Former Rolling Stones and The Who club site transformed
Academy House – a 1980s building on London’s busy Oxford Street – has been transformed by John Robertson Architects (JRA) into an office and retail space. The site’s long and rich history includes its use as a 1930s art house cinema, which was later run as the Marquee Club, the venue where The Rolling Stones and The Who made their debuts.
JRA introduced a semi-industrial aesthetic across the office floors, retaining the exposed concrete frame in a raw state. With a gross internal floor area of approximately 5,300 sqm, Academy House provides four floors of retail, four floors of office space and a timber-decked terrace which wraps around the perimeter of the building, offering stunning views across central London.
Yangtze River nature plans unveiled
Ennead Architects won a major design competition to create the Shanghai Yangtze River Estuary Chinese Sturgeon Nature Preserve.
The proposed design features dramatic forms that rise in undulating, fluid gestures taking cues from the rippling surface of the river and the iconic landscape of the upper Yangtze.
Built forms evoke biomorphic anatomy and a vessel-like ark, with gently curving wooden structural ribs radiating around a central spine that joins three building wings into a unified expression. Clad in translucent PTFE, the lightweight enclosure system envelops the interior pools to create a luminous, daylight-maximizing interior.
Led by design partner Thomas Wong, in partnership with landscape designer Andropogon, the project tries to rescue endangered species and restore biodiversity to a habitat beset by pollution.
Metal and glass clad the box for Pivexin Technology and house an office, areas for social facilities, a warehouse and land development around buildings including parking and greenery.
Office and warehouse had to be complementary and interconnected, so designers merged the structure of both buildings to create a coherent "organism". Total area of the building in Nedza, Poland, is 3,800sqm. The outer skin of the building is black and the elevation is largely glazed with vertical pilasters and horizontal cornices accentuating the building.