Fashion house Saint Laurent’s creative director Hedi Slimane has designed a new store for the brand in London, with a marbled and mirrored interior similar to the label’s flagship retail outlet in Paris (+ slideshow).
The Sloane Street branch is latest Saint Laurent store to open since Slimane took the reins of the brand in 2012 and dropped the “Yves” from the front of its name.
Its Art Deco-inspired interior is based on the principles of the Union des Artistes Modernes, an art and architecture movement that was prevalent in France during the first half of the twentieth century and championed simplicity and quality of materials.
The same philosophies were applied to the brand’s flagship store on Avenue Montaigne in Paris. “The Saint Laurent architectural concept is adaptable and specific to individual spaces and cities,” said a statement from the brand.
A monochrome palette of marble and concrete runs throughout the space, which is minimally furnished with designs by Modernists including Jacques Adnet, René Herbst and Marcel Breuer.
“The concept and architecture, designed by Hedi, is based on a minimalist translation of the techniques and materials of the French Modernist movement,” the brand stated.
Vertical slats covered in mirrors conceal the staircase, and reflective surfaces are also used on walls and shelves for displaying garments and accessories. Glass vitrines embedded into the walls are framed with nickel.
Six British architecture studios including Zaha Hadid Architects, Hopkins Architects and Studio Weave have come up with designs for water fountains for different sites across London.
The six studios, which also included Eric Parry Architects, ADAM Architecture and Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM), were asked to design water dispensing structures for sites in Kensington, Soho and on the South Bank.
This image: Hopkins Architects. Main image: Zaha Hadid
Each fountain incorporates contemporary Turkish ceramics, referencing the Ottoman-inspired marble kiosks that could be found across Turkey during the seventeenth century.
The fountain by Zaha Hadid Architects features a large cantilevered canopy that extends up from the water collection pool.
“Traditional Ottoman fountain kiosks became meeting points, gathering places for a community to connect,” said project architect Saffet Kaya Bekiroglu. “With large protective cantilevers, the fountains often include ceramic tiling and our proposal translates these characteristics to contemporary use within a design informed by the continuous loop of the water cycle.”
Studio Weave
Studio Weave‘s design comprises a series of colourful Watering Poles that can accommodate plants. Studio co-founder Maria Smith explained: “In marking points around the city from which free drinking water can be collected, the Watering Poles also create wayfinding markers and new informal gathering spots for London.”
Eric Parry Architects
Eric Parry Architects proposes a structure that can also host a news stand or drinks vendor, while Hopkins Architects has designed a structure that curves over to form a shelter.
“Our kiosk aims to make the dispensing of water a celebrated urban event which will draw people together and add drama to the public realm in London,” said Ken Hood of Hopkins.
Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
The design by AHMM is for a dispenser that would source free water from the mains beneath the ground and the fountain by ADAM Architecture is conceived as a mural of patterned tiles.
Graffiti depicting gangly imaginary creatures by street artist Phlegm is currently on show at an east London gallery (+ slideshow).
Sheffield-based Phlegm normally paints giant murals of fantasy beasts and scenes on walls and sides of buildings around the world.
However for this exhibition the street artist has created reliefs of his typical artworks indoors, as part of a large-scale installation made from wood, clay and plaster at the Howard Griffin Gallery in Shoreditch.
“Phlegm creates surreal illustrations to an untold story, weaving a visual narrative that explores the unreal through creatures from his imagination,” said the gallery’s owner Richard Howard-Griffin.
The imagery shows greyscale fantasy figures with exaggerated limbs set amongst woodland animals, ropes and snares.
A group of the humanoids appear to be gripped by the tentacles of a monster and one is in the process of being consumed.
The artist has also illustrated a bestiary – a compendium of beasts – displaying bizarre half-real, half-imagined creatures in specimen jars on wooden shelves.
A boat loaded with these jars is being unloaded by a team of the long-limbed figures further into the space.
The embossed paintings and sculptural elements emerge from a patchwork of reused wooden boards, which have been installed across the gallery walls.
The Bestiary exhibition opened earlier this month and continues until 4 March. Photography is by Marcus Peel.
More information sent to us by Howard Griffin Gallery follows:
The Bestiary
A bestiary was an illustrated compendium of animals, half real and half imagined, setting out the natural history of each beast within and its moral significance. A bestiary was not a scientific text and while some beasts and descriptions were quite accurate, others were completely fanciful. Such bestiarys belonged to the ancient world and were popularised during the Middle Ages as didactic tools.
For The Bestiary, Phlegm creates a modern bestiary within his own universe through an immersive and large scale installation in wood, clay and plaster. Here Phlegm presents a taxonomic categorisation of his creatures and collects them in one place for the first time. Within the expansive sections of the installation, and working in bas and high relief, Phlegm displays a series of works akin to the Lascaux cave paintings. Inspired by the bestiarys of old, these works contain untold fables and narratives.
Phlegm Biography
Phlegm is a Sheffield based muralist and artist who first developed his fantastical illustrations in self-published comics. His work now extends to the urban landscape, and can mostly be seen in run-down and disused spaces. Phlegm creates surreal illustrations to an untold story, weaving a visual narrative that explores the unreal through creatures from his imagination. His storybook-like imagery is half childlike, half menacing, set in built up cityscapes with castles, turrets and winding stairways.
At other times the city itself is the setting for his long limbed half-human, half-woodland creatures. In this dream world a viewer comes across impossible flying machines and complex networks of levers, pulleys and cogs, set beside telescopes, magnifying glasses and zephyrs. Working solely in monochrome, his fine technique and intricate detail can be seen as a curiosity cabinet of the mind. Each drawing forms part of a grand narrative that extends worldwide, in countries including Norway, Canada, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, USA, Belgium, Poland, Italy, Slovakia and Spain.
Some thoughts by Richard Howard-Griffin
Artists like Phlegm are very interesting as they are helping to redefine the dynamics of the art world and causing a revolution in the delivery of public art. High level globe-trotting muralists like Phlegm are reaching huge audiences around the world by painting on an unprecedented international scale. The international breadth and scope of Phlegm’s mural work is staggering as is the quality of the work itself. Artists like Phlegm are not dependent on the patronage of traditional art institutions, museums, critics and curators for their success. By painting outdoors on a grand global scale they have effectively cut out the middle man, it is a democratisation of art. These are the artists that we represent at Howard Griffin Gallery.
News: two British entrepreneurs are constructing a hydroponic farm in a network of tunnels under south London that could supply local restaurants and retailers with fresh herbs and vegetables.
Richard Ballard and Steven Dring’s Growing Underground project is located in tunnels beneath the London Underground’s Northern Line that were originally built as air-raid shelters during the Second World War.
Intent on demonstrating that it is possible to operate a commercial urban farm with a minimal carbon footprint, the entrepreneurs plan to transform 2.5 hectares of the disused air-raid shelter into growing space that will supply produce to London businesses, reducing the amount of food miles “from farm to floor”.
Ballard and Dring collaborated with horticulturalist Chris Nelson to develop a hydroponic system that makes the most of conditions in the tunnels and enables them to grow a variety of micro herbs, shoots, miniature vegetables and other foods.
The hydroponic farming method involves growing plants in a mineral-rich solution on specially constructed growing platforms under controlled temperature and lighting conditions.
The farm’s subterranean location means that the farmers don’t need to worry about pests and diseases, or Britain’s unpredictable weather.
After spending the past 18 months conducting growing trials in the tunnels, the entrepreneurs have launched a crowdfunding campaign that aims to raise £300,000 to support the business’ expansion.
“Integrating farming into the urban environment makes a huge amount of sense and we’re delighted that we’re going to make it a reality,” said Richard Ballard. “There is no ‘could’, ‘might’ or ‘maybe’ about our underground farm. We will be up and running and will be supplying produce later this year.”
The farm’s carbon neutral credentials are achieved by utilising low energy LED grow lights, locally sourced green energy, a recirculating water system and the 33 metres of earth above the tunnels, which helps maintain a consistent temperature.
Growing Underground founders Richard Ballard and Steven Dring
Growing Underground has received backing from celebrity chef Michel Roux Jr, who lives close to the farm’s entrance near Clapham North station.
“When I first met these guys I thought they were absolutely crazy,” said Michel Roux Jr. “But when I visited the tunnels and sampled the delicious produce they are already growing down there I was blown away. The market for this produce is huge.”
The disused underground air-raid shelter before refurbishment
The first crops grown at the farm will include pea shoots, rocket, mizuna, broccoli, red vein sorrel, garlic chives and mustard leaf, as well as edible flowers and miniature vegetables. Following further development it will become possible to grow crops including mushrooms and heritage tomato varieties.
Full-scale farming is set to commence in March, with the first produce expected to be available in late summer.
The tunnels will provide 2.5 acres of growing space
The floors of this open-plan apartment in London by local studio Form Design Architecture are covered with timber boards salvaged from an old Welsh chapel (+ slideshow).
Named Bermondsey Warehouse Loft, the residence is located within an industrial building that was once used as a tin and zinc factory, but now houses offices and apartments.
Form Design Architecture, whose own offices are located on the building’s ground floor, was originally asked to make minor alterations to the apartment, but ended up refitting the entire space and creating a living space based on a New York loft-conversion.
As well as the pine floorboards, the interior features exposed brick walls that have been painted white.
“Having previously lived in New York, [the client] was keen for the apartment to feel more like a warehouse loft reflecting the industrial character and scale of the space,” said architect Mike Neale.
Existing partitions were removed and the space was loosely divided into different areas for sleeping, exercising, eating, relaxing and working, each with adjustable lighting.
An island of cupboards and surfaces forms the kitchen, while a sleeping area is concealed behind a sliding door.
“The client is actually someone who likes things to be quite organised, and we spent quite a lot of time with him to really work out how he would use the space, without actually physically dividing it up,” Neale told Dezeen. “Perhaps ‘zones without walls’ would describe it.”
“Obviously some of these elements are fixed, like the kitchen and the long desk across the end, but the remainder is intended to be flexible and adaptable,” Neale added.
Photography is by Charles Hosea, unless otherwise stated.
Here’s a project description from the architects:
Bermondsey warehouse loft
Fully reconfigured open-plan loft apartment within a converted warehouse with flexible zones for dining, relaxing and exercise plus washing/dressing/utility spaces concealed within a ‘floating’ white acrylic solid surface-clad block.
Our client initially approached us to carry out some minor alterations to his apartment to better meet his needs. In discussion with him, the conclusion was reached that, having already had the apartment refitted once which did not work for him, the existing fit-out should be completely stripped out and a more radical approach adopted.
Detailed discussions established how the client wanted to use the space and identified elements of the original fit-out that were not needed, such as a second bedroom and bathroom, allowing a more relaxed, flexible live/work environment tailored specifically to his requirements.
Photograph by Mike Neale
Having previously lived in New York, he was keen for the apartment to feel more like a warehouse loft reflecting the industrial character and scale of the space, which the previous 2 fit-outs had lost beneath raised floors, lowered ceilings and partition walls.
Storage, bathroom and utility functions are contained within a sharply-detailed block which appears to be ‘parked’ in the corner of the now fully revealed 17m x 6m Loft. A similarly detailed linear counter block, supplemented by the adjacent fridge/freezer and ‘coffee larder’ concealed in the end of the main block, provides the cooking area.
Our client says that he sometimes wakes up in the morning and still cannot quite believe that he is living in his ideal apartment. On Open House weekend, having initially intended to go out for the day, he delighted so much in the reactions of visitors upon entering that he found himself enthusiastically explaining the apartment’s features.
Photograph is by Mike Neale
With the exception of the unfinished Pitch Pine plank floor (not actually original, having been salvaged from a Welsh Chapel, but the type of flooring that the warehouse would originally have had), all surfaces and fittings including exposed brickwork are finished in white; the crisp machine-made quality of the HiMacs solid acrylic finished kitchen and service blocks setting them apart from the more hand-made and time-weathered surface textures of the original Industrial building.
Surface finishes within the service block are all in dark grey, accenting the idea of a fruit or jewel-case-like object with a smooth exterior skin contrasting with a darker, more sensual core. Removal of previous sub-divisions allows shafts of sunlight from the newly-exposed windows in the South and West walls to animate the space to supplement the softer light from the almost fully glazed North wall which faces the courtyard of the building.
At one end of the open Loft, a concealed sliding wall allows the sleeping area to be fully enclosed if required. At the other, a full width desk and shelf, also finished in white HiMacs, provide a work area for the photographer owner. The problem of trailing cables is removed by a continuous cable tray along the back of the desk, covered by lift up flaps.
Programmable latest-technology low energy LED lighting from Zumtobel and AlphaLED, controlled by a Lutron system, allows different settings for a range of activities (work / gym / cleaning / watching TV) at the touch of a button.
Project Team: Malcolm Crayton (director, FORM design architecture), Mike Neale (project architect, FORM design architecture)
London-based Marks Barfield Architects has designed a temporary glazed pavilion raised up on criss-crossing steel columns that looks set be built near the firm’s London Eye observation wheel on the South Bank.
Marks Barfield Architects won an international competition to design the pavilion, intended to form part of the redevelopment of the current Shell Centre site. If granted planning permission, the four-storey building would house a marketing suite for the development as well as educational and visitor facilities.
“We chose local architects Marks Barfield for this building as they have already made a significant contribution to the South Bank with their world-renowned design of the London Eye,” said John Pagano of developers, Braeburn Estates.
“The high-quality designs they have proposed for the visitor pavilion will be in keeping with our aspiration for the Shell Centre scheme, and complement the South Bank’s cultural offer,” he added.
The 20-metre-high glazed building would be built on a plot at the edge of the recently redesigned Jubilee Gardens and would rise from a ten-square-metre base intended to minimise its footprint and impact on the landscaped public space.
Subsequent storeys would expand outwards to provide more floorspace for the meeting room and educational facilities housed on the first floor and showrooms for the flats proposed as part of the site’s redevelopment on the second and third floors.
Marks Barfield designed the pavilion to be dismantled and reused when no longer required at the Shell Centre site. A planning application submitted in relation to the pavilion is subject to the main development being approved.
“In the longer term, our proposed plans for the South Bank include the transformation of the Hungerford Car Park into a park which would result in the expansion of Jubilee Gardens by a third,” said Pagano.
“This would herald a major enhancement to the public areas adjacent to the new Shell Centre site with landscaped recreational space available for everyone to enjoy.”
Irish architects O’Donnell + Tuomey mapped sight lines along the narrow streets of the London School of Economics campus to generate the faceted red brick structure of the university‘s new student centre (+ slideshow).
The Saw Swee Hock Student Centre consolidates all of the university’s student facilities under one roof at the LSE‘s historic Aldwych campus. Designed by architects Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey, the seven-storey-high building has an irregular faceted shape informed by the angular geometries of its site and surroundings.
Walls angle inwards along the eastern facade to give the centre a recessed public entrance that lines up with approaching streets to the north, south and east.
“The public space at the threshold of the student union, on axis with St Clement’s Lane, creates a place of exchange; a spatial bowtie that intertwines circulation routes, splices visual connections between internal and external movement, and pulls pedestrian street life into and up the building,” said the architects.
“Like a Japanese puzzle, our design is carefully assembled to make one coherent volume from a complex set of interdependent component parts,” they added.
Red brick was used to construct the walls of the building using a typical flemish bond. In some places the material forms solid walls, while in others it creates perforated screens across windows.
“The perforated planes are constructed from a single leaf of brickwork with spaces in the flemish bond pattern to allow light to both infiltrate the interior spaces and filtrate out at night to create a pattern effect,” said the architects.
Spaces within the building accommodate a variety of functions, including an events venue, a bar, a cafe, a gym and dance studios. There are also prayer rooms, offices and multimedia facilities.
Designed to resemble a “lived-in warehouse”, the building has an exposed structure that combines steel columns and trusses with concrete floor slabs.
Floor plates differ in shape and size on different floors. Angular stairwells are positioned at three corners of the building, while a spiral staircase is positioned near the entrance.
“Space flows freely in horizontal plan and vertical section, with stairs gently twisting and slowly turning to create a variety of diagonal break-out spaces at landings and crossings throughout the building,” said the architects.
An assortment of windows and skylights ensure that each corridor receives daylight, and an events hall in the basement can be naturally lit though a row of clerestory windows.
The building will open next month, but its surrounding landscaping is not set to be finished until the summer.
Here’s a project description from O’Donnell+Tuomey Architects:
Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, London School of Economics
Client Brief
The brief was to bring student facilities together under one roof. The multi-functional building includes a venue, pub, learning café, media, prayer, offices, gym, careers, dance studio and social spaces. The brief asked for the “best student building in the UK” and had the aspiration for BREEAM Excellent rating. The design achieved BREEAM Outstanding.
Planning Constraints
The site lies within the Strand Conservation Area. The context was complex and the site was restricted by surrounding building lines. Specifications were closely monitored by Westminster planners, who supported the ambition for a contemporary design integrated with its setting. Throughout the building process, the planners maintained a commitment to the enduring quality of carefully crafted construction.
Street Life
The site is located at the knuckle-point convergence of narrow streets that characterise the LSE city centre campus. The faceted facade operates with respect to the Rights of Light Envelope and is tailored to lines of sight, to be viewed from street corner perspectives and to make visual connections between internal and external circulation. The brick skin is cut along fold lines to form large areas of glazing, framing views. Analysis of the context has influenced the first principles of a site specific architectural design.
Embodiment
The building is designed to embody the dynamic character of a contemporary Student Centre. The complex geometries of the site provided a starting point for a lively arrangement of irregular floor plates, each particular to its function. Space flows freely in plan and section, with stairs turning to create meeting places at every level.
Construction, Colour and Atmosphere
London is a city of bricks. The building is clad with bricks, with each brick offset from the next in an open work pattern, creating dappled daylight inside and glowing like a lattice lantern at night.
The building has the robust adaptability of a lived-in warehouse, with solid wooden floors underfoot. The structure is a combination of reinforced concrete and steelwork. Steel trusses or ribbed concrete slabs span the big spaces. Circular steel columns prop office floors between the large span volumes and punctuate the open floor plan of the café. Concrete ceilings contribute thermal mass with acoustic clouds suspended to soften the sound.
There are no closed-in corridors. Every hallway has daylight and views in at least one direction. Every office workspace has views to the outside world. The basement venue is daylit from clerestory windows.
Inclusive Design
The building is designed with accessibility and inclusive design as key considerations. Approaches are step free. Floor plates are flat without steps. Circulation routes are open and legible with clearly identifiable way-finding. Services are located at consistent locations. The central wide stair was carefully designed to comply with standards and details agreed with the approved inspector.
News:Norman Foster has become the latest architect to design a Maggie’s Centre offering support to cancer sufferers and has unveiled plans for a timber-framed structure and flower garden in his home town of Manchester.
The Foster + Partners-designed centre will be located at The Christie hospital in south Manchester and, like the 17 existing Maggie’s Centres around the UK, it will offer a non-clinical environment where anyone affected by cancer can stop by for advice or support.
Norman Foster, who won a battle with bowel cancer over a decade ago, has designed a lightweight timber and glass pavilion intended to “engage the outdoors” by interacting with the surrounding garden.
“This project has a particular personal significance, as I was born in the city and have first-hand experience of the distress of a cancer diagnosis,” said the architect. “I believe in the power of architecture to lift the spirits and help in the process of therapy.”
Slender timber beams and a timber lattice will support the roof and help to partition spaces. A mezzanine floor will be naturally lit from a glass roof overhead, plus a greenhouse will be added to the south end of the building to create a warm gathering space.
Foster added: “Within the centre, there is a variety of spaces – visitors can gather around a big kitchen table, find a peaceful place to think or they can work with their hands in the greenhouse. Throughout, there is a focus on natural light and contact with the gardens. The timber frame, with its planted lattice helps to dissolve the architecture into the surrounding greenery.”
Interior spaces will feature wooden surfaces and tactile fabrics, while the surrounding garden designed by landscape architect Dan Pearson will offer clusters of flowers and calming water features.
Here’s the full announcement from Foster + Partners:
Maggie’s applies for planning permission for new Norman Foster designed centre at The Christie
Maggie’s, the charity which provides practical, emotional and social support for people with cancer, has applied for planning permission for a new Maggie’s Centre in the grounds of The Christie in Manchester. The centre is designed by world-renowned architects, Foster + Partners.
Working in partnership with The Christie – a global leader in cancer treatment and research – the new Maggie’s Centre will provide free practical, emotional and social support for anyone living with cancer as well as their family and friends. The centre will significantly enhance the cancer support already offered at The Christie to include Maggie’s evidence-based core programme of support delivered in an uplifting non-clinical environment, as well as a comprehensive service of complementary therapies. The new centre is due to open in 2016.
As one of the leading architects of his generation, Lord Norman Foster’s works include an international portfolio of famous buildings including 30 St Mary Axe – otherwise known as “The Gherkin”, Hong Kong International Airport and Hearst Tower in New York. The design of the new Maggie’s Centre at The Christie is particularly personal to him as he was both born in Manchester and has had first-hand experience of the distress of a cancer diagnosis.
Set in a peaceful garden, the existing green spaces inspired the centre’s design, which draws upon natural themes that engage the outdoors. Arranged over a single storey, the natural timber structure focuses around a wide, central spine with the roof rising in the centre to create a mezzanine level beautifully illuminated with natural light. Exposed lightweight beams and timber lattice support the roof while also defining different spaces. An integrated glass house extends from the south of the building, providing a space for people to gather and enjoy the therapeutic qualities of nature and the outdoors while the interior palette combines warm, natural wood and tactile fabrics.
To complement Lord Norman Foster’s design, the surrounding gardens are designed by landscape designer Dan Pearson, combining a rich mix of spaces, from the working glass house to bright clusters of flowers and tranquil water features. The colours and sensory experience of nature will become part of the centre through micro gardens and internal courtyards, which relate to the different spaces within the building.
To the south of the centre, a pool and moving water will provide a calm space for reflection set amidst the greenery. Deep canopies will shelter the centre’s open terraces from rain, allowing people to enjoy fresh air and the garden whatever the weather.
Maggie’s Centres are warm and welcoming places with qualified professionals on hand to offer a programme of support that has been shown to improve physical and emotional well-being. The support available at the new Maggie’s Centre at The Christie will include psychological support, benefits advice, nutrition workshops, relaxation and stress management, art therapy, tai chi and yoga.
There are already 17 Maggie’s Centres in the UK and all are designed by leading architects. Each architect offers a unique interpretation of the same brief, based on the needs of a person living with cancer, to create the calm environments so important to the people who visit and work in the centres.
News: the David Adjaye-designed Wakefield Market Hall in Yorkshire, England, is facing demolition just six years after opening, following news the local council wants to sell the building to a developer and replace it with a cinema.
The 4000-square-metre market hall was the first public project by high-profile London architect David Adjaye, but since opening in 2008 it has struggled to attract enough visitors and has been heavily subsidised by the council.
Property firm Sovereign Land, owner of the nearby Trinity Walk shopping centre, has now put in a bid to redevelop the site and create a new multi-screen cinema complex including restaurants and cafes.
A report recommending the proposals will be voted on by council members early next week. If approved, £100,000 will be set aside to relocate market traders to a new site in the city centre.
Detail of roof at Wakefield Market Hall
“We have to accept that the market hall has not worked as well as we would have liked,” said councillor Denise Jeffery, the cabinet member for regeneration and economic growth. “But we now have an exciting opportunity to inject something new into our city centre, which we believe will boost the night-time as well as the daytime economy, bringing more jobs and investment into the district.”
She continued: “This also gives us the chance to deliver our market offer in a different way and we want to work with traders to help relocate their businesses to other premises should they so wish. The proposed relocation of the outdoor market to the precinct will enhance it, make sure it is sustainable and create a vibrant link between the Ridings and Trinity Walk.”
Adjaye designed the hall to replace a run-down indoor market from the 1960s, but it struggled to attract the same footfall, losing out to rival markets in nearby Pontefract and Castleford.
Just a year after opening, a council committee was hired solve “design flaws” that included substandard paving and inadequate drainage in the food hall. Committee member Janice Haigh criticised the layout and said “a crane with one of those demolition balls” would be the best solution.
Amidst the fast-paced construction of King’s Cross in London, young Finnish studio AOR has installed an angular canal-side platform where visitors can make contact with some of the local wildlife (+ slideshow).
Named Viewpoint, the floating structure sits over the Regent’s Canal on the edge of the Camley Street nature reserve. It provides a habitat for birds and bats, as well as an outdoor classroom where people can learn about the surrounding flora and fauna.
AOR architects Erkko Aarti, Arto Ollila and Mikki Ristola based the structure on traditional Finnish Laavus, which are shelters used during hunting and fishing trips. It comprises a small cluster of triangular volumes that form hideaways and seating areas.
“Basically it’s a floating platform where people can go and have a view along the river, and just have a small break from the hectic life of the city of London,” said Aarti.
Outer surfaces are clad with rusty Corten steel, as a reference to weather-beaten canal boats, while interior surfaces are lined with timber to soften acoustics.
The concrete ground surface is imprinted with pretend animal tracks that help to prevent slips, plus triangular peepholes at the eye levels of both children and adults offer private glimpses of birds such as swans and kingfishers.
Installation process
“We hope that Viewpoint will have resonance beyond its modest footprint and allow the many visitors to Camley Street Natural Park to discover this natural environment – a rarity in a metropolitan city such as London,” added the architects.
Here’s some additional information from the design team:
The Finnish Institute in London and The Architecture Foundation announce the launch of Viewpoint – a floating platform for Camley Street Natural Park
The Finnish Institute in London and The Architecture Foundation are delighted to announce the launch date for their new floating platform Viewpoint, produced for London Wildlife Trust. The joint commission designed by emerging Finnish architects Erkko Aarti, Arto Ollila & Mikki Ristola (AOR) will open to the public on 10 February 2014 at Camley Street Natural Park, located in King’s Cross. The permanent structure will bring visitors to Camley Street Natural Park, London Wildlife Trust’s most central nature reserve, connecting them with the wildlife of the park and the Regent’s Canal. It will also provide the Park with an additional workshop space and learning facility and become an architectural focal point of King’s Cross.
Competition visualisation
The inspiration for Viewpoint comes from the rocky islets and islands of the Nordic. For Finns these islands are places of sanctuary, to relax the mind and get away from hectic city life. Viewpoint offers Londoners a chance to experience this escape on a secluded islet in the heart of the city.
For the final design the architects were inspired by the traditional Finnish structures of Laavus, traditional shelters intended for temporary residence during fishing and hunting trips. These simple, primitive, triangular constructions are made using available raw materials such as tree branches, moss and leaves.
Competition visualisation
Viewpoint offers a contemporary take on the Laavu made from materials that represent the industrial history and robust character of London’s King’s Cross. Old brick buildings, canal boats and the untamed Natural Park act as a palette of materials for the designers. The exterior surfaces of Viewpoint will be clad in dark Corten steel inspired by canal barges, changing in colour and appearance with exposure to the elements. A warm wooden interior will generate soft acoustics and comfortable surfaces to sit on, and graphic concrete with an animal track pattern will form the base of the structure, acting as both a decorative tool and slip prevention.
Viewpoint will be an ideal location for visitors to reconnect with nature in the heart of London. London Wildlife Trust will also utilise the space in their educational programmes for schools as an outdoor classroom, a destination for nature walks around the park and for viewing the rich abundance of wildlife of the Regent’s Canal including daubenton’s bats, whooper swans and the elusive Kingfisher. To offer a sense of adventure for school children the architects have incorporated small triangular openings at different heights giving new and unique views of the canal and its wildlife.
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