Based out of London is this award-winning RIBA Chartered Architectural Practice that saw its dawn in the year 1998. Its pioneer architect Nick Eldridge envisioned the firm to become one that has set a reputation in bringing about brilliant projects with sensitive contexts, sophisticated interiors, and worldwide ventures.
Below listed is a gaze at some of the firm’s outstanding projects that have helped it carve out the name of a remarkable practice in London.
1. House in Highgate Cemetery, London
The owner, being awed and inspired by the firm’s ‘Lawns Project’ in the nearby Highgate Conservation Area, called for the firm to redesign their deteriorated steel framed house that overlooks the Highgate Cemetery.
Winner of a RIBA award, the house is designed with a play of materials from glass to concrete to black granite. The open large terraces on each floor borrow splendid views from the cityscape making up for the ground area the house takes up of the site.
Openness was a key factor considered in the design of this replacement house, with features like sliding glass roof light, translucent glass floors owing to the same.
2. House in Highgate Village Conservation Area, London
This is the infamous ‘Lawns Project’ that won the firm the project of the Highgate cemetery house. Winner of numerous awards including the 2002 Camden Design Award, this house was the first architectural project taken up by the firm.
The whole project was planned as an addition to an existing core of a 1960s house designed by architect Leonard Manasseh. The addition proved to be a notable one earning the firm of the following praise from the Stirling Prize jury after being nominated for the same: “The Lawns is a very disciplined and exciting house and is an exemplar of how the 21st-century house can be incorporated into historic Conservation Areas as part of the continuing evolution of domestic architecture. It should also inspire other clients and architects to confront the challenges of the UK planning process”.
The refashioning to the house included adding a series of glass structures to the front sides and roof. The core of the existing house was also modified with changes to the staircase causing the main living spaces to span the rear of the house.
3. E Oppenheimer and Son Headquarters London
The project was a winning entry to a Limited competition for the design of the Headquarters offices for diamond dealers E Oppenheimer and Son, owner of De Beers. The scope of the project was to remodel the existing building which was a bank from the 1950s. Architect Nick Eldridge intended to break its complexity, simplifying its geometry whilst creating clear spaces.
Natural light was welcomed into the building with the replacement of sash windows on all floors and the enlargement of windows on the ground floor.
4. House in Ulcombe, Kent
The project followed a ‘kit of parts’ design construction and is located in Kent. The scope of the firm was limited, tied to the service of architectural concepts and obtaining planning consent.
The client put on the shoes of the Construction Manager and undertook the contract of project management, procurement, and implementation.
5. Selfridges Department Store, Birmingham
The firm gained this project of designing a whole floor of the Future Systems Selfridges Store after the client reached out after being inspired by the ‘BT Cell net/ 02 Project’.
The firm calls this floor the ‘Spirit’ Floor where the three departments of books, fashion, and technology are designed as seamless fields in landscapes. Unified by a resin floor, the three departments are structured using a repeated grid of tailored light fittings with large reflectors.
The book department uses birch plywood shelving that echoes the parchment quality of the raw paper and this department sits in between the fashion department and the technology one.
The walls of the Technology department are inspired by the packaging of the electrical devices displayed while the counters use the corrugated cardboard exterior.
6. House in Epsom, Surrey
Overlooking the RAC’s Woodcote Park Golf Course, is this RIBA Award winning 7,000 square foot new family house. The orientation of the house was so devised to benefit from the both sun and views of the exterior golf course.
Two wings of the house are placed with respect to the sun angles and the views they offer. The larger one of the wings contains the double-height living spaces, with bedrooms and accommodation spaces. The other wing contains a swimming pool, a gymnasium that overlooks a sunken courtyard space outside.
The house employs the latest energy-saving systems that include solar heating and ground surface heat pumps.
7. BT Cellnet/ 02 Mobile Applications Development Centre, London
The project resulted in a limited design competition for a research and development center out of the existing shell of a disused film studio at Ealing Studios. As the studio was due for demolition after two years, this winning proposal catered to this need by coming up with easily dismantle able design.
The exterior of this structure was completely protected from the adjacent construction sites and with the use of translucent fabric skin that provided a quite abstract image onto the world. It was this proposal’s remarkable outcome that attracted the client of the Selfridges Department Store.
8. Shed Private Members Club, London
Situated in London among many traditional buildings, Shed is a private members club that is housed within the former Bank of Havana. It occupies the lower two floors of the said old building to encompass drawing rooms, restaurant, bar, and a group of ‘Zzed sheds’.
On the lower floor of the club lie the social and private space that has a mirrored bar and this portion of the club is furnished with Dark leather and Chrome finished armchairs. The Dining Shed is formed out of interlocking triangular panels of Birch Plywood.
9. The British Library Business and Intellectual Property Centre, London
This venture was one of the first architectural projects that started with the Grade I British Library since the building’s conception in 1998. The project is constructed inside one of the existing reading rooms and stands as a resource center for just about anybody who can benefit from the Library’s assortments and specialist advisors.
Innovative glass film and Lightweight glass structures have been used to define the newly designed spaces. This material palette delivers a quality that ensures privacy and openness both suited for the library’s usage.
10. House in Moscow Region, Russia
This 80,000 square foot country house, sits about 30 miles out of Moscow within a sprawling woodland. The design of the building takes up to four floors with a central vertical rotunda taking care of all the vertical circulation and cantilevered spaces protrude out of this space into the surrounding treetops. The House has earned a lot of acclaim including being shortlisted for the Manser Medal.
11. CorTen House in Putney, London
The project was proposed to be a redesign of the client’s former house built for the family in the 1960s. The client’s brief necessitated a design that would be inspired by two of his favorite architects, Greene and Greene and Marcel Breuer.
Whitney’s Breuer Museum inspired Nick Eldridge to take elements of the roof dormers and the bay window present in the English Vernacular houses. And for Greene and Greene inspiration was taken in the design of the details for a contemporary staircase as well as wall paneling.
Nick Eldridge with his diverse interest in the material category opted for Cor-Ten Steel envelope that rightly matched the color of brickwork and tiled roofs of the surrounding buildings.
12. House in Belsize Park, London
Situated in London, this house was designed in a triangular plot which was the former nursery garden to Eton Estate. The firm also was to refurbish and extended an existing red-brick Proto Arts and crafts house.
Remodeling and restoration to the exterior façade of the house had been carried out with an extension to create a lavish double-height entrance. To this a much contemporary addition has been designed that contains a courtyard and follows the dynamic geometry of the triangular site.
13. Joinedupdesignforschools Exhibition V&A, London
Impressed by previous works, the firm was selected for designing the exhibition of Sorrell Foundation’s ‘Joinedupdesignsforschools’ Programme at the Victoria and Albert Museum located in South Kensington.
The program tries to engage people in the design process and does this by encouraging the involvement of the younger generation.
14. Villa Moda Department Store, Kuwait
Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah, the owner of Villa Moda, wished-for a state of the art retail experience and with this need addressed the firm for its design. The scope of the project lied in the design of the entrance area and lounge, staircases and the public spaces, two levels of Fashion space, restaurant and café, and the landscaping around the building’s exterior.
15. House and Garden Fair International Designer’s Pavillion, London
This structure modeled out of plywood, using computer-aided manufacture and CNC Cutting, was developed as a demonstration of off-site fabrication techniques. The project is an attempt by the firm to venturing into flexible modular pre-fabrication at a larger scale.
Eldridge and London were selected as the International Designers to display their Pavilion for the annual interiors carnival. This pavilion is designed to provide shelter and intimacy, at the same time posing as study, display, and play and relaxation area.
