'The White Building’ is a new cultural venue in Hackney Wick commissioned by the London Legacy Development Corporation that forms part of the ‘Olympic Fringe’, a string of small-scale projects aimed at stitching the Olympic Park into the surrounding city fabric. The project was won through invited competition by David Kohn Architects in collaboration with Michael Pawlyn of Exploration Architecture, specialists in environmentally sustainable design.
The area is currently celebrated for being home to the highest concentration of artists' studios in Europe. The eventual tenant, Space Studios, contributed to the competition brief that proposed a cultural venue to serve the existing community as well as provide a public face to visitors. In response to the brief, we proposed that the White Building would be a venue that:
- Is built by local people for local people;
- Foregrounds the pleasures of making;
- Resonates with the history of the area;
- Works with the existing building fabric;
- Demonstrates innovative sustainable design;
- Is realised affordably and quickly;
- Shows a past and future London at the Olympics.
The eventual built project used local businesses extensively for supplying materials and skills from glazing to sign-painting, steelwork to joinery. New interventions complimented the existing building fabric, such as blockwork walls on the ground floor that incorporated steel-framed windows. On the first floor, lambswool was suspended in red string nets between the existing trusses to create a soft vaulted ceiling with excellent thermal and acoustic properties. Throughout, there was a design approach that sought to use conventional construction materials, but in a playful way. Material junctions were detailed in such a way as to give even the most industrial construction a lightness of touch.
Client
London Legacy Development Corporation: Eleanor Fawcett, Esther Everett
Design Team
Architects: David Kohn Architects, Liz Betterton, Saya Hakamata, David Kohn, Tom McGlynn (Project Architect), Ulla Tervo
in collaboration with Michael Pawlyn, Exploration Architecture
Landscape: Muf architecture/ art
Structural Engineer: Alan Baxter Associates
Civils Engineer: Stockley
Services Engineer: Capita Symonds
Project Manager: Capita Symonds
CDM Co-ordinator: Capita Symonds
Cost Consultant: Sweett Group
Graphic Designer: Modern Activity
Contractors
Main Contractor: BRAC Contracts
Blockwork: Plasmor
Glazing: Caplin Glass
Sheep’s Wool: Black Mountain Insulation Ltd
Metal Windows: Monk Metal Windows
Steel Doors: Dove Steel Doors
Steel Sign: PJ Signs
Outdoor steps steelwork: Lemon Steel
Hand-Painted Signage: Ornamental Conifer and Mark Bayley
Photography
Copyright Will Pryce
