The 1200sqm building on White Lion Street in Islington provides a rare and special opportunity to create a new stand-alone building in Central London. We worked hard to produce an efficient plan with a single core, providing a restaurant on the basement and ground floors, offices on the three upper floors and a single residential unit on the top floor.
The faceted cladding of the three exposed elevations gives depth to t facades and allowed us to explore the passer-by experience. We played further with the geometry by shifting the perspective, reversing the scale from small to large as you move up the building. The distinct geometric shadows slowly move during the day and form immaterial, changing ornaments to the building.
The proposal coherently resolves the three different challenges for the facade: street facing, boundary walls and proximity to buildings at the rear.
