This building was an oddity in a largely Georgian developed part of Central London. Its 7 storey form appeared to openly oppose the hierarchy of the wider blocks, opting to be horizontal instead of vertical, top heavy instead of bottom heavy, in an evocative Stirling style.
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The task was to retain the existing residential units which existed to the lower floors, refurbish and extend the remaining parts and create a design which unified this into something interesting and palatable to the surrounding area.
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Conversation area policy which strident in its claims that the building made a negative contribution to the neighbourhood, so any development could be justified in the sense that it could remedy the harm done to the visual amenity.
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The existing building sat on 3 streets – Great Portland Street; Carburton Street and Bolsover Street – which offered a unique Architectural opportunity in prime London real estate. Each street had its own language which offered an intriguing Architectural challenge.
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Various concept designs were created to analysise formal and informal versions of a over cladded framework to create a truly 3-dimensional building. This could react to the different street scenes which had their own window proportion and hierarchy.