Hasta La Ideas

Hoxton architects Edgley Design have tucked a rubber-clad residence and aluminium artist’s studio behind a row of semi-detached houses in Hackney.

The two new buildings take the place of an old workshop that previously filled the site and they can only be accessed through a gated alleyway.

Because of their proximity to surrounding residences, both buildings have few windows and instead receive natural daylight through rooftop glazing.

A wall of plants climbs up around the side of the rubber house, while two small courtyards are squeezed into the spaces between and in front of the buildings.

The house and studio are occupied by textile designer Laura Hamilton.

Edgley Design are located on Hoxton Street, in the southern part of the London borough of Hackney.

See more projects from our Designed in Hackney showcase »

Here’s some more explanation from Edgley Design:

Amhurst Road

Concept

Our clients have owned and worked on the site for over a decade and want to modernise the buildings, as the existing studios are poorly built and insulated and in a state of disrepair. However, they want to retain the principles of the existing buildings, to create a new and sustainable small community.

The proposal is to knock down the existing studio, and rebuild an artists studio with better facilities, as well as a separate two bedroom house all within the same footprint.

The concept is for a shiny metal box for the studio, as a domesticated re-interpretation of an industrial shed, contrasted with a rubber clad, tactile black box for the new house.

The proposal is designed to be flexible so that it is possible for it to operate as separate buildings with separate occupations as well as allowing the option for it to be used by a single inhabitant.

Artists Studio

The studio is a simple shed constructed from exposed aluminium sandwich cladding panels. The shiny industrial material will reflect the working nature of the studio, while this will be offset by minimal detailing which gives the shell a domestic quality suited to its context.

Residential Unit

The new dwelling is organised as a series of internalised experiences, that create a private retreat from the bustle of its Hackney Central location. This concept also allows for privacy and security, important issues in a backyard location, both for the inhabitants and neighbours.

The main volume of the house is articulated as a black rubber clad box, tactile and seamless, in sharp contrast to the rambling greenery of the surrounding sites. A wall wraps around this as a separate element, forming rooflights to the hall and stair. Planting in front of this wall will give the appearance of a ’green wall’ almost entirely hiding the house from the view of neighbours.

Security/ Privacy/ Overlooking

The proposal is designed so that there are few windows looking out. Most daylight and sunlight is received from roof lights and the internal courtyard.

Designing an inward looking house enables complete privacy for the inhabitants. Moreover it prevents any problems with overlooking from neighbouring properties as views are private.

The few windows which are proposed are carefully orientated to avoid overlooking any neighbours, while making the most of some of the wonderful views out from the site.

Security is an issue for the site as it is hidden from view, and accessed only by an alleyway. The design deals with these issues as it has no windows on the ground floor, and the only access at ground level is by the front door to each property.

The existing access to the site is the same but the proposal incorporates a safer environment by providing a private gated entrance to the new dwelling and a shared semi-public space outside the workshop.

Sustainability: Technology/ Materials/ Environment

During the technical development stage of the project we will be looking at all the environmental opportunities in the project, such as water recycling, solar hot water, and biomass boilers. The intention of both our clients and ourselves is to create a building performing to the highest environmental standards.

The proposal is inherently environmental through the re-use of an existing brownfield site. From a social point of view, the proposal is also supporting a small business, and creates a small, sustainable, mixed use community.

The construction strategy is to use timber frame for the new house. This allows the external envelope to become effectively solid insulation, and in a backland site allows a structure to be transported in small parts and easily assembled to a complex form on site.

For the artists studio, a composite insulated metal panel system was used. These composite panels are lightweight and quick to erect, and are well suited to simple large span buildings such as this. While not suitable for a residential building, they are ideal for a studio building, giving good thermal performance and maximising working space.

Both systems reduced time on site, which reduced the inconvenience to neighbours during the construction period. They are highly sustainable through control of wastage and quality off site, and in the case of timber frame through the use of timber.

The design incorporates a low tech green wall which is both environmental and also hides the main building, providing a screen for the views from Amhurst Road properties.

The proposal does not include a car parking space and promotes greener travel by incorporating bicycle facilities on site.

Scale and appearance

The original workshop footprint covered 164 sq m. This building almost filled the site, and had no private exterior space. The new building reduces the footprint to 141 sq m and allows the site to breath by incorporating private external space (the residential courtyard)

The area of the residential unit is 105 sq m
The area of the artist’s studio is 79 sq m

The buildings surrounding the site are all 2 or 3 storey buildings, mostly substantially larger than the proposed building. To the back of the site there is a large gable wall with no windows, which provides shelter visually for the proposed residential building, and the main mass of this building is built up against this gable wall.

The studio building is lower to reflect the more open nature of this side of the site.

A low sheltered terrace between the two buildings functions as a secondary living space to the residential unit at ground floor, while providing a visual break between the two buildings when viewed externally, reducing the apparent bulk of the scheme, and articulating clearly the differing uses of the site.

The proposed green wall is slightly lower than the main residential block, which helps to reduce the apparent bulk and size of the residential building.

where: Amhurst Road, Hackney
who: Private Client
completion: Oct 2011
value: £300,000

Designed in Hackney map:

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Key:

Blue = designers
Red = architects
Yellow = brands
Green = street art

See a larger version of this map

Designed in Hackney is a Dezeen initiative to showcase world-class architecture and design created in the borough, which is one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices. We’ll publish buildings, interiors and objects that have been designed in Hackney each day until the games this summer.

More information and details of how to get involved can be found at www.designedinhackney.com.

Here are some photographs of the Stanton Williams-designed Hackney Marshes Centre, which provides facilities for London’s amateur football leagues and won an RIBA award last week.

Completed last year, the Corten steel-clad centre contains changing rooms for teams competing on one of the 82 grass pitches at the park, as well as a cafe and toilets that can be used by spectators.

Gabion walls line the sides of the two-storey building to encourage the growth of climbing plants, while the interior walls are constructed from exposed concrete blocks.

Above: photograph is by Jim Stephenson

Perforated hatches fold up from the facade to reveal windows, while a glazed entrance leads into a double-height reception that is overlooked by the cafe above.

Above: photograph is by Jim Stephenson

Stanton Williams were announced as the winners of three RIBA awards last week. The other two were for an art and design college campus and a botanic laboratory.

Above: photograph is by Jim Stephenson

See all our stories about Stanton Williams »

Above: photograph is by David Grandorge

Photography is by Hufton + Crow, apart from where otherwise stated.

Above: photograph is by David Grandorge

Here’s some more words from Stanton Williams:

Project Description

Hackney Marshes is a unique place. With its origins in ancient woodland and medieval common land, it remains a vast open space. It is a place set apart from the city by a boundary of trees and by the River Lea. Yet it also connects communities, being an important green space in a densely-populated area.

Above: photograph is by David Grandorge

In addition, as the London home of amateur Sunday League football, it draws people from across the capital. Stanton Williams was commissioned in 2008 to provide a new ‘Community Hub’ at the South Marsh.

Above: photograph is by David Grandorge

New changing rooms, plus facilities for spectators and the local community, will be housed in a welcoming, inclusive structure that recognises the special qualities of this place by bridging the boundary between the natural and artificial. It will connect not only with its immediate surroundings and the local community, but also the adjacent Olympic Park and the rest of the Lea Valley.

Above: photograph is by David Grandorge

The Marshes as they exist today are the product of a series of interventions in the natural environment, and in this respect they recall Cicero’s ‘second nature’ – a landscape shaped by human hands. Part of the ancient Waltham Forest, the Marshes had become common pasture by the Middle Ages. Early twentieth-century maps show the area as a recreation ground, and, after having been used as a dump for rubble during the Second World War, the site was levelled. The result is an open landscape of mown grass, punctuated by the regular rhythm of goalposts and edged by a seemingly more ‘natural’ boundary of woodland and the River Lea. Even here, though, natural and artificial and interlinked, for the river’s course has been straightened to minimise the risk of flooding.

Above: photograph is by David Grandorge

The Marshes have long been known as the home of grassroots amateur football: the site holds the record for the greatest number of pitches in one place, with over 900 matches played per year. However, by the start of the twenty-first century, the facilities provided for the hundreds of players who come with their supporters each week were in need of urgent overhaul. The London Borough of Hackney therefore developed an ambitious vision for the site, recognising its community value and its pivotal location adjacent to the Olympic Park. The authority sought a piece of high quality, well designed architecture that would recognise the unique qualities of the site, that would instil a sense of pride and ownership, and which could increase participation in sport. Education and community facilities were required in addition to those for players.

Above: photograph is by David Grandorge

The Hub has been developed after discussion with local stakeholders and consideration of the needs of users. It is firmly embedded within its landscape setting: it is not an ‘object’ at odds with the surrounding environment. It is located on the south-eastern boundary of the pitches, defining a threshold between the South Marsh and the car park beyond by plugging the gap between an avenue of trees to the south and a coppice to the north. The Hub’s overall massing minimises its impact on the site. Its height has been kept as low as possible, creating a pronounced horizontal emphasis that complements the open, flat nature of the site.

The changing rooms are located at ground-floor level. A number of possible layouts were developed in order to arrive at the linear arrangement of the final structure. This option has the advantage that it avoids undue encroachment on the pitches, as would be the case for a more compact, back-to-back layout. The entrance has been located part-way along the structure to avoid excessively long corridors within. The community and spectators’ facilities, located at first-floor level, are placed at the northern end of the Hub, close to the tall trees of the coppice, into which they merge.

Materials have been chosen for their ability to weather into the surrounding landscape and also for their durability, as there is a particular need to secure the building given the lack of natural surveillance that results from its isolated location.

The ground floor envelope is treated as a landscaped wall. Gabion blocks, more usually associated with landscaping or civil engineering projects, are deployed in a fashion that recalls agricultural dry stone walls. They will weather well, are resistant to vandalism, and form a good structure for climbing plants.

The result will be a living, ‘green wall’, through which light will filter into the changing rooms beyond. Elsewhere, weathered steel is used. This is an industrial material that recalls the manufacturing traditions of the Lea Valley and which, in its contrast with the more ‘natural’ landscaped wall of the lower level, recalls the combination of nature and artifice that gives the site its particular character. But it, too, has a natural quality.

As a material which changes over time, weathered steel has a lively appearance and a rich textural finish. It will be deployed not only to clad the upper level of the structure, but also to form secure gates, louvres and shutters. Punched openings will allow light to enter by day and will also create controlled night-time views into the building, which will glow welcomingly as light emerges through the shutters and the gabion walls.

Entering and using the building will celebrate the acts of arrival, changing and spectating. The main entrance opens into a double- height reception area with views through to the pitches beyond. A corridor to each side leads to the changing rooms. The ends of the corridors are glazed, not only bringing in natural light but also allowing further views out.

The changing rooms themselves are configured so that they can be connected or separated as required. They have been designed to be suitable for use by groups of different ages and genders, with provision for disabled players. The principal finish is fairface concrete, left exposed in the interests of robustness and honesty.

The café is visually connected to the entrance by the double-height reception area; panoramic views out provide a link to the pitches. External shading will prevent overheating whilst passive ventilators on the roof provide natural ventilation.

Click above for larger image

The flexible teaching spaces, meanwhile, have an aspect toward the coppice and the River Lea, emphasising the rich local biodiversity. An acoustic screen can be folded back to create a larger space for conferences or seminars.

The way in which the Hub seeks to reconcile the natural and the artificial through its massing, materials and location embodies a broader aim to synthesise sporting activity and the natural environment. Sports venues often demonstrate something of the tabula rasa in their approach, replacing natural materials with tarmac or artificial hard surfaces, and permeable boundaries with fences.

Click above for larger image

As a result, playing becomes a solely physical experience. Instead, the Hub emphasises the ritualistic nature of sport. Within it, individuals are fused into teams, emerging onto the pitch to demonstrate their collective and individual skills, and to gain sensory and even spiritual stimulation from this rich location.

Project Team
Client: London Borough of Hackney Project Manager: Arcadis AYH
Main Contractor:John Sisk & Son Architect: Stanton Williams
Civil and Structural Engineer: Webb Yates
Building Services Engineer: Zisman Bowyer & Partners Cost Consultant: Gardiner & Theobald
Landscape Architects:Camlins
CDM Coordinator: PFB Consulting
Lighting Design: Minds Eye

Designed in Hackney map:

.

Key:

Blue = designers
Red = architects
Yellow = brands
Green = street art

See a larger version of this map

Designed in Hackney is a Dezeen initiative to showcase world-class architecture and design created in the borough, which is one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices. We’ll publish buildings, interiors and objects that have been designed in Hackney each day until the games this summer.

More information and details of how to get involved can be found at www.designedinhackney.com.

Fish-scaled sculptures raise environmental awareness

Located in St. Ives in Cornwall, England, Muju World is an artist’s studio run by Mr. and Miss Muju that specializes in mixed media and toy creations. Their latest release is a team of “Ocean Guardians“, five sculptural pieces representing the five oceans: Arctic, Indian, Pacific, Atlantic and Southern. The scaled creatures are hand-cast in resin by Miss Muju and painted by hand in aqua gradients by Mr. Muju. Standing at a mere seven inches tall, the delightful figurines help to promote awareness of ocean issues, with £10 from each sale going to the Surfers for Cetaceans Charity.

“We aim to produce artworks that generate a positive vibe,” says Mr. Muju. “The concept of these sculptures as modern-day totems, protectors of nature and elemental forces seems to fit with our sense of creative purpose.” Both Mr. and Miss Muju are avid surfers and dedicated to the environment, the Ocean Guardians a follow-up to an earlier eco-conscious team of Forest Guardians.

The Muju Ocean Guardians are available from Muju World for £90.

The ultimate foodie guide for this Olympic season

In the lead-up to the Olympic games in London this summer, a superlatively comprehensive guide to the best of the city’s food has just landed. Eat London 2 revamps the original 2007 edition with a new and updated array, taking the reader through the most toothsome digs in 15 London neighborhoods. The mouthwatering arrangement is the product of restaurateurs Peter Prescott and Terence Conran, who present the book as their personal guide to restaurants of the British capital.

While the recent economic climate may have lead to mass penny-pinching, the recession has not dimmed the vibrancy of the UK’s cafe, food and restaurant revolution. With foodie havens opening their doors daily, the streets of London have never been more plentiful. Cheap eats and Michelin stars fill the city, and with all the options around, a guide like this is indispensable to residents and tourists alike. The fold-out maps guide you through London’s labyrinthine streets, giving direction without the stigma of a traditional guidebook.

Whether you’re into food carts, gastropubs or fine French cuisine, the collection’s range has something for everyone in each neighborhood. To augment the directory, quotations from notable chefs and recipes for signature dishes are plated up alongside restaurant descriptions. Those who can’t make it to London will be sated by preparing a homemade dish of cuttlefish with broad beans and mint from Moro or Dover sole with Beurre Maître d’Hôtel from Lutyens.

Insider details for city eats are also given by notable local chefs. According to Chris Galvin of Galvin La Chapelle, “London is the greatest melting pot of ethnic cuisine in the world today and finally, we are blessed with lots of ‘young guns’ cooking and serving daring dishes and concepts.”

Eat London 2 is available from Octopus Books and on Amazon.

Construction of the controversial 115 metre-high sculpture that artist Anish Kapoor and structural engineer Cecil Balmond designed for the London 2012 Olympic park is now complete.

Visitors will enter a central elevator to ascend the steel tower, named the ArcelorMittal Orbit, arriving at an observation deck with a panoramic view of the city. To exit, they will be encouraged to climb down a staircase of 455 steps that spirals around the tower’s exterior.

Around 560 metres of red tubular steel form the structure and 250 coloured spotlights illuminate it at night. Internal fit-out will begin later this month and the attraction will open to the public before the games begin in July.

The project suffered a huge backlash when the initial plans were revealed back in 2010. See the comments from Dezeen readers here.

See also: our earlier stories about completed Olympic venues the aquatics centre, the velodrome and the main stadium, and see all our stories about the London 2012 Olympics here.

Photography is by ArcelorMittal.

Here’s some more information from the London Mayor’s Office:

ArcelorMittal Orbit unveiled to the world

Main construction of the London 2012 landmark is declared complete.

ArcelorMittal, tier two sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the world’s leading steel company, will today offer a preview of the completed ArcelorMittal Orbit – the 114.5 metre sculpture designed by Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond which will stand at the heart of the Olympic Park.

The ArcelorMittal Orbit is being handed over to the London Legacy Development Corporation later this month, so that Balfour Beatty Workplace can complete the fit-out ahead of the London 2012 Games where it will be a ticketed visitor attraction.

The press event will be attended by the team behind the sculpture, including Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond, Lakshmi N. Mittal, Chairman and CEO, ArcelorMittal, and Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, alongside the architects, engineers and builders who have helped bring the project to reality. For the first time, attendees to the unveiling will be able to travel up to the viewing platform and enjoy a panoramic view of up to 20 miles, encompassing the entire Olympic Park and London’s skyline beyond. At 114.5m, the ArcelorMittal Orbit is the UK’s tallest sculpture and stands 22 metres taller than New York City’s Statue of Liberty.

“It gives me great pride to see the ArcelorMittal Orbit standing not only as a completed work of public art but as a physical symbol of the Olympic spirit,” comments Lakshmi N. Mittal, Chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal. “It makes me very proud that ArcelorMittal plants from across the world contributed to this showcase of the strength and versatility of steel,” he adds.

Boris Johnson: “This 114.5metre-high attraction to trump rivals the world over is a calling card for investment in east London. It is a symbol of prosperity and growth, backed by one of the world’s most astute business leaders, which delivers the strongest message that this part of London is open for business after decades of neglect.

“In addition to the £11billion plus investment that has taken place around the Olympics over the last four years, the ArcelorMittal Orbit will draw visitors to newly regenerated swathes of east London in perpetuity and has changed our skyline and aspirations forever. The development of this area, creating new jobs, homes, schools, and thriving communities beyond the Olympics, is one of the most important regeneration priorities as we lay the ground now to meet the needs of the next 25 years.”

Anish Kapoor: “I am absolutely delighted that construction is now complete and I would like to thank the project team for making this possible and for their work on what is technically a very challenging project. I am looking forward to the Olympics when visitors to the Park will be able to go up the ArcelorMittal Orbit for the first time and I am delighted that members of the public will be able to interact with the work in this way.”

Cecil Balmond: “Anish and I were conscious from the beginning that the ArcelorMittal Orbit would be a lasting legacy to the city and so we wanted to stretch the language of the icon as far we could go. The Orbit is a hybrid, a network of art and structure, and its dynamic is the non-linear. You read into it multiple narratives in space.”

One of the world’s leading artists, Turner Prize winning Anish Kapoor studied in London, where he is now based. He is well known for his use of rich pigment and imposing, yet popular works, such as Marsyas, which filled the Tate’s Turbine Hall as part of the Unilever Series, Cloud Gate in Chicago’s Millennium Park and his recent record breaking show at the Royal Academy, the most successful exhibition ever presented by a contemporary artist in London.

The ArcelorMittal Orbit was designed by Anish Kapoor and one of the world’s leading structural designers, Cecil Balmond, who trained and lives in London, and is known for his innovative work on some of the greatest contemporary buildings in the world, such as the CCTV building in Beijing, as well as many Serpentine Gallery Pavilion commissions.

Construction of the ArcelorMittal Orbit took 18 months and required 560 metres of tubular red steel to form the sculpture’s lattice superstructure. The result is a bold statement of public art that is both permanent and sustainable, with close to 60 per cent of the 2,000 tonnes of steel used in the sculpture being drawn from recycled sources, underlining steel’s status as the world’s most recyclable material. Steel was chosen for the ArcelorMittal Orbit because of its unique properties including strength, modular structure and advantages of weight and speed of construction.

Sitting between the Stadium and the Aquatics Centre, the ArcelorMittal Orbit will be a beacon of the Olympic Park during the Games and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as the area will be known after the Games.

Visitors will be able to take a trip to the top of the structure in a lift and down too if they wish, although they will be encouraged to walk down the spiral staircase, which has 455 steps and has been designed to enable the guests to experience the feeling that they are orbiting around the structure as they descend it.

After the Olympic and Paralympic Games and following a period of transformation, the Legacy Corporation will run the ArcelorMittal Orbit as a visitor attraction with ticketed viewing from the observation decks and a compelling venue for private functions. It will be able to accommodate around 5,000 visitors a day with potential to attract around one million people during its first year of operation. It will have the capacity to accommodate between 400 – 600 visitors per hour, including full wheelchair access.

Last month, the Legacy Corporation announced that the ArcelorMittal Orbit will light up East London after 250 colour spot lights were added to the sculpture. Each can be individually controlled to produce a stunning digital combination of static and animated effects including a 15 minute moving light show every evening after the Games.

Andrew Altman, Chief Executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation, said: “The ArcelorMittal Orbit will become one of London’s most spectacular visitor attractions and a stunning backdrop to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. “Not only will it offer differing views by day and night, but it will light up the East London skyline to become a beacon of the incredible transformation of this part of East London.”

The Legacy Corporation, which will lease the ArcelorMittal Orbit to LOCOG during the Games, has said that 85% of the 50 jobs created in the venue after the Games will go to local people.

As a tier two sponsor of London 2012, ArcelorMittal has committed to funding up to £19.6 million of the £22.7 million cost of the ArcelorMittal Orbit, with the outstanding £3.1 million provided by the London Development Agency. It has been estimated that the resulting visitor attraction will generate up to £10 million of revenue per annum and create up to 50 new jobs following the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.