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As the Olympics draw closer, Britain moves one step nearer to delivering participants and spectators there on time. Capita Symonds have recently completed the complex extension of Gatwick’s North Terminal, the busiest single runway airport in the world. The upgrade involves a new state of the art passenger and transport interchange, Departures and Arrivals concourse extension and new multi storey car park. The extension costing £150+m, will increase the passenger capacity by 10 million.
Hundven-Clements Photography have been onsite to document this monumental structure in the depths of winter. The weather was not our side during the day so the interior was where we begun, later on in the day we were blessed with 20 mins of colour as the sun set. With a multi layered approach to design by Capita, a swift transition between shuttle transport and the departure halls has been created. The dramatic roof generates a pleasant feeling of openness allowing natural light to illuminate the platforms during the daytime.
Photographing operational public structures on this scale comes with an array of logistical and photographic challenges. The first being access, understandably Gatwick has high security regulations in place, so an interview to obtain a permit to photograph was essential. Once onsite we found the general public to be surprisingly accommodating with appearing in photos, I guess the prospect of two weeks in Mauritus away from a British winter helped! Let us know what you think of the new development.
On a cold winter’s evening after a day of photographing landscape architecture projects I was exploring the new developments on the south side of Aker Brygge at Tjuvholmen. A new hotel and gallery complex is dramatically forming. With only the surrounding ambient light and a few stray floodlights from the docks behind, some interesting results were achieved.
Beautifully placed by the Fjords surrounding the Nordic city of Bergen, the angular Villa TK stands proud on a hill top. A balance between wood, metal and glass has been carefully designed by Morten Nedreås of En Til En Arkitekter AS. The Villa has been constructed to maximise the stunning views over the adjacent fjord, with clean eye lines opening up the space.
This is Norways most prestigious high end retail shopping centre. Based in the centre of Oslo between the central station and the palace on Karl Johan’s Street it sits in a prime location. The renovation and joining of multiple adjacent buildings was Link Arkitekter’s largest challenge. The complex interior space is set across three floors, cleaverly connected by a collection of ramps, walkways and stairs.
Cartwright Pickard Architects have taken a complex structure in the form of London’s famous Metropolitan University and converted it in to a pure colour experience. The buildings from the 70’s were exhibiting such worn and depressing institutional designs that students have even left because of it. During my documentation of the recently opened renovation one of the lecturers explained that international students specifically from the US were so shocked by the pre-renervation conditions (akin to a mental institute) that they have been known to leave.
Now Peter Cartwright and James Pickard have delivered a stimulating renovation that plays upon the existing architectural features whilst maintaining a very tight expenditure programme.The dramatic use of primary colours and cost effective, textured surfaces has delivered a new energy avoiding the costly expenses of rebuilding.
As government budgets bite hard in the education sector, I think we will be seeing a lot more renovations in the future, let’s hope they’re all as inspiring as this one.
The project exhibits a sensitive balance between creative design and energy efficiency.
A competition set by Agder Energy was awarded to LINK architecture AS in 2007, with the completed new HQ due early 2011. A special energy adviser (KanEnergi) participated in the competition and planning process. It was a goal that the building will achieve energy label A in the energy labeling scheme to be introduced in Norway on the basis of the EU building energy directive.
Total area: approx. 24 000m2 of which 14 000 are office space spread over 5 floors above ground and 10 000 m2 of parking, 2 floors below ground. Parking: approx. 10000 m2 spread over 2 floors below ground.