Epic Iran has been selected as part of the 300 strong longlist for the Dezeen Awards 2021. The 300 selected were chosen from 4,700 entries spanning 87 different countries. While the shortlist is due to be announced in September, it is great to see our client selected so far!
Gort Scott have designed an immersive scenography for the new Epic Iran exhibition at the V&A in London. The show explores 5,000 years of Iranian art, design and culture, bringing together over 300 objects from ancient, Islamic and contemporary Iran. It is the UK’s first major exhibition in 90 years to present an overarching narrative of Iran from 3000 BC to the present day, and is organised by the V&A with the Iran Heritage Foundation in association with The Sarikhani Collection.
Gort Scott were appointed by the V&A following an invited competition and responded to the challenge of designing the setting based on the concept of the Exhibition as City, influenced by the paintings of architecture and the city depicted in the Shahnameh, the ‘Book of Kings’ (the national Epic of Iran). Following intensive research by the practice, the exhibition design is conceived as a journey between spaces of very different atmospheres, each relating to the objects displayed and their time and place in history. Like wandering in a city, information is layered, choice and engagement are prioritised, and no two individual experiences will be quite the same.
This exhibition is still available to visit until the 12th September 2021 at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
Epic Iran from Gort Scott Architects has been longlisted for the Dezeen 2021 Awards
Southwark Pavilion has been selected as part of the 300 strong longlist for the Dezeen Awards 2021. The 300 selected were chosen from 4,700 entries spanning 87 different countries. While the shortlist is due to be announced in September, it is great to see our client selected so far!
The Pavilion, for Southwark Council, consolidates park offices, a cafe and public WCs that overlook the lake. The flowing facades of white brick sweep the eye towards the water, children’s playing area and fields.
As is typical of parkland pavilions, Bell Phillips’ pavilion has a graceful repose within the landscape. The pavilion is a discreet element with three wings which extend out into the park, creating triple-aspect views. The organic form of the pavilion is derived from the curved geometry of the park’s historic pathways, the Oval playing fields and the adjacent lake edge. This results in a form that extends into the landscape and welcomes users from all directions.
The arm that overlooks the lake has been extended to provide expansive views over both the lake and Oval, while the northern facade of the building is angled to create a strong relationship with both the gallery and the existing route to the Oval from Gomm Road.
The white finish of the brickwork helps to create a relationship between the structure and the CGP Gallery, founded in 1984 by The Bermondsey Artists’ Group. Furthermore, the material contrasts with the surrounding planting and emphasises the movement and shadows of nearby trees.
Despite the pavilion’s lightness of design approach, it adds definition to the spaces around it. Where it addresses the Oval, the pavilion creates a sense of a ‘distinct space’, something the Oval had lost over time. In addition, the design works to create a sheltered area that allows the café to spill onto the lake edge.
The relationship between the pavilion, the lake and its leafy banks evoke an image of the urban idyll. From afar the form of the pavilion appears modern, minimalistic and planar, avoiding clustering or obscuring the skyline. Close up however the delicacy of the form becomes apparent; in this manner, it recalls the picturesque modernism of the pavilions, porticoes and grottos of the historic Ranelagh and Vauxhall pleasure gardens. In contrast to these, however, BPA’s new pavilion is not about exclusivity or elitism, rather inclusivity and enjoyment for all.
See the full longlist selection here
Southwark Pavilion from Bell Philips Architects Longlisted for 2021 Dezeen Awards
Our client Gort Scott have been featured in the RIBA Journal for their Epic Iran exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum London. The show explores 5,000 years of Iranian art, design and culture, bringing together over 300 objects from ancient, Islamic and contemporary Iran. It is the UK’s first major exhibition in 90 years to present an overarching narrative of Iran from 3000 BC to the present day, and is organised by the V&A with the Iran Heritage Foundation in association with The Sarikhani Collection.
Gort Scott were appointed by the V&A following an invited competition and responded to the challenge of designing the setting based on the concept of the Exhibition as City, influenced by the paintings of architecture and the city depicted in the Shahnameh, the ‘Book of Kings’ (the national Epic of Iran). Following intensive research by the practice, the exhibition design is conceived as a journey between spaces of very different atmospheres, each relating to the objects displayed and their time and place in history. Like wandering in a city, information is layered, choice and engagement are prioritised, and no two individual experiences will be quite the same.
The 10 sections of the exhibition are expressed as a series of individual architectural moments or open spaces that sit within two large halls of the V&A. The colour and form of these were inspired by the craft of Persian culture, including earth-built structures, through to the grand order of Persepolis, and illuminated manuscripts depicting Iranian interiors within cities and gardens. Some of these rooms have finely crafted solid walls, while others are simply defined by sheets of fabric lit with projections. Gort Scott have varied materials, colours and textures in order to affect the play of light, acoustics and touch.
Though all of the objects are shown in true unadulterated form, Gort Scott have also facilitated the use of technology to help visitors visualise how some objects may have looked in their original form through collaboration with leading moving image studio Luke Halls.
Gort Scott and the V&A have prioritised environmental sustainability in their design of the exhibition – electing to use low carbon and reusable materials such as timber and hempcrete, whose unique textural qualities are a loose reference to the natural building materials which were used in ancient Iran. Gort Scott have also re-used as many materials as possible from the V&A’s stores – for instance showcases and glass – as well as materials from previous exhibitions. In turn, many elements within this demountable temporary exhibition can be recycled or reused for future displays.
Read the full article here
Gort Scott’s Epic Iran featured in the RIBA Journal
Bell Phillips Architects completed three new affordable housing developments in Tower Hamlets in the summer of 2020. Residents have moved in across the three sites and have already remarked at the impact the new homes have had on their lives. The 77 new homes were commissioned directly by the borough council as part of a programme of new housing delivery for local people. The article in RIBAJ praised the practice’s sensitive approach to context, whereby details are introduced to create a dialogue between existing and new, and heighten the sense of place.
Bell Phillips Architects Social Housing Highlighted in RIBAJ
Bell Phillips Granary Square Pavilion is one of fifty projects to be recognised with a Civic Trust Award in the 2021 edition. The project acts as a gateway to Coal Drops Yard and completes the corner of Granary Square as well as improving circulation and access around Granary Square and Lower Stable Street. A cafe activates the adjacent square, with the coming and going of patrons. Its elegant facade is fabricated in cast iron in a pattern derived from the molecular structure of coal in a design that recalls the industrial heritage of the site.
Civic Trust Awards Success for Bell Phillips Architects
We’re happy to announce that Nex has received not one, but two 2021 Civic Trust Awards! Royal Pier Wharf was highlighted as one of the ultimate winners and The Duke of York Restaurant was one of the ‘Highly Commended’ entries. The Civic Trust Awards recognize architecture and design projects created to improve the built environment through design, sustainability, inclusiveness, and accessibility, and that offer a positive cultural, social, economic, or environmental benefit to their local community.
Nex recieves two 2021 Civic Trust Awards
The Don’t Move, Improve! shortlist of 22 of London’s best residential renovations was featured on Dezeen. This year’s Don’t Move, Improve! competition, which is organised by New London Architecture, had a huge amount of entries. In each, homeowners sought an improved quality of life through innovative design solutions.
Don’t Move, Improve! on Dezeen
Hayhurst’s Grain House is a remodelled and extended Victorian, semi-detached property in the de Beauvoir Conservation Area in Hackney, north London. Designed for a young family, the house connects original and new living spaces and creates a visual link from the entrance, through the family spaces to the garden and on to the new artist’s studio at the back of the site.
Hayhurst & Co in Grand Designs
There are some renovations that are simply nice, and then there are others that make you stop and stare in pure admiration. This original 1930s detached house in the London Borough of Haringey certainly falls into the latter camp in that respect. Completed during a nationwide pandemic in May 2020, this home has become something of a sanctuary for the homeowners, and it is easy to see why. Designed by Mulroy Architects, their mission to improve lives with beautiful, life-long and sustainable architecture. ‘We use human skills to create great, green architecture that allows you to adapt to the future,’ say the team. So they knew that had to create something special here.
Mulroy Architects in Homes & Gardens
Pinnacle House sits within the 3,385-home Royal Wharf development in east London’s Royal Docks and has been delivered by Whittam Cox Architects based on concept designs by Mæ. Comprising 110 apartments, the 14-storey building has a prominent position within the district – master planned by Glenn Howells Architects – and “utilises subtle detailing to help shape a strong identity for the local area”, says Mæ. Scalloped edges to the concrete elements are intended to refer to oyster shells unearthed during excavation of the dock walls.
Pinnacle House in Architecture Today
Grain House is a remodelled and extended Victorian, semi-detached property in the de Beauvoir Conservation Area in Hackney, north London. Designed for a young family, the house connects original and new living spaces and creates a visual link from the entrance, through the family spaces to the garden and on to the new artist’s studio at the back of the site.
Grain House in Abitare
The City of London Corporation is running a competition to find designs for 21st Century Police Boxes. The ‘Digital Service Point’ will creatively reinvent the way residents, workers and visitors to the Square Mile can contact authorities and gain information. They will also store medical equipment for emergency response. Part of the design requirement is that they are environmentally friendly and will blend in with the surrounding area, so it is unlikely they will bear any resemblance to the Tardis style design made famous by Dr Who.
City of London competition in the Telegraph
The pavilion restaurant in London’s Duke of York Square, designed by Nex- for landowner Cadogan, packs a lot into a compact form: a slender off-white concrete wall encircles a dining room with a slatted ash soffit, and spirals around the building to enclose a stair leading to a lushly planted roof terrace. Within its in a spiralling façade, the designers have integrated retractable windows that will bring the outside in, when the weather allows!
Duke of York Restaurant in Architecture Today
The Sands End Arts & Community Centre has now been completed. Sitting at the edge of South Park, the form of the building takes inspiration from the 19th century glasshouses – built by the preeminent horticulturalist James Veitch – that previously occupied the site at South Park. It frames new landscaped spaces and is designed to be sustainable not only because it has the potential for ongoing revenue generation, but also in terms of construction approach where we have used CLT and an innovative new brick made from waste products.
Sands End Community Centre in Dezeen
Bell Phillips Architects have completed a major new extension to The Skinners’ School in Royal Tunbridge Wells – the first completed education building for the practice. Arranged over three floors, the 1,187 sq.m new building responds to expanding pupil numbers at the Kent grammar school, and houses a sixth form centre, English department and library. The design has been developed from a careful analysis of adjacent Gothic revival buildings to produce an architecture that is both highly contemporary and respectful of its historic context at this prestigious school.
The Skinners’ School in ICON
Designed on behalf of Bellway, the housing-led masterplan sets out detailed proposals for up to 532 new homes containing a mixture of apartments and houses. The design team has devised a series of architectural character areas that respond to their locations within the masterplan, and which combine to form a cohesive network of streets and open spaces while supporting and large areas of vegetation that contains a wealth of wildlife habitats.
Ebbsfleet in Building Design
Cowper Griffith Architects has completed the redevelopment of Wesley College, rationalising accommodation and reproducing key facilities lost due to a major reduction in the size of the Cambridge College. The scheme accommodates a broad range of new and upgraded high quality facilities including: a new library, a common/dining room, the retained chapel, seminar rooms, administration and staff accommodation as well as new and refurbished student housing.
Wesley College in AJ
Construction has begun on the Royal Wharf Pier – a new riverboat terminal incorporating a large new public space on the Thames – designed by London-based architects Nex—. The 130m long pier, located in Ballymore and Oxley’s Royal Wharf development in London’s Royal Docks, will be the most distinctive pier on the Thames, offering a unique perspective on the river from a 162m2 viewing platform, and marking the practice’s first major venture into infrastructure.
Royal Wharf Pier in Homes & Property
This newly completed primary school and nursery in Peckham Rye provides a series of exciting and stimulating spaces that have allowed Bellenden Primary School to cater for rising pupil numbers. The new school occupies an island site surrounded predominantly by Victorian terraced streets, forming a U-shape that follows the perimeter of the site to enclose a welcoming playground within. The boundary is marked by a grey brick wall that both mimics and contrasts the rear garden walls of neighbouring properties, and opens up to signal the colourful entrance elevations.
Bellenden School in Design Curial
This contemporary housing scheme for Winchester College is sensitively stitched into the historic city of Winchester. Cowper Griffith Architects’ scheme preserves two historic buildings on site, creating 11 terraced houses, removing inappropriate buildings from the 1960s to make way for this high-quality re-development.
This project was featured in Architecture Today in March 2019.
Ridding Court in Architecture Today
Nomad is the inaugural furniture collection designed by revered architect Henning Stummel, designer of the acclaimed and award-winning Tin House project in London. This innovative range is the delivery of a new concept in furniture, constructed of one sheet of birch plywood and easily assembled with no glue, no screws and no tools. Nomad comprises of a two-seater sofa, armchair and coffee table, all geared towards city living and the design-conscious interiors lover.
This project was featured in Cabinet Maker in March 2019.
Nomad in Cabinet Maker
The Machrie is a major redevelopment and extension of a previously dilapidated hotel on Islay. Hudson Architects’ design has given the hotel a new lease of life, extending the historic building in a way that blends heritage, character and stylish contemporary design. The Machrie now offers 47 bedrooms alongside outstanding facilities for guests and the local community, providing a significant boost for the economically fragile island, and creating jobs and a destination resort of national and international recognition.
This project was featured in Architecture Today in March 2019.
Machrie in Architecture Today
Congratulations to Knox Bhavan Architects, Studio Partington, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Emrys Architects, Gresford Architects, Cowper Griffith Architects, Bell Phillips Architects, Gort Scott Architects, Finkernagel Ross Architects and David Kohn Architects for being shortlisted in the RICS Awards. Well done!
RICS Awards 2019 shortlist
Congratulations to Cowper Griffith Architects and Gort Scott for being shortlisted for the RIBA Awards. Cowper Griffith’s Wesley House has been shortlisted in the East and Ridding Court in the South, while Gort Scott’s The Magistrates was shortlisted in London.
RIBA Awards 2019 shortlist
Congratulations to BPTW, Knox Bhavan Architects, David Kohn Architects, Finkernagel Ross, Bell Phillips Architects and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates for being shortlisted in the 2019 Architect of the Year Awards. Congratulations!
BD Architect of the Year Awards 2019 shortlist
Designed by David Kohn Architects, phase one of the Photography Centre more than doubles the space dedicated to photography at the V&A, spanning four new galleries. It opens with the major display Collecting Photography: From Daguerreotype to Digital, beginning in the newly named Bern and Ronny Schwartz Gallery (formerly Gallery 100). The show explores photography as a way of ‘collecting the world’, from the medium’s invention in the 19th century to the present day.
V&A Photography Centre in Architecture Today
Marklake Court is a new, genuinely community-led development of 27 council rent homes on the Kipling Estate near London Bridge, which embodies a trailblazing solution to the UK housing crisis. Empowered by a uniquely collaborative design process with Bell Phillips Architects, the project represents an entirely ground-up approach to providing housing for social rent and featured in the RIBA Journal in September 2018.
Marklake Court in RIBA Journal
The aim of this three phase project: the creation of a new sixth form centre; the demolition of the caretakers accommodation in favour of a new dining hall, school reception and entrance facilities; and the repurpose of the original sixth form centre; was to celebrate the school’s contemporary approach to education, while remaining sympathetic to the original 1930’s building. This project was featured in Architecture Today in September 2018.
Streatham and Clapham High School in Architecture Today
As well as housing the University of Hasselt’s impressive architecture faculty, this remodelled 18th century beguinage in Hasselt provides a new public space. With the focus of the project being to refurbish the existing buildings, the renovation seeks to reposition the complex as a point of interest for a broad range of users, from students to tourists. BD published the project, which was won in an international design competition, in September 2018.
Hasselt on Building Design
In celebration of the RAF centenary, the redevelopment of the RAF Museum draws on the site’s airfield history to open up the museum to the local community and bring the RAF story to new audiences. In addition to a transformational landscape strategy, a repurposed hangar now welcomes visitors to the site, and offers flexible visitor facilities in a central pavilion, while across the site, a previously derelict building has been brought back to life as a contemporary new restaurant.
This project was featured in ICON in October 2018.
RAF Museum in ICON
If you would like to find out more about any of the projects we’re working on, or talk to us about how Goodfellow Communications can help you, we’d love to hear from you.
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