6a Architects adds "glowing etched lantern" to community centre in Bloomsbury

UK studio 6a Architects has extended a gymnasium and multigenerational community centre in Bloomsbury, London, into a block called Holborn House that has a facade designed by artist Caragh Thuring.

Created for the Holborn Community Association (HCA), the new structure extends an existing basement gym with a bright two-storey space that provides additional community spaces and greater street presence for the organistaion.

6a Architects designed the Holborn House community centre in London

"HCA has an extraordinary 100-year-old history," said 6a Architects director Stephanie Macdonald.

"The club was a much-loved, word-of-mouth resource but invisible outside of the people who used it, hidden away in its basement gym off a narrow and unloved alleyway," she told Dezeen.

"Our mission was for the new Holborn House to bring this quietly brilliant neighbourhood organisation into the public realm. It is visible for the first time, identifiable as an important and central part of the neighbourhood."

It is located on a narrow street

Responding to the narrow site, 6a Architects opened up the building's frontage with a glass facade that reveals the exposed, steel and blockwork structure within, and reflects the brickwork opposite.

Etched onto the surface of this facade is a work by Thuring called Great Things Lie Ahead. It is comprised of a brick mortar line pattern filled with fragments of text drawn from stories and materials in HCA's archives.

An artwork by Caragh Thuring covers the glass frontage of the building

"The facade evolved into a sort of glowing etched lantern, airy and transparent," said Thuring.

"Emerald Street is such a narrow alleyway that you can't step back to look at the building, so it became a sort of breathing physical entity rather than a flat surface with an image on it."

Floor-to-ceiling windows were added to the community centre

Behind this facade, the new two-storey structure contains studios, clubrooms, workspaces and a kitchen as well as changing rooms for the basement gymnasium.

All of the spaces have been designed with flexibility in mind, suitable "for a wedding as much as for two-year-olds soft play or a bunch of teenagers dancing or pensioners doing yoga," explained Macdonald.

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An area of the existing concrete ground slab was cut to insert an entrance ramp, and a new lift was inserted into the structure to make all of its floors fully accessible.

Focusing on creating a sense of "material legibility and spatial construction", the new spaces were constructed using white steel ceiling trusses and white-painted blockwork.

A large gymnasium is located on the basement level

"Material choices are a mix of practicality and transparent – what can be easily constructed and transported down a narrow Georgian alleyway," Macdonald told Dezeen.

"It was important to leave the structure visible, as it is simply constructed and understandable to children to see how materials stack onto each other to make the spaces," she continued.

Skylights were installed above the gymnasium

In the gym, a "lantern-like" roof of trusses and skylights sits above a frieze of fabric designed by Thuring that wraps around the space, woven with a brickwork pattern.

The colour scheme, also developed by Thurning, ties together the building, with the green colour used to highlight the staircase, lift doors and railings informed by Holborn's history as a forest.

To further increase the visibility of the building on the narrow site, planters and a tree have been added outside creating a space for visitors to meet as well as gaze up at the glass facade.

The interiors have a neutral palette

6a Architects was founded by Stephanie Macdonald and Tom Emerson in 2001.

Other recently completed projects include the revamp of a coastal house in Devon and a geometric silver extension to the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes.

The Photography is byJohan Dehlin.

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6a Architects to overhaul Grimshaw's Grand Union House offices

London studio 6a Architects has revealed its plans to renovate and extend a vacant office in Camden that forms part of the Grand Union Complex designed by Grimshaw in the late 1980s.

Expected to complete in 2023, the project will involve refurbishing and extending the office, named Grand Union House, to create 6,500 square metres of modern workspace.

Alongside the offices, 6a Architects will introduce three flexible commercial units and six affordable apartments, while improving the surrounding public space.

Design responds to "post-COVID city"

The project, approved by Camden Council, is being developed by 6a Architects in collaboration with the London developer Sellar, which acquired Grand Union House in 2006.

The office forms part of the Grand Union Complex, a campus designed for Sainsbury's between 1986 and 1988 by Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners, the British studio now known as Grimshaw. The complex also includes the high-tech Sainsbury's supermarket and terraced Grand Union Canal Walk Housing, both of which are Grade II*-listed.

Grand Union House was intended for light industrial use but it was only ever used as office space due to limited site access.

6a Architects has revealed its plans to renovate Grand Union House

According to 6a Architects, the redevelopment of the office will reference the high-tech architecture of the adjacent listed buildings, which feature industrial materials and expressed structural elements.

However, the priority of the design is occupant wellbeing, through will be enhanced through the provision of natural light and ventilation, as well as extensive planting and winter gardens.

According to the studio, this is a response to a change in workstyles that has been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.

"Our design takes a holistic approach to making workspace for the post-COVID city, addressing wellbeing, ecology and biodiversity by ensuring access to landscape, daylight and fresh air," said Tom Emerson of 6a architects.

Adaptive reuse will reduce carbon footprint

Another key element of the proposal is the preservation of the Grand Union House's existing structure, which is made from concrete.

According to Sellar, this is to minimise the project's embodied carbon and offer a "benchmark for sustainable, low-carbon development in London".

The office forms part of the same complex as the Grand Union Canal Walk Housing. Photo is by Chris Redgrave for Historic England

"Another key focus for us has been the substantial carbon saving we can make in the construction of Grand Union House by retrofitting the existing building rather than knocking it down and starting from scratch," explained Sellar's chief executive James Sellar.

Embodied carbon refers to the emissions that result from the manufacturing, construction, maintenance and demolition of buildings, which are currently unregulated in the UK. By reusing existing structures, these emissions can be reduced.

Public realm to be enhanced

The Grand Union House overhaul will be complete with updates to its surrounding site, which Sellar said currently has an unwelcoming atmosphere and is prone to anti-social behaviour.

This will improve connectivity to the surrounding area and conditions for pedestrians and cyclists. Planted areas will also be introduced.

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"The project will also bring about a transformation of the surrounding public realm through extensive planting that will enhance the local environment for pedestrians and cyclists," concluded Emerson of 6a Architects.

"By integrating workspace interiors, architecture and urban landscaping, the proposals will create a new social and ecological place."

Elsewhere in London, insurance company Lloyd's of London is planning a renovation of its office – the high-tech Lloyd's building in London designed by Richard Rogers.

The overhaul will prioritise the iconic Underwriting Room at the heart of Lloyd's building to tailor it to the firm's flexible working styles following the coronavirus pandemic.

The visual of Grand Union House is by 6a Architects.

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London's Design District officially opens to the public

The Design District on London's Greenwich Peninsula has officially opened, with buildings designed by SelgasCano, 6a Architects, Adam Khan Architects, Architecture 00, HNNA, Barozzi Veiga, David Kohn Architects and Mole Architects.

Created by developer Knight Dragon, the cluster of workspace buildings aimed at creatives is located near the Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners-designed O2 events arena, also known as the Millennium Dome, at the tip of the Greenwich Peninsula in London.

The Design District is now officially open

The development, which contains a variety of workspaces for 1,800 people, is made up of 16 buildings, with two buildings each designed by eight different architecture studios.

With the aim of replicating the variety of buildings and styles found within cities developed over a long period of time, each of the studios was not made aware of what the others were designing.

SelgasCano's canteen stands at the edge of the development

"The decision to involve eight leading architects was integral to our vision for Design District from the beginning," said Helen Arvanitakis, director of Design District.

"We were determined that it should be a dynamic, engaging and exciting piece of city – somewhere that jolts you into action, and spurs creative thought," she told Dezeen.

"This calculatedly eclectic approach undoubtedly created a possibility for clashes and contrasts, but we knew we had to embrace the risk if we were going to build somewhere genuinely innovative that would reflect and inspire the diverse creative community it was intended to serve."

Barozzi Veiga's building for Ravensbourne University London stands next to one of 6a Architects' two blocks

Masterplanned by UK studio HNNA, the buildings occupy a rectangular site directly behind the Gateway Pavilions building designed by Marks Barfield Architects.

Twelve of the buildings are arranged around the perimeter of the site with a square at its centre.

"I want them to feel that they're not in Kansas anymore; that they've stepped into somewhere distinct from the surrounding city," said Arvanitakis. "I want visitors to feel an urge to explore – to look around corners and linger in courtyards."

"By keeping the building low-rise, encouraging architectural diversity and avoiding the symmetry and predictability of the urban grid, we've ensured Design District feels as though it has developed organically rather than simply having been imposed on Greenwich Peninsula," she continued.

Architecture 00's block is topped by a basketball court

Directly behind the Gateway Pavilions are a trio of buildings – one each by Spanish studios Barozzi Veiga and SelgasCano and one by Architecture 00.

Barozzi Veiga's aluminium-clad building contains additional space for the nearby Ravensbourne University London, while Architecture 00's concrete-framed building is topped with a basketball court – one of several communal facilities for people working at the development.

Between these two buildings is a transparent structure by SelgasCano that contains the Design District Canteen, which is open to the public and contains a bar and six restaurants.

SelgasCano's second building is a block that replicates the style of the canteen, while Barozzi Veiga's second building is an aluminium-clad block on the other side of the site.

Design District is written on top of one of David Kohn Architects' buildings

To mark the development, the words "design district" were written on a roof-mounted sign that recalls early US advertising signage on top of one of David Kohn Architects' two buildings.

Both of David Kohn Architects' buildings in the development combine vivid green metalwork with glass blocks and stout red-brick columns.

Alongside David Kohn Architects-signpost building stands a block by Adam Khan Architects, which has exposed concrete walls and yellow balconies.

Bureau occupies buildings by Architecture 00 and HNNA

In addition to the workspaces, a co-working space called Bureau occupies two buildings – the second concrete-framed building designed by Architecture 00 and a white building by HNNA with curved white walls.

The interiors of both buildings were designed by UK studio Roz Barr Architects.

Also on the site are a pair of buildings designed by 6a Architects with angled facades that are decorated with diamond patterns.

Mole Architects' contribution to the development was a block clad in Corten steel and a building with a metal facade painted in an "iridescent" colour.

One of Mole Architects' blocks is clad in Corten

Developer Knight Dragon aims to develop a community of creative businesses in the Design District. To attract organisations to the development, it is offering the units at what it believes are competitive rates.

"Design District will deliver a site-wide blended-rent target of £25 per square metre. Starting at £7 per square metre, rents will be scaled depending on the workspace to be rented and the size and needs of the tenant, and will be reviewed regularly," said the developer.

"Larger organisations will be able to occupy buildings at rents commensurate to their size, in order to reduce the rental burden on smaller businesses," it continued.

"This rental structure is designed to create an ecosystem of businesses of varying sizes, each contributing according to its means, and ensure that any individual or organisation that wishes to be part of Design District can afford to find a home here."

Its second block is clad in metal painted in "iridescent" paint

Although the district is officially open, the final two buildings – one by HNNA and one by Adam Khan Architects are yet to be built as they have been delayed by the disruption caused by the construction of the Silvertown tunnel below the site.

The photography is byTaran Wilkhu.

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