Artists ’Ateliers in London’s Design District is a direct commission awarded to Spanish/Italian studio Barozzi Veiga, along with a series of studios from across Europe, unlike many of the studio’s career projects, awarded to international design competitions.
Knight Dragon Developments Limited has invested in urban regeneration of the Greenwich peninsula, on a bend of the Thames west of the British capital, in the context of a broader project for the conversion of the area that began at the end of the last century. The new Design District is located on a lot measuring approximately 10,000 square meters near an underground station and Millennium Dome by Richard Rogers, former industrial zone and home of the gas factory. The real estate development project aims to make the entire neighborhood a pedestrian district for offices and especially for creative businesses, so that they can work together to create a cultural district. Sa sixteen lots arranged in a high-density masterplan developed by London studio HNNA, sixteen buildings of similar shape will be arranged around a central square. Each of the eight architectural studios selected participants were asked to design a set of two buildings, which should not interact with each other but be designed separately, in an undefined and aggregated context. Not knowing how others were designing their studios, each architect came up with the idea for an artist’s atelier, which makes up a different district. abundant in diversityeven in the only formal concept of buildings.
The similarity of them all is the idea of buildings only a few stories high to be rented at an affordable cost to ensure that young actors can move permanently into the area. There are no existing references in the city, as the factories were demolished; the masterplan for the pedestrian district specified that irregular lots would be arranged around a plaza with spaces between them that could be used not only as walkways but as recreational areas. The idea of many different dialects is itself what makes the place unique and organic, opening a new chapter in its history: from the industrial zone to the cultural district.
Barozzi Veiga was assigned a first building (A1) of the underground station at the gateway to the Design District and a second building (D4) in the center of the area, both of which play an important role in the district.“In this kind of undefined and emerging context, with no references to the city, the project refers to two very practical buildings,” said the architects. On the one hand, the industry history of the site, reflected in the compact, minimalist volumes maximizing the use of space and the flexibility of interiors; and on the other hand, the archetype of the artist’s atelier, an unfinished, neutral space that each artist interprets based on his or her own personality and imagination.
The blocks are identical in quantity, and in intense rhythm of the façades consists of panels that form a grid that is unobtrusive, but actually becomes more dense, in large windows with metal frames, which are both aesthetic and functional. The layouts feature minimal structural bulk: six rectangular columns arranged around a concrete block, which in turn are part of a grid of installations, services and vertical links.
All remaining space, which is divided into two large rooms on each level, is free for adaptation to the requirements of individuals for use as a studio or exhibition space. The buildings have only four floors, the latter being twice as tall. From the outside, the windows reveal large, out of size, elevated spaces; abundant light flows on all levels, as an integral part of the spaces. The difference between light and cold the interior façades are the unique feature of these ateliers. Concrete, metal and wood come together, and their properties are uniformed by high-tech industrial finishes inspired by what’s going on behind the scenes, of factories, workshops and theater stages. The external staircase in both volumes directly connects the street level to the first floor, so that the ground floor can be independent of the upper levels.
The difference lies only in “opposite” of the exterior of the two ateliers: reflective vs matt, light vs dark, extroverted vs intimistic. While the A1 building, the gateway to the Design Hall, is polished with a mirror gloss at an invitation to visitors from near and far, the black walls of the D4 merge here with the various façades where overlooking the central plaza. “The appearance of the two volumes expresses the idea of creating a single project consisting of a pair of figures, chromatically contradictory, but in dialogue with each other. The chromatic differences provide two moments on the way to the district while clearly coming from a unitary design logic, ” said the architects of Barozzi Veiga.
Mara Corradi
Principal Architects: BAROZZI VEIGA I Fabrizio Barozzi, Alberto Veiga https://barozziveiga.com/
Location: Greenwich Peninsula, London, England
Client: Knight Dragon Developments Ltd
Design Team: Marta Gradziel; Raquel Corney, Josep Carriga, Toni Poch, Andrei Sashko, Verena Recia, Rob Scott, Diletta Trinari, Maria Ubach
Building constructor: Ardmore Construction
Structural engineer: Whitby Wood
Service engineers: GDM Partnership
Acoustic consultant: PACE Consult
Landscape Architects: Schulze+Grassov
Available floor area: A1 1250 sqm; D4 1020 sqm
Built up area: A1 360 sqm; D4 310 sqm
Project: 2016 – 2020
Construction: 2018-2022
Photos by @ Simon Menges
