Sky Central Seminar

Sky Central by PLP Architecture has received numerous awards and recognition and we wanted to include it in this year’s building tours. However, since the campus is located in Osterley, PLP suggested hosting a seminar of the building in their London Aldgate office. It was a brilliant idea as the building has so many varied and interesting attributes.

Located at the heart of Sky’s 13 hectare headquarters in Osterley, the three-storey building has a 37,700-square-metre plan arranged around a triple-height atrium. It houses over 3,500 employees, bringing Sky's corporate and creative sections together into a single community, whose identity reflects the fast-paced and ever-evolving nature of broadcasting and telecommunications. It has been designed to promote flexibility, openness, and ease of access, encouraging the flow of both people and ideas.

Wayne McKiernan, a partner at PLP Architecture, led the discussion. He was involved in all aspects of the project and provided wonderful insight on the process of its creation. The group was presented with a wealth of design from environmental controls, sustainability and facade construction.

The roof construction was one aspect of construction that stood out. The structure was designed with a panelized timber-cassette system over glulam beams. It has become the largest timber construction in the UK and saved up to two-thousand tonnes of CO2 compared to other construction types. Skylights were also introduced to the ceiling plane. The scale of the project is so vast. Many techniques were employed to promote individuality and visual interest. Walking through the spaces is encouraged by providing large stairs and ramps. The elevators are carefully tucked away among the six central cores used to service the building.

The work spaces provided for the 3500 employees are the latest in hot-desking technologies. Departments can be mixed or assembled very quickly.  In addition to the large office areas, the building houses six individual restaurants, a 200-seat theatre, a 200 person event space and a news centre studio.

Sky Central has received many recognition in office design. Most notably, it was voted best workplace in the UK in 2017 by the British Council for Offices. It is easy to see how it will be a model for work space design. Everyone attending the seminar was very impressed.

Written by: Lutz Barndt and Innocenzo Langerano

Call for Nominations for 2019 AIA UK Board of Directors

Call for Nominations for 2019 AIA UK Board of Directors

If you are interested in getting involved with the AIA UK Chapter, please consider nominating yourself for a position on the 2019 board of directors.

You are welcome to make nominations for the board of directors and the four officer positions. The officer positions are ideally held by a US licensed architects, but we will accept foreign licensed architects for nominations as well.

The only requirement for a board of director’s positions is enthusiasm and a willingness to help with events and other chapter activities throughout the year.

If you would like to nominate yourself or find out more about the board, please contact Michael Lischer, FAIA at membership@aiauk.org

Nominations are due by the 26th of October.

Duties:

The requirements for the AIA UK board membership are fairly relaxed. The AIA UK is run by volunteers and all of our events are organized by volunteers. Board members generally help with events and/or get involved in some aspect of chapter management. Positions include newsletter editor, continuing education coordinator, emerging professionals coordination, and events organization.

We have a very active chapter and there are usually a couple of events each month that need to be organized. We have four signature events each year that we organize. These are the Design Awards, Summer Gala, Student Design Charrette, and Keynote Speaker. New board members would not be expected to run events on their own, but help out with various chapter activities.

AIA Continental Europe Conference - Culture Along the Danube: Budapest

AIA Continental Europe – Culture Along the Danube: Budapest, Conference Welcome Pack

The AIA Continental Europe Conference in Budapest was an intense immersion into the culture and history of this amazing city. The conference was curated by Nora Demeter, AIA, with an amazing team of collaborators, and created a weekend full of delight.

The opening reception on Thursday evening was held at the Hungarian Association of Architects, where we were warmly welcomed. We were given a welcome pack in a bespoke tote made from recycled scaffolding scrim, designed in collaboration with local artisans. The reception was followed by a guided tour through the Ruin Pub District located in the Jewish Quarter. Having fallen into disrepair after World War II, the Quarter is now home to many bars and restaurants and has a vibrant and buzzing atmosphere. The immediate in-depth tour of this unusual area was a great way to start the conference.

Ruin Pub District

The opening day of the conference was held at MUPA Budapest: Palace for the Arts. The building was designed by Zoboki, Demeter and Partners.  It is “a home for classical, contemporary, popular and world music, not to mention jazz and opera, as well as contemporary circus, dance, literature and film.”  We learned about the history of Hungary and its key 20th Century Buildings and were given a tour of the building. Conference participants then had a choice either to tour a winery or to return later to MUPA in the evening for a classical music concert or a circus!

Mupa Budapest - Zoboky-Demeter and Associates Architects

Mupa Budapest - Foyer

Mupa Budapest - Building Tour with architect Gabor Zoboki

Saturday, we started the day at CEU-Central European University designed by O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects (ODT).  We heard talks on two cultural buildings that will be located in the city park, both parts of a National project called Liget Budapest; the Ethnographic Museum Project by Napur Architects and the National Gallery Project by Priztker-prize winning architects SANAA.   

Central European University – O’Donnell + Tuomey – Front Elevation

CEU – Entrance / Reception

CEU –Communicating Stair

We then heard from Mark Grehan of ODT and the local Project Architect from Teampannon on the creation and construction of Phase 1 of the CEU, followed by a group tour of the building. After lunch we were treated to a tour of the city that highlighted several art nouveau building treasures. The Gala dinner on Saturday night was held at the National Gallery in the Castle District with an exhibition of Frida Kahlo for guests to enjoy. Surrounded by art, each course of the meal was inspired by a different piece of art.

Hungarian Parliament Building

Market Building Budapest

The final day was hosted at the Budapest Music Centre.  Daniel Taraczky from Art1st Design Studio, lead designer and architect of the Centre, presented its history, concept and design. A lively round table discussion, “Future of Architecture, Culture....” was followed by a building tour before our final lunch together at the conference close.

BEDO HAZ – Art Nouveau Building, Budapest

BEDO HAZ –Entrance Door

Postal Saving Bank -Odon Lechner

Dunapark – Art Deco Apartment Building, Budapest

A short video of the conference created by photographer Cordelia Alegra Pradilla can be viewed here.

The next AIA Continental Europe Conference will be in Copenhagen 11-14 April.  Event details can be found here.

Written by: Etain Fitzpatrick, AIA

70 Wilson Office Building Tour

70 Wilson office is an award-winning building implementing cutting edge technologies in sustainability design. The existing 1980s office building (Summit House) and an adjacent Grade II listed building (No. 46 Worship Street) have been refurbished and extended in collaboration with Low Carbon Workplace (a property development vehicle comprising Columbia Threadneedle Investments, Stanhope and The Carbon Trust) to create a highly efficient, future-proof office space with BREEAM Excellent rating based on low carbon standards.

70 Wilson entails a comprehensive refurbishment of the existing property: re-cladding of the façade, re-modelling the existing entrance level and reception, and an overall increase in the floor area through rationalising the floor layouts and adding a two-storey steel-framed roof extension to enhance the building’s efficiency and to increase the value.

Nick Gazanis, Associate at AStudio, who has been directly involved in the design of the building, was the guide of our tour. He shared insights on the decisions behind the adopted technical and design solutions.

From the exterior, the new envelope is designed to respond to the site’s orientation and the adjacent building massing, both in maximising environmental performance and expression of scale. The patinated copper cladding makes the building a distinctive contemporary warehouse whilst blending with the surrounding red brick buildings. The result is a building that performs as well as an equivalent new building. The new rooftop extension which accommodate the additional 5th and 6th floor, is set back from the existing building line to reduce its visual impact on the conservation area in close proximity and the existing townscape.

Both passive and active measures make the building distinctive in sustainability and operability. Passive measures make the most of the building’s features and fabric, including thermal mass, natural lighting and ventilation, insulation, façade, glazing and solar shading. Active measures minimise emissions from mechanical and electrical systems and gather data to enable ongoing performance management. Internally, services are exposed and “smart” with sensors and controls, that allow heat recovery, energy-efficient HVAC and lighting.

Written by: Lutz Barndt and Innocenzo Langerano

Former Board Director and Architect, MJ Long passes (1939 -2018)

AIA UK member and former board director MJ Long passed away on 3rd September.

MJ (as she preferred to be called) was a vibrant design focused architect. She was based in the UK since 1964, and with her late husband, Colin St John Wilson, designed the British Library. She latterly formed her own practice with Rolfe Kentish and they went on to design a number of museums and galleries including the fabulous National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, an extension to the British Museum, and the exquisitely detailed Pallant Gallery in Chichester. She also designed studios for a number of artists including R.B. Kitaj and Peter Blake.

Within the AIA UK, MJ was instrumental in organising one of the early Keynote lectures that featured Cesar Pelli, hosting building tours of her London-based projects, and contributing to student design charettes.

MJ had a life-long interest in education and she was generous with her time and experience in mentoring the younger generation of American architects living in the UK. Former MJ Long employee, and AIA UK member, Mark E. Breeze noted “MJ gave me my first architectural job, which was a huge leap of faith given I had no architectural training at the time. With calm warmth, incisive directness, quiet encouragement, and wonderful wry humour, MJ gave me strong foundations for not only how to practice, but also how to think architecture.  Her thoughtfulness, generosity, and rigor remain for all to experience in her works.”

MJ will be greatly missed.

Author: Lester Korzilius, AIA UK Board Member

AIA UK Dublin City Excursion

This year’s AIA UK City Excursion ventured farther afield than mainland UK, and ventured across the Irish Sea to Dublin, the capital city of the Republic of Ireland. The two-day weekend was jampacked full of a range of speakers and buildings, entitling attendees to a total of 12 Learning Units (7 HSW credits). We are very thankful to our sponsors TECHRETE for making this excursion possible with their generous contribution.

Saturday 8th September 2018

Royal Institute of Irish Architects (RIAI) - The weekend started in the beautiful Georgian headquarters of the RIAI.  Surrounded by the RIAI 2018 awards exhibition, the group gathered for a warm welcome by Kathryn Meghen, RIAI CEO.  She told us of the work that RIAI does for Irish architects and explained some of its current goals. The RIAI is focusing on educating members on business skills, lobbying the government and providing CPD for its members. The RIAI has 3,600 members and holds roles as both a professional organization and licensing registration board - so for example both the AIA and NCARB combined, or RIBA and ARB combined. She noted RIAI’s pride that Grafton Architects curated the 2018 Venice Biennale, entitled ‘Freespace’.  It was a great honor both for this talented firm and for Irish Architecture. To our delight, Meghen, generously provided the group with complimentary copies of the RIAI’s annual awards publications.

Ali Grehan - Dublin City Architect - Next, the Dublin City Architect, Ali Grehan, spoke about the history of Dublin and some of the challenges that the city faces today.  Dublin is 1,000 years old and in the 1700s was the second largest city in the British Empire. Dublin accounts for 55% of Irelands’ total GDP compared to London’s 23% of the UK’s total GDP. Almost overnight Dublin has become a multi-cultural city - something which has fortunately happened with little rancor.  Building affordable housing; improving disadvantaged schools; increasing sustainability; and decreasing the use of cars via pedestrian zones continue to be key challenges for Dublin.

PIVOT Dublin and AIA Centre for Communities by Design - Ali Grehan is also the founder of PIVOT Dublin which is an initiative driven by the need for better design in cities. She described Dublin’s Framework pilot project that has been inspired by a successful initiative run by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) called the Design Assistance Team (DAT), managed by the AIA’s Centre for Communities by Design in Washington DC.  Framework introduced the Design Assistance programme to test how it could work within the Irish context. The pilot is a collaboration between Dublin Council City Architects Division and the AIA, which is guiding the process. Ali challenged AIA UK to start other collaborations with this group. If anyone is interested in starting this initiative in London please get in touch!

Shane de Blacam - We left the RIAI to walk to Trinity College to meet Shane de Blacam, Partner at de Blacam and Meagher Architects, which was established in 1976.  Shane received his Masters Degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970 and went on to work for Louis Kahn on the Yale Center for British Art.  Shane talked about the history of Trinity College and then on his work on the restoration and addition to its historic dining hall, which is at the heart of Trinity’s social life, and on the new build Samuel Beckett Theatre.  We then walked to Shane’s Wooden Building residential scheme on the edge of Temple Bar. Kahn’s influence is evident in Shane’s work; through it’s beautiful craftmanship, detailing and timelessness. Shane highly praised the American University education system - positive feedback which was lovely to hear from such a legend of Irish Architecture.

O’Donnell + Tuomey – Studio Visit and the Sean O’Casey Community Centre - Sheila O’Donnell, FAIA, and John Tuomey, FAIA, founding partners of O’Donnell + Tuomey generously invited us to visit their studio. John and Sheila discussed current and past projects and gave insight into their design process and collaboration. ODT currently have two significant projects in London – the Victorian & Albert and the Sadler Wells outposts - which they are designing as part of East Bank in Stratford under the Allies and Morrison master plan.

After the studio visit, we took the bus north across the River Liffey to the Sean O’Casey Community Centre in East Wall near the Docklands area. The building provides community resources, including a senior center, childcare and recreational facilities, a theatre and meeting rooms. The concrete tower element with its circular windows provides a strong identity for the building - which Sheila and John noted has become a key landmark for the community. The internal landscaped courtyard provides a tranquil and calm oasis. It is both a beautiful and functional feature of the building, often used by the children as an outdoor play area. A local resident worked with the landscape architects to ensure that appropriate plants were selected. The building has received numerous rewards and was shortlisted for the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) prestigious Lubetkin Prize for architecture in 2009. However, its biggest success is how the community has embraced this building as its own and it is obvious that it will flourish for many years to come.

Mairtin D’Alton – RIAI Docklands Walking Tour - Star RIAI tour guide Mairtin D'Alton led us on an informative and entertaining 90 minute walking tour of the Docklands. We saw many of the area’s highlights including the Samuel Beckett Bridge by Santiago Calatrava and the Docklands Convention Centre by Roche-Dinkeloo Architects at Spencer Dock. We looked at developments from the 1990s to the early 2000s. We walked across the East Link into Ringsend and finished in the Grand Canal Basin, stopping in front of the Liebeskind Theatre with public landscape design by Martha Schwartz. This termination point was also near the Charlotte Quay restaurant where we all enjoyed a fabulous dinner on Saturday night.

Sunday, 9th September

Aviva Stadium – Scott Tallon Walker Architects - After our 20,000-step day on Saturday, on Sunday morning we had a little respite from walking, as we boarded our coach for the day and headed towards the Aviva Stadium by Scott Tallon Walker Architects and Populous.  The stadium replaced the old beloved Lansdowne Road stadium, the oldest international rugby venue in the world.  The project began in 2005 and - after a lengthy approval process - was granted planning permission in 2007 and was completed in 2010.  Rebecca Ryan and Raeffala Roncoroni from STW along with two other members of the Aviva stadium staff led the group around an extensive building tour.  We saw everything in the building from BOH access routes, to the rugby team changing rooms, to the special VIP boxes and of course we were allowed entry onto the beloved, sacred pitch.  We appreciated the tremendous effort that the team put into this complicated project - from nestling the stadium into its residential surroundings to providing additional access. We were surprised just how much we liked the project with its attention to detail, the quality of construction and the fantastic atmosphere.

Bucholz McEvoy Architects - After our visit to the Aviva Stadium, we ventured south of Dublin to see two gem buildings by Bucholz McEvoy Architects.  Partner, Karen McEvoy, MRIAI, AIA, AKB, presented two projects - the Ballyogan Operations Offices and the Samuel Beckett Civic Campus. This small practice has made a big impact with their dedication to sustainable buildings in beautifully detailed packages and their work has been recognised with numerous awards. The two-storey timber framed Ballyogan Operations and Maintenance Depot is a low energy, naturally ventilated building that maximises passive energy sources and daylight. The architects designed everything within the building and used natural materials throughout. The building is situated on the site of the former waste dump for Dublin County that will become a park in future. We all wanted to work there!  Next, we saw phase 1 of the Samuel Beckett Civic campus, which provides community facilities, a gym and classrooms for public use. The architects designed a master plan for the community, which maximizes the use of green space for playfields, transforming a previously neglected space.

Kavanagh Tuite – GPO Witness History and Visitor Centre - In conceiving the programme of the two-day weekend excursion, I thought it was important for people to have a sense of the history of Dublin. So, the next stop was to the General Post Office Witness History and Visitor Centre, which was the site of the 1916 Rising which eventually led to Ireland gaining its independence from the British Empire and sent shockwaves through its colonies.  The building opened on the centenary in 2016. Partner Brian Kavanagh and Associate Fergal Ryan spoke of the importance and context of the building in Irish history and detailed process of the restoration of the building’s brickwork. The new build portions of the project are sympathetically inserted into the courtyard. After the presentation our group was able to walk around the Witness History exhibition, which occupies most of the basement level.

Heneghan Peng – National Gallery of Ireland - Last but not least, we visited the National Gallery of Ireland that has been recently refurbished by Heneghan Peng Architects. Partner Roisin Heneghan and Associate Director, Katarzyna Turza-Rachwal gave the group a detailed tour of the building. Their work entailed what they called ‘very detailed acupuncture-like work’ within the existing building fabric to provide environmental and lighting upgrades. Part of a two-phase master plan, the results are stunning. Externally, the project has achieved a more friendly and open face to the public and, internally, has led to the discovery of previously hidden spaces that enrich the visitor’s experience.

Next year please join us for our weekend excursion to Newcastle 2019. Also, based on the success of the Dublin trip the AIA UK and AIA Continental Europe Chapters will be co-organising a City Excursion to Cork in 2020.

Written by: Etain Fitzpatrick, AIA