Announced as a ‘family-friendly creative workspace,’ Second Home London Fields contains the company's first daycare location. The project was designed by the Madrid firm Cano Lasso, and according to Gonzalo Cano, the building is inspired by the biophilic and light forms of the German architect Frei Otto, who was very well known for the extendable roof of the Munich Olympic stadium.
Second Home London Fields is clad in a ‘bubble’ façade made from ETFE, a highly efficient woven fabric stretching across a free-form frame, amplifying the surrounding urban landscape. Originally designed by victorian church architect James Cubitt, the front of the building served as an education space from the 1970s while the rear, known as Morley Hall, was a former cinema, dance hall, and temperance house dating back to 1879.
Inside, the workspace is created within this repurposed existing building, where now interiors are imbued with Second Home’s SelgasCano style, with bright colours, biophylic design and lots of light, thanks to numerous skylights which cut through inside of the building.
‘Why start a nursery here?’, co-CEO and co-founder Rohan Silva answerself. ‘One of he big impediments for creativity, and in particular women, is access to childcare. The numbers are frightening. So what we are trying to do is show how the building environment might better support working parents.’
Second Home called upon one of the London’s most progressive nursery providers, N Family Club, to work together on the enterprise’s first ever nursery location, which feel contemporary and Nordic-inspired, designed by emerging London architecture practice Kennedy Woods.
