A Play of Contrasts in the New Design District. Artists’ Atelier in London by Barozzi Veiga
27/05/2022.
[LON] UK
metalocus, ÁNGELA MARTÍNEZ
metalocus, ÁNGELA MARTÍNEZ
Description of project by Barozzi Veiga
The Design District on the Greenwich Peninsula is a one-hectare riverside site with 16 new buildings that will provide an affordable base for creative businesses to trade, interact and grow. Eight emerging architectural practices from across Europe were each given a pair of buildings and asked to work blind, without knowing what the others were designing. The result is a provocative diversity of colour and form in a new neighbourhood devoted to design, art, tech, craft and music. In this kind of undefined and evolving context, devoid of urban references, the project defines two very pragmatic buildings – industrial containers that maximize the flexibility of the interior and explore the use of basic construction systems. The project plays with the imaginary of an artist’s studio, emphasizing the use of light in a workspace defined by large windows, double-height rooms and a certain raw materiality.
A1, located at the entrance, has a mirror-polish appearance that invites visitors from near and far, while D4, with its slim black facade, joins the activities of the central square. The appearance of the two volumes expresses the idea of creating a single project made up of a pair of figures, chromatically opposed, but in dialogue with each other. The chromatic differences provide two moments along the path through the district while evidently stemming from a unitary design logic. The reflective materiality dissolves the buildings into the future context and makes them participate in the life of the neighbourhood, absorbing and reflecting the light and colours of the surrounding environment as they change with the passage of the day and the seasons.
As a whole, the design echoes the industrial history of the area and the charm of some iconic twentieth-century references while generating an abstract backdrop to the urban life of the Design District.
Fabrizio Barozzi born in Rovereto (Italy) in 1976. He currently lives and works in Barcelona.He graduated as an architect in 2003 by the University Institute of Architecture in Venezia. He completed his training in 1999 at the School of Architecture of Seville in 2001 while living in Paris.
He began his training partner in 2003 working as the office of William Vázquez Consuegra and later in 2004 is associated with Alberto Veiga and establish their own professional studio.
He has been Professor of Projects at International University of Catalonia in Barcelona from 2007 to 2009 and since 2009 is Associate Professor of Projects at the University of Girona.
Alberto Veiga (Santiago de Compostela, Spain), was born in 1973 and studied architecture at the School of Architecture of Navarre. After graduating, he worked as an assistant and planner in Patxi Mangado practices in 1997-2001. From 2001-03, he worked as a designer of Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra, where he worked on a number of projects awarded. In 2004 he settled in EBV Architects with Fabrizio Barozzi. Projects currently teaches 3rd year at UIC.
EBV Architects is an architectural firm located in Barcelona and founded by Fabrizio Barozzi (Trento, Italy, 1976) and Alberto Veiga (Santiago, Spain, 1973) devoted to architecture, urbanism and interior design. The experience accumulated over the years in collaboration with renowned architects has allowed prestige EBV start a professional career where independent research plays a major role. The study EBV and has been awarded with many awards nationally and internationally.