Hasta La Ideas

Irish architects O’Donnell + Tuomey have extended a red brick warehouse in central London to provide a new home for The Photographers’ Gallery.

Top image is by Kate Elliot

Black-rendered walls overhang the original Victorian brickwork to cover the new fourth and fifth floors, which both contain galleries and are lit by a two-storey-high, north-facing window in one corner.

Lectures and workshops will take place on the third floor, an environmentally-controlled gallery is on the second floor and offices are on the first floor.

Part of the facade is cut away and glazed to reveal the cafe and bar at ground level, and a digital wall in the reception area will present a changing selection of projects from both professional photographers and the public.

A bookshop and print salesroom occupy the basement.

The ground floor is clad in black polished terrazzo and hardwood panels that match the thickness of the new rendered walls, while large windows with matching hardwood frames on the upper levels afford views towards nearby Oxford Street and Soho.

The gallery will reopen to the public on 19 May.

See more stories about galleries on Dezeen here.

Photographs are by Dennis Gilbert.

Here’s some more explanation from the gallery and a statement from the architects:

The Photographers’ Gallery unveils new home designed by O’Donnell + Tuomey

The Photographers’ Gallery will unveil its new home for international and British photography in the heart of London’s Soho on Saturday 19 May 2012. The Gallery’s opening will mark the conclusion of its ambitious £9.2 million capital campaign, which has been generously supported by Arts Council England’s Lottery Fund alongside a range of Trusts, Foundations, corporates and individuals.

Award winning Irish architects O’Donnell + Tuomey were commissioned to redevelop The Photographers’ Gallery in 2007 and construction on the building began in Autumn 2010. The transformed building features a two storey extension that will double the size of the previous exhibition space. Providing a platform for an enhanced programme of exhibitions, the generously proportioned galleries will showcase established and emerging photographic talent from the UK and around the world.

A sculpted terrazzo entrance with an open plan design will connect the ground-level Café and lower-ground Bookshop to the street, creating a welcoming meeting place and lively hub for visitors. A centrepiece of the ground floor will be The Wall, a digital display which will present guest-curated projects, artist commissions and collaborative photographic work involving the public.

Extending over a further five floors, the original Victorian red-brick warehouse will be linked to a modern steel-framed extension through an external sleeve of black render, terrazzo and sustainably sourced Angelim Pedra wood. The architects have created numerous links between exterior and interior, punctuating the building with large feature windows which function as apertures onto the urban realm around Oxford St.

A new environmentally-controlled floor will create opportunities to show more work from archives and museum collections and higher ceilings in the top floor galleries will provide dynamic spaces for large-scale and moving image works.

Situated at the heart of the building between the two main exhibition spaces will be the Eranda Studio. Placing an emphasis on the Gallery’s education programme, this floor will feature a full schedule of talks, workshops and events. Introducing permanent elements to the programme, the Eranda Studio will include a camera obscura and a Study Room where the public will be able to access an archive of material related to exhibitions and events which have taken place since the Gallery was established in 1971. Also featured on this floor will be Touchstone, a quarterly display of a single, groundbreaking photograph.

Complementing the enhanced facilities for the public programme will be new spaces for the Bookshop, Print Sales Room and Café. The Bookshop will offer the latest releases as well as hard-to-find art and photography titles and a range of niche cameras. The Print Sales Room will see the relaunch of The Photographers’ Gallery Editions, in which a world-renowned photographer donates a limited-edition print of their work to benefit the Gallery’s public programmes. The new street level Café will be run in partnership with Lina Stores, the oldest family run delicatessen in Soho, and will boast an Italian menu of freshly-made dishes and baked goods.

A new visual identity for the Gallery has been created by North, one of the UK’s most respected and innovative design practices. Inspired in part by the building’s architectural design, this new visual identity will boldly communicate the Gallery’s vision both within the building and beyond.

The Photographers’ Gallery staff together with its Board of Trustees has raised £8.84 million to date towards its projected £9.2 million capital campaign target. Funds raised include a £3.6 million grant from the Arts Council England’s Lottery Fund; £2.4 million from the sale proceeds of the Gallery’s previous building at Great Newport Street and £2.8 million from Foundations, Trusts, individuals, corporates, an auction of donated photographs held in 2011 and other public funds. The gallery plans to raise the remaining £360,000 for its public programme through naming rights for the top floor gallery and public appeal.

Architectural Statement

The Gallery is located at a crossroads, between Soho and Oxford Street. The corner site is visible in a glimpse view through the continuous shop frontage of Oxford Street. Ramillies Street is approached down a short flight of steps, leading to a quieter world behind the scenes of London life, a laneway with warehouses and backstage delivery doors.

The brick-warehouse steel-frame building is extended to minimise the increase in load on the existing structure and foundations. This extended volume houses large gallery spaces. A close control gallery is located within the fabric of the existing building.

The lightweight extension is clad in a dark rendered surface that steps forward from the face of the existing brickwork. The street front café is finished with black polished terrazzo. Untreated hardwood timber framed elements are detailed to slide into the wall thickness flush with the rendered surface. The composition and detail of the hardwood screens and new openings give a crafted character to the façade.

A deep cut in the ground floor façade was made to reveal the café. The ground floor slab was cut out to lead down to the basement bookshop. An east-facing picture window and the north-light periscope window to the city skyline were added in response to the specific character of the site.

Internet giant Google will run this shared workplace for startup technology companies that interior designers Jump Studios have just completed in the area nicknamed Silicon Roundabout in Shoreditch, London.

Occupying a seven storey building, the Google Campus contains a series of flexible open-plan workspaces and lockers that accommodate hot desking.

Informal meeting rooms and small kitchens are contained within shipping containers, as are the lockers.

At ground level is a reception desk decorated with multicoloured Duplo bricks, beyond which a wall of reclaimed fruit crates provides shelving for books, magazines, pin boards and clocks.

Red industrial shutters separate the reception from a presentation room at the back, which can also be subdivided into two.

A cafe filled with plywood furniture and a workshop for non-members occupies the lower ground floor.

In the past we’ve also featured Google’s UK offices, as well as their engineering headquarters. See all our stories about the company here.

Photography is by Gareth Gardner.

Here’s some more text from Jump Studios:

Google Campus

Google Campus is a seven storey co-working and event space in the centre of London’s Tech City, otherwise known as Silicon Roundabout. The project, run by Google UK aims to fuel the success of London’s tech start up community.

Working with partners Seedcamp, Tech Hub, Springboard and Central Working, the primary function of Campus will be to provide office space for startup companies, but the facilities will also host daily events, offer regular speaker series with leading technology and entrepreneurship experts, hold networking events and run a constant mentoring program where Google staff will share their experience and expertise with residents.

Non-residential registered users will have access to the cafe and co-working space on the lower ground floor.

The design challenge was to take an unprepossessing seven-storey office building and to create an interplay between dynamic, open, social spaces and more intimate working hubs, with flexibility to accommodate a shifting workforce and a diverse program of events.

Much of the architectural focus has been on opening up and connecting the ground and lower ground floors programmatically to play host to a series of socialized spaces, from reception and informal meeting areas to theatre, cafe and workshop spaces.

Furthermore the overall look and feel of the building was designed to reflect the nature of the future occupants of the building: young start-ups who are just about to kick off their careers rather than well established corporate companies. By stripping back the building to its core, exposing all services, revealing the existing structure of ceiling slabs and columns and combining this with utilitarian and inexpensive materials such as linoleum and plywood a raw aesthetic has been created not dissimilar to a garage or workshop.

This low-tech environment has then been furnished with several autonomous objects, which emanate a strong presence in the space:

In the reception visitors are welcomed by a reception desk partly made from multi- coloured Lego bricks – a nod to Google’s founders who always had a special fondness for the Danish toy building blocks – in an otherwise unbranded environment.

A large inspiration wall made from reclaimed vegetable crates dominates the holding area. The wall can be used as shelving for books and magazine or to display objects and artefacts that help tell the story of the building and its inhabitants. The first exhibition installed for the launch of the building revolves around iconic objects from the world of communication and consumer electronics.

Towards the rear the holding area opens up to a large presentation room offering seats for up to 140 people. The two spaces can be subdivided by means of a bright red roller shutter which contributes to the industrial aesthetic of the environment.

The loading bay next to reception has been converted to accommodate up to 40 bicycle stations to encourage cycling.

Working areas, which occupy the upper five floors of the building, are open plan. They incorporate multi-functioning container units that separates circulation from the main office space and offer hot desking, personal lockers, recycling stations, video conferencing / meeting booths and a micro kitchen. It is complemented by a soft seating area facing the micro kitchen, along with an upholstered nook offering respite from the hustle and bustle of the working areas. Large panels upholstered in a neutral grey fabric along the walls improve the acoustics of the space and double up as pin-up surfaces.

Access to both the top floor flat roof and the lower ground floor courtyard has been introduced to offer up an enhanced experience of the building. The top-floor flat roof has been timber decked and will be used for cinema screenings and social gatherings. Working with landscape artists ‘The Wayward Plant Project’ the lower ground floor exterior space has been transformed into a timber decked patio featuring moss walls and a fern garden, alongside flowers that are technologically enhanced to tweet when in need of water! This external space is open to residents of the building as well as visitors of the adjacent café.

The design of the café follows the same logic and employs the same materials that have been used elsewhere in the building. The coffee bar itself sits kiosk-like in the centre of the floor and divides the space into two separate zones: the café towards the rear featuring bespoke upholstered banquet seating and small benches made from simple, oiled plywood as well as a large mural by graphic artist Luke Embden.

A large workbench for informal workshops and seminars occupies the front of the space. The half-pipe room behind a wooden warehouse door offers a calm and muted atmosphere to brainstorm new business ideas or simply relax after lunch.

Project Details:
Project: Campus
Location: 4-5 Bonhill Street, London, UK
Total floor area: ~2,300 m2
Capacity: ~ 200 desk spaces, 16 meeting rooms of various sizes, 2 presentation and event spaces (130 / 75 person capacity), informal work + break out spaces, café
Project cost: £ 2.2 M

Project Team:
Client: Google UK Ltd.
Architect: Jump Studios (Shaun Fernandes, Markus Nonn)
M&E: Medland Metropolis
Contractor: Como
Furniture: Viaduct Bespoke Joinery: Key Joinery

Construction Materials:
Reception:
desk: MDF, back painted glass, Duplo bricks, painted aluminium
feature wall: reclaimed fruit crates, chipboard, steel
floor: Forbo Marmoleum real

Café:
coffee kiosk: oiled spruce plywood, plasterboard, Formica HPL, Dupont Corian, Egger MFC workshop table: MDF, solid surface material
halfpipe: MDF / plywood, Heuga 731 carpet tiles
banquet seating: MDF base structure, seating pads upholstered in Kvadrat Hallingdal 65 fabric benches: oiled spruce plywood
wall benches: mdf, seating pads upholstered in Kvadrat Steelcut Trio 2 fabric
floor: Forbo Marmoleum real

1-4th floor:
container: MDF, oiled spruce plywood container
benches: MDF, seating pads upholstered in Kvadrat Steelcut Trio 2 fabric teapoint: oiled spruce plywood, Egger MFC, sinks: Franke, taps: Bristan
break out wall: Masterlite Acoustic pro block, painted acoustic paneling: Fabritrak system, upholstered in Kvadrat Remix fabric banquet seating: MDF base structure, seating pads upholstered in Kvadrat Hallingdal 65 fabric
floor: Forbo Marmoleum real

Furniture / Lighting:
Hay, Modus, Very Good & Proper, Branch Studios, Moroso, Bene, Magis Muuto, Luxo, Erco

Students from London’s Architectural Association have designed and built a faceted wooden workshop in the woods in Dorset, England.

This structure, which was completed as part of the AA Design & Make programme, is based within the 350-acre Hooke Park forest owned by the school and will be used as an assembly and prototyping workshop by future students.

The larch used to construct the building was sourced both from within the park and from local woodlands.

A system of columns and trusses made from unmilled tree trunks comprise the building’s structural framework.

The project was overseen by course director Martin Self, as well as by British architect and tutor Piers Taylor.

We previously featured a pod-shaped retreat that AA students completed in the same woodland – see it here or see more projects by AA students here.

Photography is by Valerie Bennett.

Here’s a little more text from Piers Taylor:

A new workshop building designed by the Architectural Association Design and Make students, on which we are acting as executive architects.

The building is constructed using prototypical techniques developed through testing in the material science laboratory at Bath University and using material extracted from the Hooke woodland, which has been constructed by a team put together by Charley Brentnall.

These reconstituted-stone sails belong to the second museum we’ve featured this month dedicated to ill-fated liner the RMS Titanic, following one shaped like four hulls.

Designed by British architects Wilkinson Eyre, the museum occupies a former magistrates court in Southampton, England, which is where the ship famously set sail from 100 years ago this month.

A strip of glazing connects the existing building to the new north wing, which accommodates special exhibitions and has its own separate entrance.

The main entrance leads into the heart of the old courthouse. Here a red oxide wall references the anti-foul paint used on the Titanic and a skylight frames the view from a first-floor bridge to a clock tower that is roughly the same height as the ship’s original funnel.

Courtrooms are refurbished as exhibition halls, while elsewhere former prison cells are converted into toilet facilities.

Read about the other Titanic-themed museum in our earlier story, or see more projects by Wilkinson Eyre Architects here.

Photography is by Luke Hayes.

Here’s some more information from Wilkinson Eyre Architects:

The SeaCity Museum, Southampton, set to open on the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s departure from the city

Wilkinson Eyre Architects has unveiled images of Southampton City Council’s new SeaCity Museum that is to open on April 10th 2012, exactly a century after the RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton. The design for the £15m museum, which has refurbished and extended one of city’s most important civic buildings, will tell the largely untold and fascinating story of the crew on board the Titanic and the impact the sinking of the world’s most famous ship had on families in Southampton. The Museum will also feature other exhibitions about the city’s maritime past and present, telling the stories of people who have arrived and departed in the port over the past 2,000 years.

The project’s architectural brief was to reinvigorate the existing Grade II* listed Magistrates’ Court building, which includes courtrooms and cell block, to create 2000 sq m of exhibition and learning space. Plans also included the addition of a pavilion, which signals the presence of a new important cultural attraction within the city, and has taken the form of a bold architectural addition connected to the north façade of the existing building.

Designing the visitor experience

The Magistrates’ Court building forms part of a complex, collectively known as the Civic Centre, which was designed by E. Berry Webber and represents one of the most important 1930s buildings of its type in the south of England. On entering the building, visitors move into the foyer that provides orientation and connectivity between the two principal levels of the building and opens to the dramatic newly-refurbished Grand Hall.

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The main entrance space provides access to the ground floor, where the ticketing, shop and cafe are located. This is adjoined by a triple height light well that has been formed by enclosing a former prisoners’ exercise yard. A continuous red oxide wall, which recalls the antifoul paint of the Titanic, links the entrance space, light well and pavilion’s lobby, and has been designed to help visitors navigate the different spaces.

Click above for larger image

A bridge spans across the northern end of the light well, acting as a ‘gangway’ for visitors within the Titanic exhibition. Above the bridge, a roof light frames views of the clock tower;  as the height from the light well to the tower is approximately the same height as the Titanic’s funnel, this design feature gives the impression of the scale of the ship.

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The design for the SeaCity Museum remains sensitive to the existing characteristics of the building and uses the qualities of these restored spaces to enhance the visitor experience. Significant adaptations of the Grade II* listed building, which have been done in close consultation with English Heritage, include the transformation of the court rooms into exhibition spaces, plus the restoration of the original prison cells into toilet facilities and also the refurbishment of the original steel frame of the building.

Click above for larger image

The pavilion

A simple material palette of glass and reconstituted stone has been used to make sensitive, contemporary additions to the existing building, including glazed roof extensions and a new single storey pavilion connected to the northern façade of the existing building. The pavilion is linked to the Magistrates’ Court building via a glazed link, designed to act as an independent entrance into the extension if required.

The pavilion’s geometric design negotiates an irregular site where the ground rises two metres from south to north. As a result, the structure – which takes the form of three interlocking bays rising in parallel with the ground – corresponds to the surrounding buildings whilst making a bold architectural statement.  The façades are formed of reconstituted stone precast panels and translucent, backlit reinforced glass panels, allowing for natural light to reach the interior spaces. The use of stone aggregate also ensures that the exterior of the pavilion is consistent with the architectural style of the Magistrates’ Court building.

Click above for larger image

Anna Woodeson, Associate at Wilkinson Eyre Architects, said: “We are delighted with the finished museum, which brings a new lease of life to a very important building in Southampton, whilst also announcing the arrival of a new cultural attraction with the addition of the pavilion. These new spaces will play a key role in helping Southampton tell its fascinating maritime story.”

Wilkinson Eyre Architects also designed the landscaping that surrounds the museum, creating green areas and a new grey granite pedestrian path that connects the SeaCity Museum toSouthampton’s City Centre.

Designed in Hackney: next up in our Hackney design showcase is a conservatory with a five fingered roof that Shoreditch architects Spacelab installed at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital in 2004.

Located on top of a boiler house, the Orangery provides a dining room for both staff and patients at the hospital, as well as a space for temporary exhibitions or events.

Some of the the zinc and wood-covered fins that comprise the roof are angled upwards to draw light in through the glazed facade, while others are slanted downwards to create overhanging canopies.

Gaps between the different sections of the roof are also glazed, creating a row of high-level windows.

The wooden ceiling surfaces wrap down around the walls and floor, then extend beyond the facade to become stripes on the terrace outside.

Here’s some more text from Spacelab:

The Orangery, designed and built by award-winning architects, Spacelab was completed in August 2004 and picked up an influential RIBA Award in 2005. The architects’ brief was to create a ‘conservatory type building’ providing both an internal and external area for dining and drinking and SpacelabUK delivered an inspiring and exciting contemporary space, which hugely differs from a normal hospital canteen experience.

Set on the existing boiler house roof, the Orangery is a modern sculptural pavilion and a dramatic transformation from a forgotten, unloved space. The new internal space provides a dining hall for staff and patients and can also be used for presentations, exhibitions and entertaining by the hospital staff. Spacelab have also created a new landscaped external area, which provides a quiet space for rest and relaxation. The front façade of the Orangery is fully glazed to allow light in as well as to connect the internal and external elements into one harmonious space.

Spacelab spent 24 weeks on site and the total cost was £390,000. The primary structure is made of steelwork structural ribs, which have been bolted together. The steelwork is tied together with timber joists covered in plywood to give both rigidity and form a substrate for the zinc cladding used for the roof. Timber, glazing, resin and rubber materials have been used to unite the interior and the exterior, blurring the boundaries and adding light and warmth to the overall space. Timber and resin wrap through as one continuous element from the ceiling across the wall and the floor right through to the landscaped terrace area. Tatajuba, European Oak and Ash were used for their colour and texture and the timber forms an important part of the overall aesthetic. Glazed apertures between the intersecting roof planes allow light to penetrate deep into the building.

The Orangery’s external space connects to the adjoining coffee shop, also designed and built by Spacelab at the same time to a budget of £120,000. The design flows seamlessly from the Orangery into the coffee shop and connects the two spaces. Similar to the Orangery, Tatajuba timber forms the floor of the coffee shop and then wraps around to finish as decks on the terrace and the boundary wall is fully glazed to allow maximum amount of light in as well as views of the terrace and Orangery.

Spacelab opened their practice in 2002 and their offices are located in Shoreditch, right on the edge of the borough on the aptly named Boundary Street.

Key:

Blue = designers
Red = architects
Yellow = brands

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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.