Gasholders London: Game of Contrasts
Gasholders London has been chosen by the RIBA Awards Group to win a 2018 RIBA National Award. The RIBA Judges described the scheme as a “successful marrying of old with new, sensitively handling the needs of 21st-century living while celebrating the most beautiful industrial structures in the renaissance of King’s Cross: the triplet of Grade II-listed cast-iron gasholders.”
King’s Cross is the largest urban redevelopment scheme in Europe, and the rich industrial heritage of the area is integral to its renaissance. Among the most distinctive and beautiful features to be retained is the triplet of Grade II-listed, cast iron gasholder guide frames which were originally constructed in 1867. The triplet was abandoned as heavy industry moved to the outskirts of the city, and was dismantled in 2001 to allow for the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
WilkinsonEyre won a design competition in 2002, with the concept for three residential buildings to be housed within the elegant frames. The concept proposed three drums of accommodation at differing heights to suggest the movement of the original gasholders, which would have risen up or down depending on the pressure of the gas within. A fourth, virtual drum shape, located at the centre forms an open courtyard, celebrating the conglomeration of the cast iron structures at their point of intersection.
The design was developed to create a dynamic counterpoint between old and new. The heavy industrial aesthetic and raw physical materiality of the guide frames contrasts with the lightness and intricacy of the interior spaces. The circular nature of the buildings results in apartments that are laid out to take advantage of natural daylighting, with the living and bedrooms at the perimeter. The ‘pie’ shaped configuration of the grid forms open-plan apartments with expansive views and a variety of orientations.
Materials provided by WilkinsonEyre
Photo: © Peter Landers
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