Knox Bhavan — Brownstones, Elmwood Road

We recently completed an exterior project on Elmwood Road, which gave us another opportunity to enviously eyeball the Knox Bhavan Brownstones nearby. 

The project has been shortlisted for the RIBA London Award 2015, and Eleanor Young has written about it here.

Previously the site of some unprepossessing 1950s maisonettes, “the front elevation is a contemporary reworking of the Edwardian street typology.” (That typology can be seen here.)

I was lucky enough to take a look inside one of the houses in September 2014, during Open House London. The standard of the materials and finish throughout is of the highest standard — if the chance to look inside either of the buildings rolls around again, take it.

The facade of the Knox Bhavan Brownstones in North Dulwich

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Lighting in Leicester Square

Leicester Square is still a tacky, jarring place. It harbours a tourist restaurant named SCOFF & BANTER, after all, and no resident Londoner ever chooses to eat or drink there.

Some aspects of the square have improved in recent years though. The metalwork shown in the photo below is probably a misjudgement, as it’s probably going to date quite quickly — but the long, low, curving stone bench is appealingly solid, and the lighting spec is a definite success, both well designed and well executed.

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DRDH Architects — Bodø concert hall

Olly Wainwright tells the notable tale of a £110m combined library and concert hall opening in Arctic Norway, on time and on budget.

The Bodø concert hall was designed by DRDH, an English practice:

“It was quite a leap in scale, for us and the town,” says David Howarth, director of DRDH architects, which won the project in a competition in 2009. “It was a stark contrast to be working on this in the UK, just as libraries were being closed by the dozen and procurement processes make it impossible for small practices to win work of this size.”

More power to the elbow of everyone involved.

Photographs by David Grandgorge,

Bodø concert hall, Norway

Bodø concert hall, Norway

Bodø concert hall, Norway

 

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