Award-winning London based architecture practice Piercy & Company recently revealed their proposal for Drayton Green Church in Ealing, London, a new building for the International Presbyterian Church (IPC). Their scheme retains an existing Grade ll listed chapel – originally built as an annex to the previously adjacent St Helena’s Home for ‘fallen women’ – and encloses it within a larger scheme. This new design includes an entrance hall, administrative and meeting spaces, and a worship space for up to 200 people. They are anticipating to start construction in the summer of 2013. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Images of the transformation of the Shell Centre Campus, which include 8 towers to be designed by six different architects in London's South Bank, have been released and submitted for approval by the local authority, Lambeth Council.
The project, under a Masterplan by Squire and Partners and co-developed by Canary Wharf Group and Qatari Diar, is a 5.25-acre mixed-use scheme between Waterloo Station and Hungerford Bridge. While the famous 27-story Shell Tower will be preserved, the plans show eight new residential and office buildings will be constructed by six architectural firms: an office and two residential towers by Squire and Partners, one office tower by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF); a residential block by Patel Taylor; another by Stanton Williams; and two more residential towers by GRID Architecture.
In total, about 800,000 sq ft of office space, 800,000 sq ft of residential space (translating to 790 new homes, including affordable housing), and 80,000 sq ft of new retail units/restaurants/cafés will be created. As Michael Squire of Squire and Partners told The Architect's Journal: "We make no apology, this is a dense development, it sits next to one of the busiest train stations in Europe. This is a massive sustainable move that will allow people to live and work in the same area."
More on the proposed plan for London's South Bank, after the break...
The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL teamed up with Roca London Gallery to create the MArch Architecture Unit 22 end of year show – ‘Bartlett Architecture Dares to Care’, which is on display until December 18. Executed through the creation of Zoetropes, their study was focused on social and environmental sustainability, and the role architecture plays in preserving and empowering vulnerable communities. Each Zoetrope depicts the daily actions of an individual belonging to a vulnerable community. By designing for the everyday tasks, consideration is given to the role the built environment plays in protecting or helping them, rather than focusing purely on aesthetics. For more information, please visit here.
Taking place at RIBA in London November 23rd, the What’s Next in Workspaces? Designing with Change event includes a round table discussion by leading voices in the field of workspace design who will present and discuss their ideas on the future of work environments. Without a doubt, now is a time when organizations, companies and firms from all over the globe are radically reconsidering the way they will work in the future, trying to adapt to the new situations and challenges that they are facing and will face in the new millennium. The event takes place from 3pm-6pm and is being put on by the IE School of Architecture and Design. More information after the break.
Rain Room is an art installation by rAndom presented at the Barbican in London composed of a hundred square metre field of falling water through which it is possible to walk, trusting that a path can be navigated, without being drenched in the process. As you progress through The Curve, the sound of water and a suggestion of moisture fill the air, before you are confronted by this carefully choreographed downpour that responds to your movements and presence. The installation was made possible through the generous support of the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation for Art. The video was done by Gramafilm, with music by Max Richter. More images can be viewed after the break.
Lord Foster, Dame Zaha Hadid and David Adjaye join artists and fashion icons to create 100 one-off artworks for the 10×10 Drawing the City London exhibition and auction, hosted by Article 25 – the UK’s leading international development and disaster relief charity. 10×10 Drawing the City London is currently taking place in Somerset House’s newly restored West Wing through November 13th.
Japanese modernist Fumihiko Maki has been chosen to design a cultural and university complex on a 67-acre Kings Cross development in London. As reported by the Evening Standard, the 84-year-old, Pritzker Prize-winning architect will design two buildings for the Aga Khan Development Network – an organization who leads the world’s 15 million Ismaili Muslims.
The two projects are among five, totaling a half million square feet, that are being commissioned by the Network at Kings Cross. It is unsaid of who will design the other three buildings. However, preliminary designs studies are under way and formal appointments will be announced shortly.
