Hasta La Ideas

A pattern of metallic bronze leaves covers the facade of this house in Mayfair, London, by British architecture firm Squire and Partners (+ slideshow).

Squire and Partners sandwiched the five-storey house between existing buildings, retaining an eighteenth-century facade in front.

The leaf cladding, made from 4080 folded aluminium pieces, was inspired by a nearby building covered with a Virginia Creeper plant.

The building’s facades have been designed to fit in with the different areas they face.

“The east and west portions of the building are finished with a stucco render to match the existing Waverton Street facade, with full-height bronze-framed windows of traditional Georgian proportions,” said the architects.

“A discreet Cotswold Buff brick facade with oak-framed windows then faces the more utilitarian Red Lion Yard,” they added.

The interior features five bedrooms, a swimming pool, gymnasium, cinema, a rooftop pavilion and two separate roof terraces.

A living wall of native plants grows down one side of a lightwell that features in the centre of the house.

Photography is by Gareth Gardner.

Other creative facades in London include a cast iron facade on the Paul Smith store in London, a faceted glass surface on a building in Oxford Street and an office building with four glazed slashes in the aluminium surface.

See more residential architecture stories »

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Mayfair House

Squire and Partners approached their commission to design a private house as a crafted building, sensitive to its Mayfair Conservation Area context but with a unique contemporary presence. Sited at a junction of streets and views, and being physically linked to a listed Georgian wall at the termination of Chesterfield Mews facing Curzon Street, the building responds to a variety of contexts and viewpoints.

The project involved the retention of an existing 18th century façade facing Waverton Street, and the design of a new building comprising three linked volumes to create a unique home in central Mayfair. The accommodation provides five bedrooms, a swimming pool, gymnasium, cinema, rooftop pavilion and two separate roof terraces.

Construction involved sandwiching the retained façade between two steel frames which was then suspended while piling and construction of the lower ground floor took place. This floor then became a platform from which excavation of the two basement floors and construction of the concrete frame above could happen simultaneously, speeding up the weather tightness of the site and fast-tracking the programme.

The east and west portions of the building are finished with a stucco render to match the existing retained Waverton Street façade, with full height bronze framed windows of traditional Georgian proportions. A discreet Cotswold Buff brick façade with oak framed windows faces the more utilitarian Red Lion Yard.

The middle part of the building is set back from the restored listed wall on Chesterfield Gardens to create a light well drawing daylight into the central spaces, and features a playful bespoke leaf façade.

The façade of this element takes inspiration from a facing building on Curzon Street, mirroring an established Virginia Creeper with a contemporary interpretation of leaves expressed as a metallic shingle.

The PPC coated folded aluminium leaves – 4,080 in total – subtly vary in tones of bronze to mimic organic growth patterns, and clad a three storey elevation facing Curzon Street including a rooftop pavilion.

At the centre of the c-shaped building internally, a grand double height space gives views into the light well which features a living wall planted with a variety of native plants.

Social spaces are located off the main double height volume, with the gymnasium, cinema and swimming pool situated in the two basement floors. Bedrooms are organised on the upper two levels, above which sits the stunning leaf- clad rooftop pavilion.

Westminster planning committee described the proposal as ‘striking’ and ‘raising the bar for design within the borough’.

Project Team
Client: Central Investment Properties Architect: Squire and Partners
M&E: Wallace Whittle UK Ltd
Structure: Heyne Tillett Steel
Quantity Surveyor: Rider Hunt
Planning Consultant: The London Planning Practice
Contractor: GPF Lewis Ltd
Interior Designer: Bill Bennette Landscaping: Haynes Design

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News: leading figures from London’s design institutions have warned that new immigration rules which make it harder for international students to stay in the UK after graduation could be a “disaster” for the city.

Kieran Long, senior curator at the V&A museum, described London as “a crossroads for great creative people to come and learn from their peers,” but warned: “Anything that stops that would be a disaster.”

Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic said: “London has really based its success on having 150 years of great art schools. They have been somewhat industrialised, got too big, and the government has also got quite curious about allowing students to stay once they’ve graduated. We need to be an open city, that’s what London always been.”

Last month the UK government announced changes to immigration rules that add “genuineness” interviews to the existing points-based hurdles students must clear if they wish to extend their leave to remain in the country once their course ends.

The new rules also introduce the power to refuse an application for a student visa extension where the applicant cannot speak English.

“It would be a disaster for London,” agreed Nigel Coates, professor emeritus at the Royal College of Art. “For creative people, London is the most attractive city in the world, partly because of its schools. But the government, confused as always, seems to be shooting itself – and us – in the foot.”

“It’s making it very, very difficult for AA students,” said Sadie Morgan, president of the Architectural Association school. “They give huge amounts to the UK economy. It’s a really big issue. It’s damaging and short-sighted of the UK government. They’re looking to be doing something aggressive about immigration but it is hugely damaging for schools like ours.”

Architectural firms can apply for visas on behalf of overseas graduates they want to employ, but Morgan said it was a “convoluted and expensive” process.

Sudjic added: “London is a remarkably successful place at attracting really smart, gifted young designers. They come to study here and lots of them build a practice here, not necessarily based on clients here, but on clients all around the world. London is a great place to be but it can’t be complacent and one of the things it has to do is go on attracting smart and new people and get them to stay.”

“London is welcoming, enterprising and full of opportunities”, said Max Fraser, deputy director of the London Design Festival. “It’s multiculturalism is one of its great selling points. We want to retain the best talent and the new visa restrictions are not conducive to that.”

London mayor Boris Johnson is understood to share the institutions’ concerns and convened a meeting with leading London arts schools this summer to discuss the issue. However, the mayor has no influence over national immigration policy. The UK’s Conservative government introduced the rules to appease backbench MPs, who demanded a tougher stance on immigration.

Dezeen spoke to leading figures in the design world during the London Design Festival last month to get their views on London’s position as a centre for design and the reasons for its current strength as a creative hub. The pre-eminence of London’s arts schools and its openness to immigration were the most-cited reason for the city’s standing as one of the world’s leading international centres for design.

“I think London has always been a place thats incredibly tolerant of new things, of people arriving in the city,” said Kieran Long. “We know that the city is based on immigration, and the people that are already here tolerating them and we’re really comfortable with that. In terms of design and architecture, we have some of the greatest schools in the world, a lot of people come to study here.”

He added: “I think there are threats to that, certainly we should keep London as open as it possibly can be and any political agenda that’s about closing that down somehow, to me, is anathema to what London really is.”

Sudjic said: “London is a great place to be but it can’t be complacent and one of the things it has to do is go on attracting smart and new people and get them to stay.”

Alex de Rijke, dean of the School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art, added that funding cuts and the rising reputation of schools abroad presented new threats to London. “Inevitably you produce a lot of architects that stay for a while then go and forge a career, whereas perhaps in the future that will not be the case as emerging economies all over the world will inevitably take over cultural production. So I see, not necessarily a lessening in the influence of education here, but certainly more of a diaspora of talent.”

“As other universities around the world offer amazing opportunities for the global student population, it’s increasingly difficult to be able to offer added value,” agreed Morgan. “The added value is being able to stay and work in the UK because of the huge kudos you get from working for UK practices.”

In an interview with Dezeen during the festival Patrizia Moroso, creative director of leading Italian furniture brand Moroso, praised London’s openness to students from overseas and contrasted it with the situation in Italy, where she says underinvestment in schools is leading to the collapse of its creative industries.

“The schools [in Italy] are collapsing,” she said. “When I see our universities and design schools, they are not the best in the world, they are not so important unfortunately. If you don’t give importance to learning, not immediately but in ten years you lose a generation of material culture.”

Last month the mayor of London proposed a new “London visa” to allow exceptional creative talents to bypass the lengthy new visa application system to set up businesses in London. He told the Financial Times (£): “It is a clear message to the elite of Silicon Valley or the fashionistas of Beijing that London is the place they should come to develop ideas, build new businesses and be part of an epicentre for global talent.”

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for design in London appeared first on Dezeen.

In this movie by film studio Stephenson/Bishop, Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto explains how he tried to combine nature and architecture when designing this year’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, which is open for three more weeks in London’s Kensington Gardens.

Built on the lawn outside the Serpentine Gallery, Sou Fujimoto‘s cloud-like pavilion comprises a grid of white poles that ascend upwards to form layered terraces with circles of transparent polycarbonate inserted to shelter from rain and reflect sunlight.

“From the beginning I didn’t think ‘I’d like to make a cloud’,” says Fujimoto, explaining how he tried to design a structure that would fit in with its surroundings. “I was impressed by the beautiful surroundings of Kensington Garden, the beautiful green, so I tried to create something that was melting into the green.”

“Of course the structure should be artificial so I tried to create something between architecture and nature; that kind of concept has been a big interest in my career so it is really natural to push forward with that concept for the future,” he adds.

Fujimoto also speaks about how he wanted to combine inside and outside space within the structure. “The transparency is quite important for me because you can feel the nature, the weather and the different climates, even from inside the pavilion,” he says.

Fujimoto is the youngest architect to design a Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. “It is kind of a dream for younger architects to be selected so I was excited, but at the same time it was kind of a big pressure ,” he said. “But I started to enjoy the whole situation and the whole challenge and for me, it was was a nice experience for the project to be abroad in a different situation than Japan.”

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion opened in June and will remain in place until 20 October. Dezeen also filmed an interview with Sou Fujimoto at the opening, when he told us he was “fascinated by such a beautiful contrast [between] the really sharp, artificial white grids and the organic, formless experience”.

See all our stories about Serpentine Gallery pavilions »
See more architecture by Sou Fujimoto »

Photography is by Jim Stephenson.

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into the green”- Sou Fujimoto appeared first on Dezeen.

Here’s a full set of photographs of Zaha Hadid’s new extension to the Serpentine Gallery, which features a glazed restaurant with an undulating fabric roof (+ slideshow).

Located five minutes walk from the main gallery building in London’s Kensington Gardens, the Serpentine Sackler Gallery opened earlier this week. Exhibition spaces occupy a renovated nineteenth century munitions store, while the restaurant is housed in a new structure that curves out from one side.

“The idea here was to use a new material – a tensile structure – and to look at domes and a shell structure to achieve a lightweight contemporary project,” said Zaha Hadid at the launch.

Built from a glass-fibre textile, the new tensile structure forms a free-flowing white canopy that is supported by five tapered steel columns and outlined by a frameless glass wall.

Describing the contrast between the new and old structures, she said: “We don’t look forward by looking backwards. It is necessary sometimes to to be able to match and be adjacent to historic buildings. The idea here was to really prove that you can have these two worlds, which are the new and the old, and then the garden and the park together in a seamless way.”

“This structure is meant to be a very contemporary light touch that leaves the existing structure autonomous,” added senior designer Patrick Schumacher. “I think we have achieved the acuity of space and structure, of sculptural elegance, lightness and transparency.”

Dezeen published the first photos of the gallery and restaurant from the press preview earlier this week.

This year’s Serpentine Gallery pavilion by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto is also still on show nearby and features a cloud-like grid of steel poles. See more stories about the Serpentine Gallery »

Other recently completed projects by Zaha Hadid include a building at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Heydar Aliyev Centre cultural centre in Azerbaijan. See more architecture by Zaha Hadid »

Photography is by Luke Hayes.

Here’s a statement from the architects:

The Serpentine Sackler Gallery, Zaha Hadid Architects

The Serpentine Sackler Gallery consists of two distinct parts, namely the conversion of a classical 19th century brick structure – The Magazine – and a 21st century tensile structure. The Serpentine Sackler Gallery is thus – after MAXXI in Rome – the second art space where Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher have created a synthesis of old and new.

The Magazine was designed as a Gunpowder Store in 1805. It comprises two raw-brick barrel-vaulted spaces (where the gunpowder was stored) and a lower square-shaped surrounding structure with a frontal colonnade. The building continued to be in military use until 1963. Since then The Royal Parks used the building for storage. The Magazine thus remained underutilised until now. Over time, much amendment and alteration hasoccurred inside the historic building and its surroundings.

Instrumental to the transformation into a public art gallery was the decision to reinstate the historic arrangement of The Magazine building as a free standing pavilion within an enclosure, whereby the former courtyards would be covered and become internal exhibition spaces.

In order to reveal the original central spaces, all non-historic partition walls within the former gunpowder stores were removed. The flat gauged arches over the entrances were reinstated whilst the historic timber gantry crane was maintained. Necessary services and lighting were discreetly integrated as tonot interfere with the ‘as found’ quality of the spaces. These vaults are now part of the sequence of gallery spaces. The surrounding structure has been clarified and rationalised to become a continuous, open sequence of exhibition spaces looping around the two central powder rooms, thus following the simplicity and clarity of Leo von Klenze’s Glyptothek as an early model for a purpose-built gallery.

What was a courtyard before, became an interior top-lit gallery space. Longitudinal roof lights deliver natural daylight into the whole gallery sequence surrounding the central vaults and witha fixed louver system they create perfectly lit exhibition spaces. Retractable blinds allow for a complete black-out of the galleries. The continuous sky-light makes the vertical protrusion of the central core of the building (containing the two vaults) legible on the inside. These reconstructions and conversions were designed in collaboration with heritage specialist Liam O’Connor and in consultation with English Heritage and Westminster City Council. In addition to the exhibition spaces the restored and converted Magazine also houses the gallery shop and offices for the Serpentine’s curatorial team.

The extension contains a generous, open social space that we expect to enliven the Serpentine Sackler Gallery as a new cultural and culinary destination. The extension has been designed to complement the calm and solid classical building with a light, transparent, dynamic and distinctly contemporary space of the 21st century. The synthesis of old and new is thus a synthesis of contrasts. The new extension feels ephemeral, like a temporary structure, although it is a fully functional permanent building.

It is our first permanent tensile structure and realisation of our current research into curvelinear structural surfaces. The tailored, glass-fibre woven textile membrane is an integral part of the building’s loadbearing structure. It stretches between and connects a perimeter ring beam and a set of five interior columns that articulate the roof’s highpoints. Instead of using perimeter columns, the edge beam – a twisted ladder truss supported on three points – dips down to the supporting ground in front, in the back, and on the free west side. On the east side this edge beam (and thus the roof of the extension) swings above the parapet of The Magazine. A linear strip of glazing gives the appearance that the roof is hovering above The Magazine without touching. The Magazine’s western exterior brick wall thus becomes an interior wall within the new extension without losing its original function and beauty. This detail is coherent with the overall character of the extension as a ‘light touch’ intervention. The envelope is completed by a curved, frameless glass wall that cantilevers from the ground to reach the edge beam and fabric roof.

The interior of the new extension is a bright, open space with light pouring in from all sides and through the five steel columns that open up as light scoops. The anticlastic curvature of the roof animates the space with its sculptural, organic fluidity. The only fixed elements within the space are the kitchen island and a long smooth bar counter that flows along The Magazine’s brick wall. The tables, banquets and chairs are designed as a continuous Voronoi pattern, reminiscent of organic cell structures.

Our aim is to create an intense aesthetic experience, an atmosphere that seems to oscillate between being an extension of the delightful beauty of the surrounding nature and of being an alluring invitation into the enigma of contemporary art.

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photographed by Luke Hayes appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Zaha Hadid’s extension to the Serpentine Gallery has opened today in London’s Kensington Gardens (+ slideshow).

Located just across the river from the main gallery building, the Serpentine Sackler Gallery occupies a 200-year-old former gunpowder store. Zaha Hadid Architects renovated the old brick building to create new gallery spaces, then added a curving cafe and events space that extends from one side.

The new tensile structure is built from a glass-fibre textile, forming a free-flowing white canopy that appears to grow organically from the original brickwork of the single-storey gallery building.

It stretches down to meet the ground at three points around the perimeter and is outlined by a frameless glass wall that curves around the inside.

Five tapered steel columns support the roof and frame oval skylights, while built-in furniture echoes the shapes of the structure.

“The extension has been designed to to complement the calm and solid classical building with a light, transparent, dynamic and distinctly contemporary space of the twenty-first century,” explain the architects. “The synthesis of old and new is thus a synthesis of contrasts.”

For the original building, the architects added a new roof that sits between the original facade and the outer enclosure walls, creating a pair of rectangular galleries in the old gunpowder stores and a perimeter exhibition space in the former courtyards.

A series of skylights allow the space to be naturally lit, but feature retractable blinds to darken it when necessary.

The Serpentine Sackler Gallery is Zaha Hadid’s first permanent structure in the UK and follows the studio’s Lilas installation at the gallery in 2007 and pavilion in 2000.

The gallery opens with an exhibition from Argentinian artist Adrián Villar Rojas.

This year’s Serpentine Gallery pavilion by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto is a cloud-like grid of steel poles and remains open in Kensington Gardens until 20 October.

Zaha Hadid has also recently revealed the first in a chain of boutiques for American shoe designer Stuart Weitzman and plans for an 11-storey apartment block that will be constructed beside New York’s popular High Line park, while her forthcoming National Stadium of Japan is now set to become the main sporting venue for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games.

See more architecture and design by Zaha Hadid »
See all our stories about the Serpentine Gallery »

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by Zaha Hadid appeared first on Dezeen.