Following an invited design competition, we were appointed by Related Argent to design and deliver the last plot of the King’s Cross Central Masterplan.
Inspired by the industrial heritage of the King’s Cross area and warehouse building typologies within the Regent’s Canal Conservation Area, the proposed building is composed of a glazed and pre-cast concrete facade that is an expression of the internal structure. The frequency of the vertical subdivisions is a reinterpretation of the local industrial heritage of buildings in the King’s Cross area. The result is a facade composed of rhythmic vertical ‘piers’ with orientation specific changes in frequency that respond to the contrasting edges of the urban and canal aspects to the site.
The proposal is a six storey commercial block, with a flexible retail unit at ground and first floors, and a self-contained office unit at ground floor. The scheme provides six storeys of office with external terraces for every level, taking advantage of views towards the heart of the King’s Cross Development and beyond.
The building includes high sustainability/low energy initiatives in its planned construction and operation through a hybrid concrete and timber frame structure and highly engineered services strategy. The building is on target to achieve BREEAM ‘Excellent’ with the potential to achieve an ‘Outstanding’ rating.
This one-off house comprises a standalone replacement dwelling, separate studio building and extensive landscape works within the Green Belt and Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Working through the challenging planning regulations the overall volume of the house was restricted by the allowable increase to the replaced 1920s house and surrounding outbuildings.
The house is composed of high quality traditional materials appropriate to the local context to create a contemporary form that balances the traditional and contemporary. The ground floor is made of thermally insulated composite blocks clad in knapped field flint. External spaces are created by the extension of these walls into the landscape where oak framed structures and large expanses of glass windows create strong indoor/outdoor spaces. The upper level is clad in timber finished in shou sugi ban, a Japanese technique of protecting timber with a charred finish, providing contrast to the stone below. Highly insulated timber and aluminium composite windows are carefully composed to enhance the views and provide privacy to the internal bedrooms. Solid oak sliding screens allow the occupant to reduce internal solar gains by actively shading internal spaces while changing the external appearance.
Internal spaces are organised to encourage visual connectivity to each other and the landscape. A bespoke feature staircase made of folded steel plates, cantilevers from a concealed structural frame clad in rich coloured timber slatted panels.
Located on a private estate on the eastern coast of Corfu, this project integrates itself within the hillside coastal site. The massing of the building has been strategically developed to balance views and privacy; weaving itself behind a dense grove of olive and Cyprus trees.
The brief was to provide a private office and two guest apartments integrated into the landscape and encourage privacy through blending into the landscape, invisible from adjoining properties and the beach below.
The forms are driven by capturing select sea views between the trees through the ‘pushing and pulling’ of the building volume. Occupying the footprint of an existing tennis court the building has been excavated into the hill to allow a new tennis court to be reinstated in the same location while providing concealed underground parking and back of house functions for the estate.
The exterior has been treated with local stone cladding to complement the existing landscape retaining walls found throughout the island. Floor to ceiling glazing maximises the light penetration into the apartments as well as providing views out to the Ionian Sea.
An extensive landscape plan has been developed by renowned landscape architect Ian Kitson that seamlessly blends the building into the natural hillside site.
A series of interventions were employed to transform a two bedroom apartment within the Gasholders to meet the needs of our client. The aim was to achieve a more generous living area by transforming a bedroom into a flexible dining and studio space through a hinged bi-folding door. When opened the door is concealed within a wall of bespoke joinery.
Other interventions include sensitive palette changes and bespoke storage solutions that retain the original aesthetics of the iconic building, while allowing the client to express their personal decorative sensibilities.
Photo credits © Peter Landers Photography.
Our brief for this fit out was to modify an established design for one of the remaining shell and core penthouses for a specific purchaser, who wanted a more personal approach to the speculative design. The space needed to be reconfigured to provide a formal entry that could act as a flexible office, allowing the penthouse to act as a local hub for the client’s business, while retaining the function of family home while visiting London.
Through detail design and materials specification, we worked closely with the purchaser to reimagine the bathrooms, kitchen, joinery and complete interiors palette. We designed a bespoke collection of basins to work within an established joinery design, but reimagined in cast quartz stone to compliment the overall material selection. A contemporary white marble and light natural oak palette was chosen throughout to create a more cohesive design. A richer palette of dark timber and marble was used for one bedroom, giving it a more masculine approach for the intended occupier.
The overall design is sympathetic to the original building while transformed to meet the needs of the client.
Photo credits © Peter Landers Photography.
This project was driven by the challenge of drastically reconfiguring an existing house that lacked character. The existing post war building was a later addition to the neighbouring Victorian terraces and didn’t meet the needs of our client. We developed a brief to create a modern functional home; one that responded to its context and was adaptable and flexible for the future needs of the family.
The ground floor was completely removed and extended with a expressed steel structure that opened the space to provide an open plan kitchen / dining / living space. A side extension, roof light and floor to ceiling glazing providing natural light throughout and extended into a small private garden. A new zinc clad loft extension provided an additional floor, housing an extra bedroom, study space and bathroom.
The client chose to self-manage the construction process due to the modest budget and proved a successful approach in retaining and transforming buildings for contemporary requirements.
Our proposal for an extensive pool house and gym explores the balance between traditional and modern forms. The client sought a building that fit in with the existing house and separate garage while creating a backdrop for extensive landscaped gardens.
The scheme includes a series of internal and external pools, a spa, fitness studio and entertainment room. Our approach was to organise these spaces in an L shaped formation, that is sited between the traditional styled multi-car garage and main house. An extensive traditional stone wall faces these existing buildings while opening itself towards a proposed extensive landscaped garden. An expansive gable roof spans across the pool house end while a low flat green roof encourages views over the fitness volume from the main house.
A considered approach was taken to the material palette, mixing traditional materials of stone, timber and large expanses of sliding screens of glass and timber to connect the building to its context and the new landscape surround.
This scheme explores the relationship between two landscapes; a cultivated orchard and an overgrown neglected outbuilding. The architecture seeks to elevate the landscape through a strong architectural form that extends into each landscape and provides framed views and external space. Existing structures on the site will be removed and provide limitations on the new building’s volume. New building techniques are being explored to limit the impact of construction on the site.
King’s Cross is the largest urban redevelopment scheme in Europe and the rich industrial heritage of the site is integral to its renaissance. Among the most distinctive and beautiful features to be retained is a conjoined triplet of gasholder guide frames, constructed in 1867, now Grade II listed and the world’s only connected triplet to be refurbished into residential spaces.
The exterior of the accommodation volumes are planned within each of the guide frames, expressed in a veil of metal and structural elements forming operable and static panels to control the environmental conditions inside. The dark steel cladding contrasts with elements of brass and bronze.
The apartments are linked by a series of circular walkways around a central courtyard where water and light reflect each other. Rooftop landscaping connects nature with the urban landscape.
Collaborating with Jonathan Tuckey Design each apartment design was delivered with a cohesive aesthetic that enhances the unique building design.
While at WilkinsonEyre, as project architect.
Photo © Peter Landers Photography
Residential amenity spaces form the daily experience of residents. These striking spaces reflect the extraordinary composition of this modern insertion in the historic Gasholder frames. The apartments are linked by a series of circular walkways around a central courtyard where water and light will reflect each other.
From conceptual design to final installation the Wilkinson Eyre team were tasked with designing the residential amenity spaces within the Gasholders. The brief was to deliver reception, business suite, lounge, private dining, screening room, gym and a spa for residents.
Photo © Peter Landers Photography
Interior Design and furnishings by No 12 Studio
The brief for the new Aquarena was to deliver a destination leisure facility that replaced the existing tired Aquarena and provide a new and exciting architecture to act as an eastern ‘book-end’ to the active beach zone of Worthing.
The initial conceptual site strategy was to respond to the unique conditions of being between a busy road of small scaled buildings and the spectacular seafront, with open green space defining the western edge. Responding on one side to the fragmenting scale of the residences to the north practically rectilinear forms reflect the competition pool geometry and on the other end, opening up towards the sea, offering expansive views that form a freer geometry for the leisure pools.
These sinuous parallel curving lines echo the wind swept lines in the sand and extend towards the sea like the defensive groynes that run perpendicular to the seafront. These lines provide the primary spatial and structural spines of the pool hall roof form which fold down to form open ‘tubes’ of space that direct the occupants view. The fragmented shapes contextualise building, relating it to the massing of the surrounding developments, getting away from the traditional ‘municipal shed’ typology.
WilkinsonEyre was appointed by Worthing Borough Council after
Photo credits © Julian Abrams Photography www.julianabrams.co.uk