New French School, Update

Most recent pictures from the building site:

Microsite Development Mashup

Video presentation of Sidell Gibson Architects' contribution to the Royal Society of the Arts' Day of Ideas: The Resourceful Architect.

More Awards for One New Change

Sidell Gibson with Atelier Jean Nouvel's One New Change has been given the International Green Apple Award 2011 for Built Environment.

One New Change is also shortlisted for the following Awards (results to be announced shortly):

- RIBA Award 2011

- BCO Award 2011

- 2011 International Design Award

- AJ100 Building of the Year Award

Sidell Gibson shortlisted in The Resourceful Architect ideas competition

Fresh from the RSA website:

In February the  RSA and the Architecture Foundation issued an open call for ideas about the future uses of architecture. Responses to this call have raised intriguing questions about architects’ ingenuity, strategic thinking and social role in today’s climate of financial constraint and emphatic localism.

56 entries, including submissions from Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, India and Greece, put forward innovative ways for architects to connect social need with spatial opportunity, re-structure conventional processes, increase the productiveness and resilience of communities and turn limitations of time, space and budget into creative advantage. Seven of these ideas were selected by a shortlisting panel chaired by Nabeel Hamdi. The panel were Jennifer Dixon, architect, Austin-Smith: Lord; Edwin Heathcote, architecture & design correspondent, FT; Christine Murray, Editor, Architects’ Journal; Lewis Biggs, Director, Liverpool Biennial; Sarah Ichioka, Director, Architecture Foundation; and Emily Campbell, Director of Design, RSA Projects.

The Resourceful Architect is sponsored by Austin-Smith: Lord and Land Securities.

The seven shortlisted ideas to be presented on 18 May are:

The Redundant Architect Recreation Association (RARA)
East London Design Bureau
A flexible and affordable shared workspace for out-of-work architects to experiment and fabricate.

72-hour Urban Action
Alison Killing, Killing Architects, Amsterdam
A real-time architecture competition defined by an extreme deadline, tight budget and limited space to resolve local needs.

Space for Exchange: A Sustainable Return to Srebrenica
Vernes Causevic, London Metropolitan University
A programme to renew and rebrand war-torn Srebrenica into a sustainable regional centre for vocational education.

School of Architecture for All (SCHARCHA)
Led by Maria Theodoru, Athens
A network of associates re-thinking the relation between architecture and economics by viewing the city as a pool of resources requiring administration.

Pavement for Las Lomas
Bara Safarova, London Metropolitan University
A DIY instruction manual for making and installing paving slabs for the deprived community of Colonias in Texas.

Mashup
Richard Brearley and Uli Kraeling, Sidell Gibson Architects, London
An electronic microsite connecting social and personal needs with derelict pockets of land and buildings in London.

The Architects Adhocracy
Mobile Studio and Yesomi Umolu, London
A competition investigating how much architectural and spatial agency can be achieved for a budget of £40 and within 40 minutes of ideation time. 

No. 1 Kingsway

No. 1 Kinsgway on the lower right.

Sidell Gibson Architects No. 1 Kingsway for UK & European Properties is nearing completion with a new web site and video set up to sing its praises: www.onekingsway.com
Behind the retained listed facade No. 1 Kingsway features 105,00 sq. ft. of BREEAM 'Excellent' sustainable office space, seven exclusive luxury rooftop apartments and a brasserie-style restaurant.

New French School in Camden Journal

Sidell Gibson Architects' New French School, Kentish Town features in a recent article in the Camden Journal newspaper, click on the link to read more:

Property News: Vive la différence! - Multi £m restoration of Grade II-listed former Kingsway adult education college

 

Civic Trust Commendation for Discover Greenwich

Sidell Gibson with John Miller + Partners' Discover Greenwich Project for the Old Royal Naval College received a Civic Trust Commendation award at the official ceremony held at the People's History Museum Manchester on Friday 4th March 2011. Representing Sidell Gibson was partner Richard Brearley (2nd from right) who picked up the certificate and plaque on stage together with Neil Coe (2nd from left) of the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College.

Partner Richard Brearley (2nd from right) with client's representative Neil Coe (2nd from left).

The Civic Trust Award judges said the following about this project:

'The re-planning and refurbishment of the old Pepys building has been beautifully crafted and inserted sensitively into the renovated existing building fabric. The scheme is simply laid out and accessible physically and intellectually at many different levels, targeting all ages and abilities very successfully. Bright, airy spaces and a successful mezzanine level providing an exciting flexible area have been created. Discover Greenwich has delivered a radical improvement to interpretation and visitor access for the Old Royal Naval College and the wider Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site.'

New French School Tops Out

Designed by Sidell Gibson Architects for The French Education Property Trust (FEPT), the New French School in London's Kentish Town, which is due to be completed in July 2011, reached a key milestone on Friday 11th February with its 'topping out' ceremony.

French Ambassador Maurice Gourdault-Montagne (centre) with Jean-Pierre Mustier (left) and Arnaud Vaissié (right), trustees of the FEPT.

The project, which was subject to listed building consent and full planning permission, involves a major conversion and extension of a three-storey, Grade II listed Victorian London Board School building to provide modern infant, primary and secondary school facilities for 700 pupils of the local, French speaking community.

The design entails an imaginative and sensitive reuse of the existing building (a traditional Victorian school construction of architectural and historic interest, first designed in 1874 by E R Robson) to meet essential current legislation for schools, including disabled access, means of escape requirements, environmental standards and sustainability.

New interventions include the expansion of the multi-use hall to accommodate dining for the whole school, self-contained entrance points and outside play areas for infant, primary and secondary pupils, glazed roof corridor link to single-storey playground changing room with toilet facilities and a new classroom block for secondary and infant pupils. The three school tiers will share a number of common facilities, such as the library, dining hall, etc.

A second phase, new build, three-storey teaching wing, due for completion in December 2011, will incorporate sustainably sourced timber cladding over a brick base, pitched roofs in black zinc panels and green roofs to single storey areas. Green roofs to the new classrooms will enhance rainwater retention, bio- diversity and heat and sound insulation. The building will be naturally ventilated with passive cooling utilising the internal thermal mass and is expected to achieve a BREEAM rating of Very Good.

The whole existing building envelope is improved thermally, by introducing window double-glazing, roof insulation, insulation on the inner face of external brickwork and ground floor slab insulation. Long life low energy lighting is provided throughout, switched and dimmed to daylight sensors. High efficiency gas boilers supplying energy saving low surface temperature convector heaters provide the primary heat source with hot water under floor heating coils in larger open plan spaces.

Richard Brearley, project director for Sidell Gibson, said: "The project is an exciting challenge to regenerate an unused Listed Victorian School integrated with imaginative contemporary architecture to serve the needs of the French community in London."

The project team comprises Sidell Gibson Architects, Fairhurst GGA structural consultants, Cundall M&E consultants and Beadmans project management and QS services.

The French Ambassador Maurice Gourdault-Montagne layed a brick as part of the ceremony.

BBC One London Inside Out visits Old Brewery Greenwich

BBC London's Inside Out programme went to Sidell Gibson's Discover Greenwich and had a look behind the scenes of Greenwich Meantime's micro brewery and investigated the history of brewing beer on this site.

Numerous shots of Sidell Gibson's three-storey high brewing tower and the re-furbished, re-waterproofed historic basement vaults including the old well head rediscovered during the project.

Watch it here

New French School building site on a sunny February day

Beaney Museum & Art Gallery, Update

Latest pictures of construction progress at Sidell Gibson Architects' Beaney Institute Museum and Art Gallery, Canterbury. The steel framing for the new entrance, gallery & library extension is well underway as are the in-situ concrete lift shaft and new stair of the future main atrium space.

New steel frame with Canterbury Cathedral in background.

New concrete stair in atrium space.

Visualisation of atrium.

Conservation/refurbishment work in the existing galleries.

New French School, Update

Recent photographs of steelwork and prefabricated concrete lift shaft for the new circulation core inserted into the heart of the existing building and the new entrance colonnade concrete columns which will be clad in brickwork.

 

The classrooms have received new suspended mass-barrier ceilings to protect against impact noise from floors above. Metal studwork has been erected along the old brick walls to support high impact plasterboard with new insulation behind. The single glazing in the existing sash windows is replaced by slim double glazed units to improve thermal and acoustic performance while keeping up the external (listed) appearance.

 

Discover Greenwich nominated for Civic Trust Award

John Miller + Partners with Sidell Gibson's Discover Greenwich Visitor Centre has been shortlisted for a Civic Trust Award. Click here to read the press release on the Civic Trust's website.

One New Change Geothermal

 
An article on Sidell Gibson's One New Change focusing on the ground source system for heating & cooling in the Architects' Journal's Footprint sustainability blog.

An article on the same topic in the Guardian's Sustainable Business Section: 
One New Change shoppers warm to geothermal heat

Bartholomew Lane

After other architects had fought unsucessfully for over 4 years to achieve planning consent, the clients held a design competition which Sidell Gibson won - and consent was duly achieved.

The project is situated adjacent to the Bank of England in the heart of the City of London. The facade of a former bank built around 1930 is retained in the two principal frontages up to the 6th floor. Behind this, and extending above it in four further floors is a highly efficient modern office, offering multi-tenanted lettable space for twelve floors.  New facades at high level are faced in Portland Stone. A striking Reception room with a new spiral stair rising three floors forms part of the design. BREEAM rating: Excellent.

Photographs by Paul Riddle.

Location: Bartholomew Lane, City of London, EC2

Client: F&C Asset Management

Size: 10,800m² gross, 7,400m² net

Contract Value: £32m