This year Design for London has joined with RIBA London to make two new awards:
Client of The Year Award
Queen Mary, University of London for the Richard Feilden House by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
(photo: Peter Cook / VIEW)
We were delighted to award the Design for London - RIBA London Client of the Year Award to Queen Mary University of London for Richard Feilden House, designed by Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios and for their consistent approach to securing great design.
This student residence of some 200 rooms fits into an opening between extensive earlier student residences designed by Fielden Clegg and other faculties. It finishes off a campus square which signals a shift in access. The building consist of 20 flats averaging 10 single rooms each with a common kitchen and dining area. The ground level is filled with lobbies, a coffee shop and a student union reception. There is an arcade which protects pedestrian traffic and guides it around the building at ground level.
The striking thing about the building is the plan shape and the vertical wood cladding. The cladding is subtly stepped on the elevation to avoid but jointed boards which encourage standing water on seeping into end grain. The wood has been naturally weathering in an even pattern.
The fenestration patterns on the elevations are purposefully varied and it is quite difficult to realize from the exterior that there is such repetition of plan and use on the inside.
Public Space Award
Royal Festival Hall by Allies and Morrison (masterplan: Rick Mather Architects; Landscape: Gross Max)
(photo: Dennis Gilbert)
We were delighted to award the Design for London - RIBA London Public Space Award to architects Allies and Morrison for the refurbishment of the Royal Festival Hall. The London Public Space Award focussed on projects which demonstrated an excellent interpretation of the relationship between internal and external space. We also recognise the work of Rick Mather on the masterplan and the work of Gross Max on landscaping as key to the overall success of this this outstanding public space.
As a result of its recent conversion, the Royal Festival Hall has become a highly successful urban living room for London. The building was the greatest achievement of the 1951 exhibition, designed by Leslie Martin and Peter Muro. The Festival Hall has now been restored to its original elegance and vitality. Rick Mather's masterplan for the South Bank identified the potential for an office building between the Hall and the railway line, which was the masterstroke at the root of the Hall's transformation. By moving all the administrative offices into this new office building, Allies and Morrison were able to liberate many of the internal spaces previously used as offices.
They have managed to get back to the essence of the building and re-establish the Festival Hall as a major international venue. Some of the new interventions, such as the single glazed lift, are very successful and the legibility and essence of the original architecture has been restored. On the river façade, what was previously a dingy service road and inward looking, gloomy canteen has been transformed into an elegant parade of restaurants and shops, with a much stronger relationship to the river. The outdoor terrace in front is an excellent example of successful urban space, well used and well designed.