There’s also a small peephole in one corner that reveals the feet of anyone walking by.
“Going up you take off your shoes, so in a manner different from the communication that takes place in each private room, the hut of wood creates new value, connections and ideas,” said Iwahashi.
New domestic-style windows were added between the corridors and the office units. Each one features a boxy wooden frame, where plants and other items can be displayed.
The garden aesthetic is emphasised by hanging baskets suspended from the ceiling. The architects also made a small perforation in one wall to suggest a mouse hole.
Signage is kept to a minimum. A simple floor plan is marked onto the walls of the hut to provide directions, while male and female toilets are symbolised by a pair of cartoon faces.
Here’s a project description from Tsubasa Iwahashi:
A Hut on the Corridor
Like the street and square of the city, was thought people going back and forth, to try to place that meets nearby the place, is the beginning of our image.
We have renovated the common area of one floor of the rental office building built in ’40s in the city, a small company lined. Up the stairs, step into the legs to the floor, a small hut will appear in front of you.
We have expanded the part of the narrow existing corridor, and we have created a hut that get together. From a mere corridor, the hut changes the state and landscapes the place.
Going up you take off your shoes, so in a manner different from the communication that takes place in each private room, the hut of wood located in the centre of the floor creates new value, connections and ideas.
The corridor was regarded as an external space, lighting and planting the hut is located, the image of the external light, through a window facing there, and then insert the sunshine in each private room. Coupled with people going back and forth, and green hut glimpse through the window of a private room, reminiscent of the street landscape of the city.
For adjacent building is close, it is intended that in the private room you can not feel the sunlight directly, to provide a new external environment.
I hope that while they use, environment as grow up, with the passage of time, depending on the season, the landscape as a hut go deeper.
London studio Haptic references eroded granite rock formations commonly found around the Norwegian coastline with the curving form of this layered timber staircase, created for an office interior in Oslo.
Strategy and corporate finance firm Arkwright asked Haptic to design the interior of its new offices, which are located in a converted harbour warehouse in Oslo’s Aker Brygge area.
Upon entering the offices on the upper floor, staff and visitors are confronted with a monolithic reception desk made from stained black timber slats.
Behind the desk, the wooden strips become more spaced out, creating curving walls that surround a back office and transition into the wall behind the staircase.
“The design is inspired by svabergs – large granite stone formations that are typical for the area – rounded and polished by icebergs thousands of years ago,” the architects described.
The staircase descends to a lounge area and incorporates widened treads that offer spaces for casual seating.
Furniture scattered around this space includes tables with organically shaped surfaces and sofas with layered backrests that echo the form of the stairs.
Skylights and an original arched window overlooking the harbour fill the white-walled lounge with natural light.
Haptic created a variety of different environments for working and relaxing throughout the offices, including a James Bond-themed executive lounge.
Located in a windowless space in the middle of the lower level, the room features wood-panelled walls and leather furniture intended to create an intimate and sophisticated feel.
A bookcase built into one of the walls is also a secret door that pivots to connect the room with the corridor outside.
Televisions built into two of the walls can be viewed from the sofa in the lounge space or from a long conference table, while one of the other walls contains a bar and fridge.
Arkwright is a European consultancy that specialise in strategic advice. A new office space has been created for 40-50 employees, including workspaces, reception and back office, kitchen canteen, meeting rooms, breakout space and a “James Bond” room. The office is located in the prime harbour front location of Aker Brygge in Oslo, Norway, in an old converted warehouse building with a large arched window as its centrepiece.
The office is entered on the top floor. A new reception “sculpture” incorporates back offices, reception desk and a large stair/amphitheatre that straddles a double height space. The design is inspired by “svabergs”, large granite stone formations that are typical for the area, rounded and polished by icebergs thousands of years ago.
Special effort has been made to create a variety of spaces within the offices, incorporating green walls, double height spaces, and a special “James Bond” room.
The “James Bond” room is a windowless bunker-like space, sitting deep in the building – a difficult space to work with. This seemingly unpromising space has been transformed into an executive lounge for quiet contemplation, creating a private, intimate and calming atmosphere.
Project: Arkwright – Aker Brygge, Oslo Typology: Office Fit out Client: Arkwright/NPRO Year of Construction: 2013-2014 Architect: Haptic Architects Team: Nikki Butenschøn, Anthony Williams
Rem Koolhaas’ OMA has completed the new Amsterdam headquarters of Dutch denim brand G-Star RAW, which features a concrete shell, a glass core and a hangar-like facade that slides open (+ slideshow).
Located beside the A10 motorway in Amsterdam’s industrial Zuidoost district, the G-Star RAW HQ was designed by OMA to embody the rough-and-ready aesthetic of the brand’s military-inspired clothing, using stark materials and bulky volumes.
The 140-metre-long building sits over a large plinth that raises it up to the level of the road. It is wrapped by a dark concrete frame that houses the supporting facilities, while the central section is a row of glass boxes that contain the company’s creative departments.
Described by the architects as a “creative nucleus”, this section comprises a number of staggered floor plates and double-height spaces.
It also includes a flexible multi-purpose zone that the brand can use for large-scale production, fashion shows or parties.
This 20-metre-high space is fronted by sliding glass doors – sourced from an aircraft hangar manufacturer – that allow it to be either fully contained or exposed to the outside.
“The shifting facade and changing uses of the RAW Space, together with the various possible uses of the plinth, will create a constantly varying appearance reflecting the inner dynamism of G-Star RAW,” said OMA in a statement.
One glass box projects out from the facade to cantilever over the building’s entrance, creating a series of showrooms. This is surrounded by visitor facilities that offer framed views into the creative areas beyond.
The building is completed by a large G-Star RAW logo that stretches across the facade as if it were a billboard.
Photography is courtesy of OMA.
Here’s the project description from the architects:
G-Star RAW HQ
Situated next to the A10 in the industrial Zuidoost area of Amsterdam, the new HQ for G-Star RAW will consolidate G-Star RAW’s disparate facilities into a single building that aims to stimulate interaction between various departments.
The 27,500m2 horizontal building – 140 metres long – consists of a creative nucleus containing the core departments of G-Star RAW, which are enveloped by a ring of offices, parking and support facilities. The distinction between the support activities and the creative core is heightened through contrasting materials – a monolithic solidity rendered in black concrete for the ring, while the creative core is visible through the glass facade. The lower part of the ring forms a plinth for parking and drop off; the plinth also provides a location for installations and events.
The main entrance is situated at the level of the plinth and is underneath a cantilevered glass box that houses G-Star’s showrooms. This end of the building, distinct from the inner workings of G-Star, is dedicated to visitors; however there is still exposure of these inner workings through controlled views and access.
Inside the creative core of the building, staggered floor plates and double-height spaces promote a dynamic exchange between the different creative departments allowing for cross communication. The RAW-space, a flexible multi-use zone, either open to the outside or concealed behind sliding hangar-type doors, provides a space for work and production, parties, and fashion shows. Oriented towards the A10, the shifting facade and changing uses of the RAW-space, together with the various possible uses of the plinth, will create a constantly varying appearance reflecting the inner dynamism of G-Star RAW.
Project: headquarters for Dutch international fashion brand G-Star Status: Construction Clients: G-Star RAW C.V. Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands Site: industrial regeneration area in southeast Amsterdam next to A10 ring road Program: offices and creative spaces (19,000m2) and parking (8,500m2)
Partners-in-charge: Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon
Current team (construction + interiors): Katrien van Dijk (project leader), Tjeerd van de Sandt, Saskia Simon, Marina Cogliani, Jung-Won Yoon
Team (interiors concept): Saskia Simon (project leader), Marlies Boterman, Marina Cogliani, Karolina Czeczek, Green van Gogh, Sarah Moylan, Mafalda Rangel, Tjeerd van de Sandt
Team (SD/DD/TD): Richard Hollington III (associate in charge), Tjeerd van de Sandt (project leader), Fred Awty, Philippe Braun, Kaveh Dabiri, Katrien van Dijk, Hans Hammink, Mariano Sagasta, Koen Stockbroekx
Team (competition): Richard Hollington III (associate in charge), Fred Awty, Philippe Braun, Rob Daurio, David Gianotten, Shabnam Hosseini, Andreas Kofler, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Lawrence Siu
News:OMA has seen off competition from BIG and Buro Ole Scheeren to win a competition to expand the Berlin headquarters of multimedia firm Axel Springer.
The firm, led by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, triumphed with a concept for a building featuring a 30-metre-high atrium that “lavishly broadcasts” its interior to the existing Axel Springer building next door.
Tasked with developing a structure that sets new standards in terms of internal atmosphere and room layout, OMA proposes a series of tiered floors that extend out to external terraces.
Hearing about the win, Rem Koolhaas said: “It is a wonderful occasion to build in Berlin again, for a client who has mobilised architecture to help perform a radical change: a workplace in all its dimensions.”
The building will create additional space for the company’s growing business divisions, particularly its digital departments.
“Rem Koolhaas drafted a building which only on second sight reveals its secret, architecturally formulating a new kind of collaborative working at its core,” said Regula Lüscher, director of the city’s urban development department.
“The concept offers a strong symbolic force as it leads the course of the Berlin Wall diagonally through the building, thereby creating an atrium and spectacular interior, which addresses the unification of this city,” she added.
The shortlist for the competition was revealed back in December. The proposals of all three firms will go on show at the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt later this year.
Dutch firm Wiel Arets Architects applied an intricate fritting technique to the glazed facade of this office complex in Zurich to give it the appearance of onyx marble (+ slideshow).
Located within a developing commercial zone outside the city centre, the 20-storey tower and five-storey annex were designed by Wiel Arets Architects to provide a new Swiss headquarters for financial services company Allianz.
Planning guidelines stipulate that all new buildings in the area must be clad in natural stone. But the architects chose to instead create the look of onyx marble to “allow the building to blend into its context while simultaneously maintaining its distinguished stance”.
An abstracted pattern taken from the marble surfaces of Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion was used to frit the glass. This was achieved by building up composite layers of black and white dots.
“The original image of the onyx marble was rasterised, and from this two versions of the same image were created – one black and the other white,” project architect Felix Thies told Dezeen.
“These two images were then patterned and fritted on the back side of two different layers of glass, separated by a distance of six millimetres,” he explained.”When viewing the facade from an angle, the reflections of the rasterised patterns appear ever-changing, in accordance with the angle of the sun.”
A regular grid of windows breaks up the facade and each one contains a silver curtain between two layers of glass. These are controlled by computer to vary the level of shade they provide, adapting to different weather and lighting conditions.
The building’s entrance is at the base of the tower and leads through to a central staircase that ascends from the main lobby through all 20 storeys. This is to encourage employees to interact with people on different floors.
Four enclosed bridges connect the tower with the adjoining annex. There are also voids in the floorplates to create double-height spaces between storeys.
“The Allianz Headquarters can be experienced as horizontal and vertical landscape of neighbourhoods,” said the design team in a statement.
Internal heating and ventilation is provided from behind a panelled ceiling system. These panels are made from steel and perforated with a pattern derived from Swiss chalet ornamentation.
A cafe and restaurant is located on the fifth floor, while the level below accommodates rooms for client meetings. Employees can also take time out from work on a roof terrace dotted with Japanese maple trees.
A three-level car park unites the two buildings at basement level and provides space for up to 300 vehicles.
Here’s a project description from Wiel Arets Architects:
WAA complete construction on the Allianz Headquarters in Zurich
Allianz Headquarters is a 20-storey tower and 5-storey annex, the latter capped with roof gardens of Japanese maples; these two components are interlaced by four enormous bridges
The Allianz Headquarters is a hybrid-office and the pinnacle of a masterplanned mixed-use district on the edge of Zurich’s city centre. Comprised of a 20-storey tower and a 5-storey annex, these two components are externally linked by a series of four bridges, and vertically linked by numerous interior voids and staircases; as such, the Allianz Headquarters can be experienced as horizontal and vertical landscape of neighbourhoods.
Fluidly connected to the city centre by a multitude of public transportation options, the building encourages the blossoming of twenty-first century office culture, which demands flexibility in space and its use, via its hyper-hybrid programming that amplifies ‘interiority’.
The entire lobby and ground floor are publicly accessible, ensuring a continuous animation throughout both, which compliments the adjacent public square. A central staircase rises from the lobby up and into the 20-storey tower, allowing employees to, if desired, meander throughout all levels of the office without entering its core.
A café and restaurant are located on the fifth floor, rather than within the lobby, which creates a buffer zone between public and non-public areas. A ‘business centre’ is located one floor below, and contains meeting rooms for use with external clients. This ‘business centre’ enables employees to meet with their guests, without the need for elevators.
This new district’s masterplan mandated that all building facades be composed of natural stone, yet it was chosen to frit this building’s full glass facade with an abstracted pattern of Onyx marble – from Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion – which allows the building to blend into its context while simultaneously maintaining its distinguished stance.
Each element of the facade contains a closed cavity system, in which an aluminium-coated silver curtain hangs, which fluctuates its degree of shading by responding to external environmental factors – a process administered by a computer controlled algorithm.
Interior heating and cooling occurs through a panelled ceiling system that utilises concrete core activation and concealed air ventilation. These 1.35 x 1.35 m panels are composed of ‘crumpled’ steel sheets into which a three-dimensional pattern, derived from traditional ornamentation of Swiss chalet eave, has been stamped, which introduces a larger scale to the interior office spaces by decreasing the amount of visible ceiling seams. Micro-perforations in the panels maintain ventilation, allowing for no visible interior air ducts and the placement of an acoustically absorbing sheet on the back of each.
Inhabitable volumes adorn the roof of the lower building, with several garden terraces for employees. These gardens contain a singular red Japanese maple tree, which return in the landscaping of the central courtyard below.
Both the 20-storey tower and 5-storey annex are adjoined underground by a tri-level 300 car parking garage, where most of the extensive IT and mechanical facilities are stored. Similar to a home, the Allianz Headquarters has been infused with espresso corners and lounge like spaces throughout, for instance, its four 8m wide bridges, to stimulate informal conversation within this highly formal working environment.
Swedish firm OkiDoki! Arkitekter has created its own offices inside a former corset factory in Gothenburg, designing an open-plan workspace that hosts events for local residents in the evening (+ slideshow).
The Corset Factory by OkiDoki! Arkitekter is situated in a building that was designed by architect Gustaf Wickman in 1898 but had been renovated as offices several times over since production ceased in 1950.
Light floods in through the large original windows and the main space is divided by a series of ten cast-iron columns.
The open-plan space is dominated by one continuous table, where members of staff all sit together to reflect the company’s unhierarchical nature.
“Everyone sits around the same table, literally as well as figuratively,” said the architects. “Aside from a few smaller rooms for quiet meetings or telephone calls, everything takes place in the same big room.”
A selection of colourful curtains, rugs and specially designed furniture demarcates the space into zones for meetings of different sizes, reception areas or places to take a break.
There is also a row of smaller rooms along one side of the space for private meetings or phone calls.
In the corner of the main area, a stepped seating area replete with cushions looms over the room. This is used for presentations and screenings as well as a place for people to work away from their desks.
On evenings when the Corset Factory hosts seminars and lectures, movie festivals or parties, the break-out areas can be cleared to make open spaces or filled with chairs to create a screening area.
“The Corset factory is more than just an office,” explained the architects. “It is a place not only for architectural work but for open discussions, new ideas, spontaneous meetings – a sort of living room for the city: available for anyone, anytime.”
Off from the main space, conference and meeting rooms are simply finished in white with wooden floors. These are separated from the main area by a partially exposed brick wall with pieces of plaster painted in an array of different colours.
The old corset factory in central Gothenburg is one of the city’s most beautiful buildings. Designed by Gustaf Wickman in 1898, the great windows flooding the open spaces with light made it ideal for its original use as a factory. Since 1950, when the production shut down, the building has hosted several offices. In September 2013 Okidoki Arkitekter moved in.
Okidoki’s organisation is open and un-hierarchical. This is reflected in the premises and how they’re used. Everyone sits around the same table, literally as well as figuratively. Aside from a few smaller rooms for quiet meetings or telephone calls, everything takes place in the same big room. Curtains, carpets and specially designed furniture helps divide it into zones suited for different purposes; weekly meetings with the whole office, informal meetings with guests and customers, breaks with coffee and a magazine.
The Corset factory is more than just an office. It is a place not only for architectural work but for open discussions, new ideas, spontaneous meetings – a sort of living room for the city, available for anyone, anytime. In the evenings the Corset Factory hosts seminars and lectures, movie festivals and parties. Thus, the most interesting thing about the project is perhaps not how it is designed and used as an office but how it actually is a part of the urban life.
Duggan Morris Architects was tasked with adding three storeys of office space to the four-storey Georgian property in London’s Shoreditch. As the building sits within a conservation area, the architects were required to preserve the existing residential facade above the ground floor shopfront.
“The challenge was to retain the domestic scale windows within a commercial office use, as well as to consider the proportional impact and aesthetic quality of the multi-storey addition,” said studio founders Joe Morris and Mary Duggan.
Behind the brick facade, the building has been completely remodelled to generate an interior suited to modern commercial uses. The basement and ground floor are dedicated to retail, but the rest of the floors all provide flexible office spaces that decrease in area towards the top.
The Curtain Road facade features a grid that divides the surface of the extension to correspond with the three bays of the original frontage. Local rights of light required some open sections at the rear to become roof terraces.
A recessed section at the top two storeys reveals a portion of the adjacent building’s flank, helping to anchor the extension into its surroundings and creating a small terrace.
The new facade was designed as a simple arrangement of horizontal and vertical units, rendered in visually lightweight modern materials to create a contrast with the existing brickwork.
“To retain the gravitas and independence of the urban block, the additional storeys are designed with an ambition to achieve a lightweight object quality, restrained from any references to the adjacent heavy masonry structure,” the architects explained.
A combination of bonded glazed units and panels covered in a wavy metal mesh were installed to create a flush surface with minimal jointing and surface detailing.
The metal panels are perforated with a pattern of holes that allows air to flow through and doesn’t obstruct views from inside.
Felt curtains that can be drawn across the large windows create a similar visual rhythm to the undulating surfaces of the mesh panels.
Preserving the facade during construction
Concrete lintels and cills are painted in a matte finish, as are the window frames. The anodised metal panels have a champagne finish to ensure consistency between the masonry and the new architectural features.
Preserving the facade during construction
Towards the end of the construction process, a neon lighting installation by artist Tim Etchells was installed in one of the windows, displaying the message “Shouting your demands from the rooftop should be considered a last resort”.
This is a speculative office development generating 20,000sqft (GEA) of retail and work space located at 141-145 Curtain Road, Shoreditch, East London. The project is located within a conservation area defined by Georgian brick buildings and requiring retention of the existing urban block.
The building prior to development was four storeys (G, B+2) in height and is fully remodelled behind a retained brick façade. Above this, three new floors of contemporary office space are added, extending the building to 7 storeys in total, almost doubling the usable area. Planning permission was obtained in September 2011. Construction commenced in November 2012 and completed in October 2013.
Model photograph
The scheme
To generate the required area of 20,000sqft, a further three storeys were necessary within the permissible building footprint which is defined by the alignment of the front facade at street level and the rights of light (RoL) envelope at the rear. There are 7 floors in total (B, G 1-5) diminishing is size as you ascend. Logic and efficiency dictate the plan arrangement. A compact circulation core contains toilets, showers, lift and stair, and is orientated on the tallest side of the building. The offices are maximised with external terraces also carved out of the RoL envelope.
The ground and basement are intended for retail use. As such two entrances at ground level occupy either end of the facade – 141 leading to the upper office levels and 145 directly into the retail unit. Ultimately the building is flexible and can accommodate a single or multi tenant let. To retain the gravitas and independence of the urban block, the additional storeys are designed with an ambition to achieve a lightweight object quality restrained from any references to the adjacent heavy masonry structure. Scale references to the adjacent buildings window punctuation are stripped back by reducing the extension to optimum modules horizontally and vertically. The materials are reduced to mesh and glass with minimal panels and visible jointing. The lack of reveals to windows are intended to further communicate the delicate object form by disguising the depth or make-up of the construction.
This object quality is further reinforced by the deep recess to the upper 2 storeys. By revealing a portion of the existing brick flank to the adjacent building block (139 Curtain Road) the weight of the existing fabric is further communicated. This obviously reduces nett lettable area but is counterbalanced by a maximised envelope to the rear. Also the precise fit of the building between party walls without visible overdressing of flashings is intended to allow the extension to read as an independent form intended to appear simply resting ‘upon’ the facade below and ‘between’ the adjacent warehouses. A 50mm gap is detailed between the existing masonry and the extension and projecting copings are omitted in lieu of self-draining window sections.
A grid is imposed on the front facade to respond subtlety to the 3 bay house facade below. The plot is trapezoidal in plan and as such a diagonal grid sets up positions of facades and balustrades to the rear. The grid is further enforced at the rear, with smaller staggered terraces, articulating the building where the mass responds to a RoL envelope. Thus a proportional logic of panel size – mesh and glass – is utilised across the facades with the positions of balustrades also defined by the RoL envelope.
The visible facade is made up of mesh and large bonded units. The principle behind the entire facade construction is to use a simple curtain walling system where possible, with bespoke inserts to achieve the non standard details. The bonded glazed units are tied back to the main super structure. The mesh is bracketed off the curtain walling to meet the same plain as the bonded units and to achieve the flush outer layer. This principle continues around the entire facade front and rear. In order to maintain a reading of the building as a whole the colour palette is carefully calibrated to respond to the masonry tones from grey concrete mortar to mid brown bricks. The reflectance of the materials increases as you ascend to sky and the textural quality of each material selected is emphasised by various means.
A champagne coloured anodised metal panel is used for the mesh on the upper storeys. This is perforated with small holes achieving 40% free air flow and is also calculated to appear almost invisible from the inside to retain views across London. A waved profile adds another layer of light quality maximising incident sun throughout the day. The anodised surface is iridescent in sunlight.
The transition from the mesh to the glazed bonded panel is carefully managed by introducing a matching fritt within the double glazed bonded unit. This softens the overall appearance of the glass which would normally be a contrasting frame and fritt colour. Felt curtains have been introduced to the larger windows fronting onto the street to extend the waved mesh detail across the entire facade. The brick has been lightly cleaned and repointed where spalling with the intention to retain the relic with minimal surface alteration. All concrete lintels and cills and window frames are painted a matt colour to match the brickwork attempting to simplify the reading of the retained element.
At ground level the shop front is framed in concrete supporting the building mass above. The glass panels within being as large as is permissible with the constraints of the tight street and working zone. Again a fritt has been selected to match the concrete colour to soften the junctions. The colour treatment stops at the facade. As a rule the entire office units are white including light fittings and all exposed services.
The building has been a challenge in many respects mainly imposed by the condition to retain the existing facade. To an extent the process to retain it required extensive counter intuitive construction works. The delicate quality of what is deemed to be ‘permanent’ and of historical value has been exposed through the very process of having to retain it. An installation by Richard Wilson at Liverpool Biennial 2007 entitled ‘Turning the place over’ played on this very condition. A permanent gritty piece of city fabric is explored as an adaptable component. An abstract portion of the facade was mechanically rotated exposing the inside.
Similarly, this revelation of the building fabric became an interesting part of the construction journey that was to be capitalised upon particularly given the visibility of the works from the street and the opportunity to promote the building as a theatrical contribution to Shoreditch, perhaps calling out to a particular tenant typology or exposing a opportunity to use the building in an unconventional way. The construction works required an oversized steel temporary structure to protect the facade from falling which needed to be pinned back to the superstructure. The entire shopfront below was removed leaving the brick facade suspended to allow alterations to take place behind it. Due to the close proximity to the street and the restrictions imposed by the Olympics 2012, temporary scaffolds and coverings were kept to a minimum thus the entire build process was evident throughout the construction phase. Due to the size of the bonded panels a complete weekend closure of Curtain Road to permit safe cranage positioning and installation was necessary.
An installation by Tim Etchells was exhibited to expand upon the theatrics. The piece was installed for 6 weeks from September to October 2013. The neon piece entitled ‘shouting your demands from the rooftops should be considered a last resort’ was selected for its obvious irony in the context of imminent marketing of the building, but also to demonstrate the opportunity to use the high level glazed pods for exhibition. The neon had the obvious benefit of retaining visibility during the dark early evenings.
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