NUOVO CENTRO CIVICO BY RICHARD ROGERS

The buildings group around a new public piazza. A cultural centre, an office building, a residential block and the new tram station are designed to complement the existing town hall. 

The slightly sunken hard surfaced piazza will form a public space to be used for markets, performance artists and other activities. The cultural centre frames the eastern edge of the piazza and provides a multi-functional hall for seminars, conferences, exhibitions and concerts. 

It is designed for and operated by the local council and offers – with its flexible space – significantly enhanced opportunities for public and cultural activities in Scandicci. 

The tram line runs along the southern edge of the piazza and the new station has a ‘gate-like’ appearance with ‘floating’ louvres, connecting the two areas on either side of the tram lines. 

South of the tracks, a seven-storey office building will act as ‘marker’ for the development. It will provide highly flexible office space which can be leased/rented as open plan floors or as a series of small units. 

The residential development contains 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom apartments as well as eight penthouse flats. It sits parallel to the tram tracks and is aligned with the office building.

All three buildings have retail and restaurant uses at ground-floor levels creating an animated zone for the public and providing a continuation of the existing shopping street from the old centre of Scandicci, in Italy. The council has plans for a hotel development to the west of the piazza at some stage in the future.

The development is appropriate in scale for the area it serves, while acting as a catalyst for encouraging increased public activity and further development of Scandicci following the broad outlines established in the original masterplan. 

It adopts a sustainable approach by including the installation of solar elements for water heating, photo-voltaic elements generating electricity as well as a green roof on the cultural building.

The landscape concept with its linear arrangement of trees and benches alongside the tram line helps to unite the development with the existing and new parking areas.

Location: Scandicci, Italy 

Architect: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners 

Local Architect: DA. studio 

Project Team: Torsten Burkhardt, Lorenz Frenzen, Rowena Fuller, Lennart Grut, Ivan Harbour, Annie Miller, Alberto Morselli, Jacopo Venerosi Pesciolini, Richard Rogers, Stephen Spence, Elena Arzua Tourino 

Quantity Surveyor: Studio Associato Zingoni 

Landscape Architect: Erika Skarbar 

Sructures & Services: Politecnica 

Site Area: 26,000 m2 

Development Area: 15,000 m2 

Cultural Centre: 1,900 m2 

Office: 4,000 m2 

Residential: 7,250 m2 

Commercial: 2,350 m2 

Cost: 33.8 million euros 

Client: Scandicci Centro Srl

BRITISH MUSEUM EXTENSION BY ROGERS STIRK HARBOUR + PARTNERS

Located in the north-west corner of the Museum’s Bloomsbury estate, the WCEC is one of the largest redevelopment projects in the Museum’s 260 year history.

The World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre will house a new special exhibitions gallery as well as state-of-the-art conservation studios and science laboratories, storage areas to rehouse large parts of the museum collection currently housed off-site and a purpose-built logistics hub to support its extensive UK and international loans programme.

The challenge was to produce a design that both expresses the contemporary role and world-class standing of the British Museum and also responds to the wider institutional and architectural legacy of this Grade I listed building. The result is a series of four linked pavilions – each of five storeys above basement level – connecting to the main Museum and designed to optimise daylight reaching the existing North Range and King Edward VII buildings.

The stone and glass façades of the pavilions make a visual link to the neighbouring, imposing King Edward VII building through both the structural rhythm and the horizontal coursing of the cast glasswhile the mass and height of the pavilions provide a sympathetic transition to the domestic scale of the predominantly 18th century properties in the neighbouring streets. A fifth pavilion – containing scientific research facilities – is submerged below ground.

Each building will include three levels of below ground storage, except in the case of the submerged pavilion where all levels are underground. The design distances the new building from the listed façades with minimal interventions in the existing fabric, while creating a solid visual aesthetic that complements the King Edward VII Building.

The team worked to apply an order to the otherwise disparate and complex nature of the site and surrounding context,; the linked pavilions are consistent in height with the North Range and one storey lower than the King Edward VII building. Materials have been chosen to echo those of the existing building.

The new facilities will improve existing conditions for the Museum’s staff and collection as well as allowing an increase in gallery circulation and permeability across the entire site. The functional requirements of the brief are arranged vertically across the pavilions.

The Collections Storage Facility has been located below ground where the heavy floor loading can easily be accommodated and where the most stable environmental conditions can be found. Above this sits the new logistics hub on Level 0, linking into the logistics routes of the existing Museum. The Special Exhibitions Gallery has been located at Level 2 (main gallery level in the Museum) in order to allow the best connectivity for the public and to enhance visitor experience.

The conservation studios sit above the gallery in order to provide good quality daylight for conservation work as well as placing the requirement for flues, fume extraction and ventilation at the top of the building. To encourage biodiversity in Blooomsbury the proposals aim to include a green roof across all four pavilions which will also include nesting boxes for swifts and two beehives.

The scheme is arranged in two main elements, based upon the idea that a building consists of primary ‘served’ spaces (eg offices, conservation studios, laboratories, galleries, etc) and corresponding secondary ‘servant’ spaces (eg vertical circulation, mechanical and electrical services distribution, access to the pavilion, etc). Each pavilion is served by an adjacent services and circulation core. This principle allows maximum flexibility of space within the pavilions and an efficient use of the cores, generating a clear logic of movement and use.

 

 

 

Location: London, England 

Architect: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners 

Project Team: Javier Ampuero, Tadashi Arai, Anna Au, Andy Bryce, Jo-anne Cowen, Lorna Edwards, Kevin Gray, Jesse Hindle, Dewi Jones, Carmel Lewin, Emily Lewith, John McElgunn, Tim Mason, Nic Mitchell, Douglas Paul, Joanna Pencakowski, Aleksandrina Rizova, Richard Rogers, Graham Stirk, James Stopps, Susi Wellings, Emma White, Chris Wilkinson 

Structural Engineer: Ramboll 

Service Engineer: Arup 

Planning Consultant: Montagu Evans 

Strategic Planning and Consultation Strategy: The Green Brain 

Townscape Consultant: Francis Golding 

Project Manager: AECOM 

Quantity Surveyor: Davis Langdon 

Landscape Design: Gillespies 

Construction Manager: Mace 

Area:18,000m2 

Cost: £ 135 milion 

Open: 2014  

Client: The British Museum

THE LEADENHALL BUILDING BY ROGERS STIRK HARBOUR + PARTNERS

The building comprises a number of distinct architectural elements that provide clarity to the composition both as a whole and as a legible expression of its constituent parts.

These elements include the primary stability structure, the ladder frame, the office floor plates, the northern support core, the external envelope and the public realm. The structure aims to reinforce the geometry defined by the development envelope, which in turn creates the distinctive tapering form, and takes the form of a perimeter braced ‘tube’ that defines the extent of the floor plates.

The ladder frame contributes to the vertical emphasis of the building, and encloses the fire-fighting cores that serve the office floors. The frame also visually anchors the building to the ground. The office floors take the form of simple rectangular floor plates which progressively diminish in depth by 750 millimetres towards the apex.

Office floors are connected to the structural ‘tube’ at every floor level without the need for secondary vertical columns at the perimeter. The northern support core is conceived as a detached tower containing all passenger and goods lifts, service risers, on-floor plant and WCs.

Three groups of passenger lifts serve the low, mid and high rise sections of the building, and are connected by two transfer lobbies at levels ten and 24. The position of the northern support core relative to the office areas means that the structure is not required to be over-clad with fire protection, allowing the whole to be designed and expressed as visible steelwork.

This articulated steel frame provides clarity to the whole assemblage. The highly transparent glazed enclosure makes manifest the structure and movement systems within; its physical presence is a striking and dynamic addition to the City and a unique spectacle for the enjoyment for passers-by. 

The building is designed to express all the constituent elements behind a single glazed envelope. Facades to the office areas require the highest comfort criteria in relation to heat loss, daylight, glare control and solar gain. 

Here, the facade is supplemented with an internal layer of double-glazing, forming a cavity which incorporates the structural frame. The external glazing incorporates vents at node levels to allow outside air to enter and discharge from the cavity.

Controlled blinds in the cavity automatically adjust to limit unwanted solar gain and glare. The lower levels of the building are recessed on a raking diagonal to create a large public space that opens up to the south. The spectacular scale of the semi-enclosed, cathedral-like space is without precedent in London and will create a major new meeting place and a unique destination in itself.

Overlooking the space are generous terrace areas within a bar and restaurant that provide animation and views into the public space and beyond. This enclosure is open at ground level to give access from all directions. The public space is fully accessible by means of a large, gently raked surface connecting St Helen’s Square with Leadenhall Street.

Location: London, England
Architects: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
Project Team: Maurice Brennan, Andy Bryce, Elisa Casciano, James Chapman, Serene Croxton, Philip Dennis, Christopher Finkin, Tobi Frenzen, Russell Gilchrist, Lennart Grut, Jan Güell, Mark Hallett, Dirk Krolikowski, Justin Lau, Carmel Lewin, Robert Luck, Annette Main, Tim Mason, Aaron Massingham, John McElgunn, Charles Meloy, Jon Mercer, Nicholas Mitchell Andrew Morris, Jack Newton, Ben Nicholls, Alison Oktay, Louise Palomba, Joanna Pencakowski, Richard Rogers, Laura Sandiford, Patrcia Sendin, Graham Stirk, Will Thorne, German de la Torre, Kenny Tsui, Emma Tynan, Will Wimshurst, Daniel Wright, Andrew Yek, Jacqueline Yeung, Andy Young
Planning Consultant: DP9
Contractor: Bovis Lendlease
Quantity Surveyor: Davis Langdon
Lift Engineer: Kone
Structural Engineer: Arup
Services Engineer: Arup
Project Manager: M3
Site Area: 3,500 m2
Gross Floor Area: 98,000 m2
Net Internal Floor Area: 58,000 m2
Net Lettable Internal Area: 55,740 m2
Number of Floors: 50
Year: 2014
Client: The British Land Company / Oxford Properties
Photos: Rory Gardiner