Newsletter Spring 2015 by Avery Associates

The
Helsinki
Guggenheim
Competition
Project News
Spring 2015
With an entry of 1,715
submissions it was little more
than a lottery, but for us it
was the perfect opportunity
to test the form-giving Seven
‘C’s in a new field and to
explore some technical and
aesthetic innovations in a way
not normally possible on live
projects.
Using our theatre experience, we
proposed making the museum as
flexible for change as a modern
auditorium. We gave it an undercroft
to service exhibits from below and
hydraulic floor-levelling equipment
with removable rostra to create
multiple levels and removable ‘sets’ –
walls that can be flown into a void as
in a fly-tower.
We provided too a tension wire grid
to light displays with precision from
anywhere and we added a flexible
zone for services and structure in
the outer walls to allow for whatever
technical complexity an artist may
envisage.
Spatially too we wanted to experiment
with flexibility so we divided the
gallery into three interlinked
semi-automatic pavilions, each of a
different size, and separated from one
another by a breather-space, a quiet
pool, thereby creating six standard
exhibition sizes and an almost limitless
number of sub-sizes all served from
the undercroft below.
The concept of semi-autonomous
‘pavilions’ was then extended to
the other elements of the gallery
so that they too could be operated
independently or together and each
was topped by a rooftop sculpture
garden with lush planting to provide a
thick thermal blanket.
The walls were then clad with
fragmented white glass, a beautiful
and very durable material for a
marine location and a reference also
to Bryan’s on-going fascination with
the cliff-forms of the South Coast, his
place of upbringing.
Key:
Opposite, page:
Top: Cross section. Middle: The entrance pavilion. Bottom:
Aerial view of the seven pavilions.
This page:
Top: First floor plan. Bottom: Perspective view showing one
of the pools between the galleries.
Egypt
Now is a very good time to go to Egypt ; there are hardly any
tourists there and they do desperately need custom. The
architecture is pretty extraordinary too. Colonnaded buildings
like this (above, top, sketch by Bryan) are still being built to this
day in Europe but how many modern architects bother with the
subtlety shown here? The square columns are not what they
seem; they have an almost imperceptible curve on them, an
optical refinement to give the columns an aesthetic elegance.
The Greeks later called it ‘entasis’ but this temple was built
1000 years before the Parthenon (above, bottom, sketch also
by Bryan). Go and wonder.
The Regal Cinema
in Camberwell Green (see
left) is a Grade 2 listed
building which we’ve been
commissioned to expand
for use by the House of
Praise church. The church
has a congregation of 1200
and urgently needs more
back of house facilities,
function rooms and foyer
space to make it more
operationally sustainable.
More of this project in the
next newspiece.
Avery Associates Architects
270 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 1BB
Tel: +44 (0)207 233 6262 Fax: +44 (0)207 233 5182
Email: enquiries@avery-architects.co.uk
www.avery-architects.co.uk

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The
Contiguous
Tower
Towers are one of the most
exciting of all architectural
challenges. They are also
one of the most difficult.
We have now designed four towers
for the City but this one at No. 1
Undershaft is, we think, the best.
No.1 Undershaft
286.0m AOD
5000
6500
9282.962
The challenge was to get 65,000 m²
of lettable office area plus 1000 m²
of retail in a very constrained site
juxtaposed by three of the City’s
most famous buildings – the ‘Gherkin’,
‘Cheesegrater’ and Lloyds.
Those who know the principle of
our Seven ‘C’s (see ‘Fragments of
Wilderness City”) will recognise
that the Contiguity here has driven
the design. It uses the same skeletal
structural aesthetic of the adjacencies
and takes the external wall climbing lift
to a new conclusion – as a funicular –
to totally liberate the office floor plan.
This is probably the most efficient net/
gross you’ll ever see for a tower of
57 stories.
The Leadenhall Tower
239.45m AOD
Tower 42
199.6m AOD
The real challenge though was not
technical but aesthetic; how to bed
such an extremely large new building
into its context such that it would not
overpower the other buildings but
enhance them.
The answer was to lean the building
forward at the reciprocal angle to its
nearest neighbour, the ‘Cheesegrater’
and then slice it off such that it didn’t
impinge on the views of St.Pauls or
obstruct the ‘Gherkin’.
This had the beneficial effect also
of appearing to add a crown to
the ‘Cheesegrater’ and giving it a
symmetry - thereby adding a new
and intriguing visual complexity to the
City’s skyline.
Bar
(for more details, see the AJ
(Architects’ Journal) 9 January 2015)
56
Restaurant
Kitchen
55
54
Plant
Lift Transfer
Lift Transfer
Plant
Plant
Lift Transfer Lobby
Lift Transfer Lobby
Lowest Office Floor Plate
Level 04
NIA: 2,125m 2 (22,873ft 2 )
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Lift Transfer Lobby
Lift Transfer Lobby
No.1 Undershaft
Scale @ A3 1:1250
50m
© Avery Associates Architects
270 Vauxhall Bridge Road
London SW1V 1BB
Mid Office Floor Plate
Level 31
NIA: 1,400m 2 (15,072ft 2 )
+14.90m AOD
+16.55m AOD
Foyer
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Retail
1
0
B1 +9.144m AOD (as existing)
Retail & Plant
B2 +5.791m AOD (as existing) Plant / Service
B3 +1.219m AOD (as existing)
Plant / Service
B4 Approx -3.356m AOD (as existing)
Highest Office Floor Plate
Level 52
NIA: 433m 2 (4,655ft 2 )
50m
Typical Floor Plans
No.1 Undershaft
Scale @ A3 1:1000
© Avery Associates Architects
270 Vauxhall Bridge Road
London SW1V 1BB