Archinect - News

East London blaze reignites cladding fears as Grenfell investigation grinds on

2024-08-26T18:34:00-04:00

More than 80 people had to be evacuated after a major fire broke out in east London early Monday, fire officials said. The blaze brought back painful memories of the Grenfell Tower fire that killed 72 people in the city in 2017. The Dagenham building had “a number of fire safety issues” officials said. Notably, the mixed-use building had “noncompliant cladding,” according to a 2023 application for construction work.

Responding to the Dagenham fire, the Times reported Grenfell United as saying, "This highlights the painfully slow progress of remediation across the country, and a lack of urgency for building safety as a whole." In a truly painful precursor, the yearslong criminal inquiry into the deadly 2017 fire is expected to release its final report in less than two weeks. The Times cited a separate government source in claiming there are currently 3,280 buildings over three stories in the UK thought to still have unsafe cladding.

Criminal charges stemming from the Grenfell incident won't be brought against defendants until at least late 2026, according to the most recent update. Another Monday fire was also widely covered in the nearby New Providence Wharf Estate, though no injuries were reported.

Plans for London’s Sphere are no more as developers abandon project

2024-01-09T11:29:00-05:00

The developers behind the proposed MSG Sphere in London have withdrawn plans for the project. In a letter to the UK government’s Planning Inspectorate, developers Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSG) said that the scheme had become “merely a political football between rival parties.”

Plans for the Sphere first emerged in 2018, with planning permission filed in March 2019. London’s mayor Sadiq Khan was originally supportive of the scheme upon its announcement, but a combination of negative feedback in planning officer reports and backlash from locals saw Khan refuse the project permission in November 2023.

The saga continued in December when the UK’s Housing Secretary, Michael Gove, asked for the plans to be personally reviewed by the Planning Inspectorate, which falls under his department. With both a UK-wide general election and London mayoral election set to take place in the country later this year, the project was set to become a major campaign issue between Gove’s ruling C...

UK Housing Secretary Gove will re-review London Sphere planning permission after Mayor's refusal

2023-12-02T03:00:00-05:00

Two weeks after London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced his refusal of planning permissions for the controversial MSG Sphere development planned in East London, the UK’s housing chief has issued a rebuke that may leave some glimmer of hope for the project’s eventual realization.

Several UK-based outlets are now reporting that Housing Secretary Michael Gove has asked the London Legacy Development Corporation to have the plans reviewed personally by his office before a final decision can be made. The countermand means another six week’s wait for the project, which has caused a torrent of backlash from critics and local residents since first being introduced in January of 2018.

James Dolan, Executive Chairman of the Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp., however, told the Evening Standard that Khan’s decision represented the “end of the line” for his company’s pursuit of the project in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Previously on Archinect: So much for the controversial London Sphere afte...

So much for the controversial London Sphere after Mayor Sadiq Khan refuses planning permission

2023-11-20T18:54:00-05:00

The proposed MSG Sphere in East London has been scrapped with the late decision by Mayor Sadiq Khan to refuse planning permissions over grounds that its design causes a public nuisance to residents of the surrounding Stratford district.

The long-controversial Sphere had been derided by critics and locals alike since first being revealed in January of 2018. Myriad attempts at halting the application process had been lodged in the years leading up to Monday's decision. Populous, which has also developed its well-reviewed twin in Las Vegas, was responsible for the 21,500-capacity design proposal.

The issue of light pollution had always been a critical factor in its pending success as a proposed entertainment venue sited in place of the 4.7-acre former coach park of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Khan’s decision cited the issue along with two other factors for the refusal, including its huge operational costs and an overall lack of green credentials for the project. Its impact on se...

New RIBA and Create London commissions debut to boost social life in large East London housing development

2023-07-12T19:28:00-04:00

A pair of new interventions commissioned for East London’s Becontree Estate have debuted this summer as an artistic effort to provide space for residents of the historic community that was at one time considered to be the largest social housing development in the western world.

The first, spread across six locations on the 281-acre estate, uses furniture designed by artists Ivan Morison and Heather Peak in order to create “subtle” spaces for gathering and interaction in areas that had previously been overlooked or underutilized. They say their contribution was made using a “shared vocabulary of basic forms” (cone, cylinder, and slab), and have the simplicity of children’s toys with the equally playful title “Two Cannibals Eating a Clown.”

Image © Thierry Bal

"We wanted to create sculptural forms that also offer rest and contemplation," Morison said. "We stack a cylinder on a cone and call it a table. We put a flat slab on a smaller slab and call it a bench. We put ...

[Y/N] Studio's East London retrofit offers a fresh start for the Bradbury Works community hub

2023-03-06T14:17:00-05:00

London-based [Y/N] Studio has just released photos of its new Bradbury Works retrofit commercial project in the Dalston neighborhood of the city's Hackney borough.

Located in Gillett Square, the scheme refurbished existing workspaces in a Victorian-era brick masonry building while adding ten new mini retail units and a two-story extension to provide increased usability and interaction between its tenants and their neighbors in the square.

While retaining the brick facade and retail spaces located on the terrace level of the structure, Y/N’s project team was able to add larger workspaces, each with private mezzanines, to the third floor while ensuring improved cross ventilation through the addition of a new access deck that also provides tenants with a sweeping view of the capital.

Image courtesy French and Tye

Another double-height covered external terrace is enacted between the retail component and third-floor workspaces. Finally, the design comes wrapp...

The future of London's MSG Sphere may be getting clearer despite concerns

2023-01-24T17:42:00-05:00

[The] MSG Sphere, a new concert hall planned for Stratford in east London – which would be as wide as the London Eye and as tall as Big Ben – could soon move a step closer to reality. On Tuesday evening, the planning committee of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) will meet to consider its developer’s plans for managing the advertising display and its impact.

Efforts to halt the development of the Populous-designed entertainment venue date back to late 2020, when the public consultation phase for the project was extended for a third time over concerns about light pollution. Plans were approved by the LLDC in March of last year contingent on an agreement for a five-year review of the giant billboard’s 25-year advertising consent, which was accepted at Tuesday’s meeting. The project will now go before London Mayor Sadiq Khan for final approval.

Madison Square Garden (MSG)'s revised plan reportedly calls for a “suite of mitigation measures” to combat the effects of what would be the world's largest LED display. The intense visual impact of its Las Vegas counterpart is already being seen as a hazard.

A statement from the opposition group Stop MSG Sphere can be viewed below.

We gave it our best shot (the statement we gave at the meeting tonight is below). We're deeply disappointed no one voted against the paltry 5yr review on the 25YR adver...

Balfron Tower apartments go up for sale; enter Oliver Wainwright

2022-07-26T17:28:00-04:00

Almost 60 years later, Balfron’s streets have been scrubbed up and the residents’ facilities turbo-charged, but the kind of community that Goldfinger imagined has long since been evicted [...] Where once Balfron looked out over declining docks, it now winks across the Thames at the towers of Canary Wharf, whose bankers are a target audience for the new flats, which went on sale this weekend.

A spokesperson for the developer told the Guardian critic that the prospective buyers have mostly been well-to-do architects and design-hip young professionals thus far. Up for grabs is the famed Bond villain namesake Goldfinger’s personal apartment on the top floor, along with the five other preserved "heritage" apartments. Fans of the brutalist icon will have to shell out a pretty (money)penny to get inside its Grade II-listed halls, however: Asking prices for each of the 139 total apartments start at £375,000, or about $451,000.

Related on Archinect: Stock bricks to Brutalism: housing design in Poplar

Wainwright lamented the material choices and functionality of windows included in Studio Egret West's suite of upgrades as well as the newfound lack of views caused by the installation of a concrete balustrade. He also delved into the story behind its sordid ownership transfer. To that score, one "decanted" former resident told him the sloppy turnover was the product of "a political...

Planning approval has been granted to PLP Architecture and Adjaye Associates’ Whitechapel Estate overhaul

2022-05-13T13:55:00-04:00

Tower Hamlets Council has granted planning permission to PLP Architecture and Adjaye Associates’ amended plans to overhaul the Whitechapel Estate in east London. PLP masterplanned the development and designed seven buildings, while Adjaye Associates designed five of the six buildings on the west of the site. The duo first submitted plans for the estate in 2015, which were rejected by Tower Hamlets Council but later approved on appeal.

The revised plan was finally approved after an affordable housing plot was relocated “to a better setting” outside of the scheme, which also is now serviced by more energy-efficient heat pump technology. One-third of the scheme’s now 529 residences are still considered affordable under the approved update.

Adjaye Associates are continuing on a banner year in the face of a recent UK High Court decision to halt the planned Holocaust Memorial in London. The firm has been named to several major development projects internationally in the past six months, including a mass timber design for the Toronto Quayside project and Cleveland’s plan to create an entirely new mixed-use district called the Cuyahoga Riverfront.

Populous' London MSG Sphere is on the cusp of final approval in spite of objections

2022-03-17T11:58:00-04:00

A planning report for the scheme acknowledges criticism of the Sphere for its scale and massing, its impact on Stratford Station, and the impact of advertising on nearby residents. But it says the Sphere would ‘establish a strong sense of place at a scale that is not considered to be excessive, taking account of the established scale of surrounding buildings.

More than 1,000 objections were lodged against the project, which will come before the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) for a final approval vote on Tuesday. Their voices echo the derision Guardian critic Oliver Wainwright and others have parroted against the giant LED display’s ungainly light and noise pollution, murky politics, and sky-high price tag.

The public consultation process has been delayed several times over, but now appears to be inching towards the finish line, bringing out some of the opposition’s bigger names in a last-ditch effort to stop the Sphere from happening.

Previously on Archinect: Future of MSG Sphere London still undecided

“We are calling on the LLDC to refuse MSG’s application for a new venue in Stratford and encourage the Mayor of London to formally oppose this project in order to protect Newham’s residents and existing businesses from this inappropriate development,” a spokesperson for AEG, which operates London’s O2 Arena said in a letter ...

Photos: First V&A East building tops out in East London ceremony

2021-12-15T13:42:00-05:00

Exciting news in the museum world as the first site of the long-awaited Victoria & Albert Museum’s East extension has officially topped out as of this week.

The new V&A East has been years in the making. After overcoming roadblocks which threatened its existence beginning with sharp public criticism at its inception in 2016 and lasting all the way until this past fall, when it was announced that a much-heralded partnership with the American Smithsonian institution had to be called off thanks to unforeseen circumstances caused by the pandemic.

The O'Donnell + Tuomey-designed building is one of two slated to transform East London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park into a premier destination for the city’s artistic community.

The building was inspired by an x-ray of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s 1956 silk taffeta dress and will house a slate of progressive exhibitions and an employment program which includes the newly-established V&A East Youth Collective along...

New rendering reveals the temporary ABBA Voyage concert venue in East London

2021-09-07T19:49:00-04:00

As part of a concert series meant to promote the group’s first album release in 40 years, legendary Swedish pop group ABBA is pairing with one British architecture firm for a new 3,000-capacity concert venue nestled into a space originally designed for the 2012 Olympic games.

The band tapped Stufish Entertainment Architects for the design of the new temporary structure, which will be located in East London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

The park is already host to the city’s 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium as well as an aquatics center designed by Zaha Hadid.

The newly unveiled plans call for a hexagonal, timber-clad construction that will house a variety of performance functions, including a main stage and box office space in addition to bars and a covered concourse area with food stalls for fans flocking to the interactive experience.

Concertgoers will also have access to private dance booths in a highly technical scheme that will feature the display of avatars who will perform se...

This year's Serpentine Pavilion, inspired by London's immigrant gathering spaces, opens a year later than planned

2021-06-10T18:41:00-04:00

The latest iteration of the Serpentine Pavilion is now open in London after more than a year of COVID-related delays.

South African studio Counterspace had to wait 10 months to present its final design after being named to the commission in February of 2020.

The women-led team completed the commission's 20th Pavilion using repurposed materials including wine corks, steel, and cement leftover from marble production. This culminated in a carbon-negative building six meters in height that brought together elements from the city’s disparate migrant enclaves in an amalgam of typologies meant to articulate different scales of intimacy, according to Counterspace’s founder Sumayya Vally.

To gain perspective for the structure, Vally spent four months in the city looking for gathering spaces that typifi...

East London architects & artists collaborate on creative studios for Vyner Street

2018-03-26T14:42:00-04:00

AKK Studios, a collaborative comprised of (and named after) three artists—sculptor Kevin Francis Gray, artist Keith Coventry and artist/collector Alireza Abrishamchi—has teamed up with local London architects Fourthspace to create a four-story studio complex.

Located in the old Stuart Shave/Modern Art gallery space, the studio sits on Vyrner Street, a thriving hub of the east London art scene. The architects, who also own a nearby Venetian restaurant on Vyrner as well, were familiar with their artist-clients from the local Hackney area. Each artist has taken over one floor of the building, while Fourthspace has transformed the top floor into their new office space.

The new studios have been tailored to the specific needs of each artist, with design elements that reflect their individual craft. For instance, the renowned Irish sculptor, Kevin Francis G...

Brutalist block repurposed for 21st century Royal Docks workspaces

2017-09-01T01:29:00-04:00

A former beer factory in the Royal Docks is set to become London’s newest creative workspace hub, which will open later this year. The Silver Building, from SODA and Nick Hartwright, will be one of the first elements of the Royal Docks’ regeneration, which will continue throughout the next 15 years.

Brutalism is quickly becoming one of London's most celebrated styles, with the love for these post-war concrete structures growing over recent years. This project will build on the city’s hunger for not only iconic modernist buildings, but for creative spaces.

Photo Credit: Agnese Sanvito, Luke O’Donovan

The project bears the hallmarks of most regeneration hubs in London, providing cafes, galleries, function rooms, breakout spaces, studios, and workshops. The importance of these community-friendly creative hubs within London cannot be ignored; this project is a great solution to the scarcity of available workspaces for start-ups and small businesses in the city. With 50,000 square-foot...

Sam Jacob to redevelop former pub in Shoreditch

2016-04-19T17:20:00-04:00

Sam Jacob Studio’s mixed-use development in the Hoxton Street conservation area retains the façade of the Victorian pub originally on the site while creating ground-floor community facilities with an apartment above. The four-storey scheme will restore the last remaining piece of what was once a terraced street razed to the ground by bombing during the Second World War. The new block is expressed as a curved wall punctured by diamond-shaped window openings.

For more on Sam Jacob, or his former practice FAT, check out these links:

Has London finally found a Thames bridge that everyone can get behind?

2015-11-25T04:39:00-05:00

You wait years for a new bridge across the Thames then three come along at once. Joining the controversial garden bridge and a plan for a crossing between Nine Elms and Pimlico, both of which have fierce opponents, comes a proposal unveiled today for a new pedestrian and cycle bridge between Rotherhithe and the Isle of Dogs in east London that hasn’t aroused a single objection – yet. There’s a good reason why: of the three plans, it makes by far the most sense.