The practice has created an innovative and highly individual members’ club for the creative tenants of Greenwich’s Design District, says Fran Williams
26 August 2021 By Fran Williams. Photography Ruth Ward, Taran Wilkhu, Thomas Adank
Won a week before the country went into lockdown last March, this was the first of Roz Barr Architects’ jobs to be entirely completed during the pandemic. Having to work for much of the project online away from the site, and under such uncertain conditions, it was never going to be a ‘normal project’. Founder Roz Barr recalls: ‘We had to design it like a game of consequences.’
The practice has been responsible for the fit-out of two of the 16 buildings that make up the Greenwich Design District: D1, by Architecture 00; and C3 by HNNA (formerly known as Assemblage and also responsible for masterplanning the District). Together, Roz Barr’s unitary fit-outs are known as Bureau. Intended as a ‘productive workspace and members’ club for the creative industries’, Bureau will open at the start of September. It features a selection of colourful bespoke and carefully selected fittings, finishes and furniture, which in the case of C3, the focus of this study, are in striking contrast with the building’s white, undulating façade. Barr’s work here was about giving HNNA’s building a personality – essentially ‘figuring out the unity of the building’, as Helen Arvanitakis, Design District’s director, puts it.
The building’s reception (and the main entrance to the club) is at the south side of C3 and faces D1, the space between forming a sort of external common ground between the two sharply contrasting massings. Visitors arriving via North Greenwich tube station approach through the centre of the district and between the neighbouring buildings to access the club. A second main entrance is located at the junction between the two buildings. ‘The entrance needed to be in dialogue with Architecture 00’s building,’ says Barr. In fact, thanks to its position at the entrance of the Design District, C3’s reception will serve as the front desk for the whole neighbourhood.
Entering via C3’s lobby, to the right is the Salon – a cinema room – and to the left a double-height café. Behind the reception desk is access to the building’s stair core.
Taking references from the likes of Peckham Liberal Club and De Beauvoir Block’s workspaces, Roz Barr Architects saw in the project an opportunity to put its own stamp on other architects’ buildings by creating a ‘stage set’, as Barr describes it. Aiming to give a contemporary twist to the typical ‘chintzy’ members’ club look, Barr was at pains to ‘avoid pastiche’. ‘We’ve tried to keep the conversation fresh. The scheme is anti-nostalgic,’ she says. Out of respect for the group of ‘serious’ creatives who will end up using the spaces, they also wanted to avoid the Hackney hipster-ish ply-and-plant aesthetic, she adds.
The post-Covid world of work is yet to fully unfold. But a good six months spent designing from kitchen tables has changed the way that both Barr and Arvanitakis envisage the future of working together. Barr has designed a range of spaces that are all about congregating in teams – whether it’s two people or 10 – aimed at freelancers, start-ups, independent creatives and anyone who wants to offer their employees an alternative to the conventional office.
Spread out over four floors, Bureau contains ample workspace, including meeting rooms, acoustically adapted suites for video conferencing, a dedicated events space, breakout spaces, four distinct lounge areas and outdoor terraces. Design District, the client, will offer Bureau members a curated programme of professional guidance and wellbeing support, with a calendar of events, talks and workshops. ‘We wanted Bureau to be Design District in microcosm,’ says Arvanitakis.
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The same materials language has been deployed across both buildings, with each space being allocated its own colour palette. Barr has worked a lot with geometric motifs to bring the spaces together, designating zones in some open plan spaces. The aesthetic set by Barr’s approach to materials is honest and utilitarian, yet sophisticated. She describes it as a ‘language of detailing in different colours’. A minimal structure is used throughout, mainly expressed by exposed galvanised metal stud walls and fibrous cement board, juxtaposed with linoleum finishes on the floors and walls and digitally printed carpets and rugs. Sustainability has steered the selection of materials to a degree. Forbo’s Marmoleum linoleum brand, for example, is made from 97 per cent recycled materials and is claimed to be carbon-neutral. Natural furniture fabrics have been used throughout, while sheet materials for the work surfaces were sourced from Welsh waste plastics recycler Smile Plastics, and recycled plastic surfaces feature elsewhere in the joinery.
The furniture selection includes pieces by Hay Furniture, Stuttgart-based Richard Lampert and British-Canadian Philippe Malouin. Desks are fitted with die-cast aluminium legs from London manufacturer Very Good & Proper.
Acoustic felt has been used abundantly, particularly for lockers and wall linings. In the workspaces, each desk has its own lamp, while most of the pendant lights came from a prospective tenant, Haberdashery. Much of the fit-out, from the moon-shaped door handles to the wayfinding, has been bespoke-designed by Barr’s practice. Contractor NJ Richards’ in-house joinery workshop and fabricator, ar18, made a lot of the built-in pieces.
What draws the most attention are the microstations on Bureau’s second floor. The sliding panels and screens which partition the spaces are constructed using a galvanised steel modular system which can be overclad. Beautifully simple, they are elegant, despite being essentially a kit-of-parts, and allow the studio booths to be transformed to cellular offices if need be. The attention to detail is exceptional. ‘We set out every screen fixing,’ says Barr. ‘The rhythm of the modular systems was highly important.’ Essentially a series of screened-off areas, they are charged by the desk, square foot or through an ‘on-off office’ system, whereby they can be leased for two to four days a week – ideal for smaller businesses. ‘There is enough space here, but we needed flexibility too,’ says Barr.
Learning from a scheme the practice did for Selfridges’ creative studios a couple of years ago, Barr points out that co-working spaces often don’t need specially designated meeting rooms, as more informal spaces are preferred. The modular, versus open plan, arrangement here allows for this. The spaces can be expanded or reduced as required.
Co-working spaces often don’t need designated meeting rooms, as more informal spaces are preferred
Finally, another key – and quite unusual – space in the scheme is the ground-floor ‘Salon’, which can be transformed into a cinema for film screenings. There is great warmth and cinematic atmosphere to this space, finished in a powerful vermilion red paint. ‘There’s humour in it,’ says Barr, smiling, ‘it’s womb-like.’ The single wash of colour gives it a strong sense of place and somehow works despite the undulation of the façade and all the hard surfaces, which it successfully softens.
Despite the uncertainty of the past year, a high degree of certainty in the decision-making that created these interiors is evident. Altogether, Bureau feels immersive: it talks of experimentation in colour, textiles and furniture. There is a brevity and control to the range and choice of hues which work together and don’t feel like they will become dated too quickly. Likewise a lot of careful thought is evident in the selection of the furniture and lighting pieces. There is an engaging elegance in the scheme’s simplicity. The pared-down feel of the spaces ‘is reminiscent of art school culture’, agree Barr and Arvanitakis. These spaces are yet to be tested by tenants, but they seem to be integral, flexible and to provide for every occasion. If this is the future of workspaces, I like it.
Because members work in a wide spectrum of disciplines, in teams of varying sizes, the most important thing about Bureau – the Design District’s members’ club – is that it is versatile. C3’s undulating façade helps create informal pockets of space on the inside, with which Roz Barr Architects has worked to create a variety of flexible layouts.
We knew Bureau’s users would be discerning but diverse, and creating a space that would please everyone is no mean feat. Roz Barr’s pared-back approach and materially honest aesthetic delivers brilliantly and gives us an interior that will continue to look fresh for years to come.
The achievement is all the more impressive considering that much of this project was conducted online, due to Covid. There were several moments on site when we realised that something that works on paper doesn’t always in real life. However, having a flexible design team and contractor has meant we’ve always been able to pivot and find a solution.
One of my favourite things about the process of creating this space is the way Bureau has embodied Design District’s aims and ethos by nurturing creative collaboration. For example, the lights in the restaurant area are the result of a partnership between Roz Barr and the lighting designer Haberdashery – a Design District tenant. Creating opportunities like this sits at the heart of what Bureau and Design District are all about. Helen Arvanitakis, director, Design District
Roz Barr Architects asked ar18 to produce bespoke joinery items and furniture for the Bureau. The specifications on this project were remarkably interesting and innovative: materials repurposed from more industrial settings, such as corrugated cement roofing panels to form the wall panels behind the reception desk. Galvanised steel sheets were used to create pressed-pyramid fascia panels for the ground-floor bars. We are known as a company to go to if you want to produce something never created before. Our background in sculpture and film props has given us great knowledge and experience in problem-solving by adapting techniques, machinery and tooling used in other areas of industry. We were tested on the locker units throughout the Bureau. They use a light-coloured Alpha Acoustic board from Tech Materials, which was specified on the front of the locker doors. This product, manufactured using 65 per cent post-consumer recycled fibres and 100 per cent recyclable, was new to us. It was bonded to a darker-coloured Forescolor environmentally friendly medium density fibreboard. The numbers of the lockers were CNC-machined through the Alpha board to the Forescolor behind, creating a contrast between light and dark. The technical challenge of working out the correct tool and speed to cut the numbers without scorching the materials or just ripping it apart took a lot of development. This bold approach to materials across the entire project has resulted in a clear, intelligent and innovative design. Richard Bone, project manager, ar18
Our approach to the challenge of uniting two very different buildings was to develop a set of components that created a framework that would create a language that defined the Bureau.
I was keen that the interiors should offer a strong identity and atmosphere for members to occupy, whether to work or relax, and that there should be a calmness and unity to the spaces. The word ‘workspace’ conjures an image of something quietly serious and I think that is what we have achieved.
We developed the concept for the microstudios element from a brief for a flexible studio, subdivided across a floor in each building, which would offer members the opportunity to have their own space separated by a screen. We created the screens from a series of ready-made components: galvanised steel partitioning sections, perforated metal panels, acoustic felt panels (made from recycled hospital sheets) and coloured MDF. There was extreme accuracy in how we set this system out to get the maximum efficiency from the sheet sizes and to create the rhythm that would define these new spaces. We decided to express the rivets and screws, so each component had to be carefully crafted and installed.
The transformation of these materials was replicated across both buildings and they offer a calm backdrop to the activities within. I think the rigour of detailing and composition of texture, fabric and colour has defined the language we have created across these buildings. It’s rather calm. Roz Barr, founder, Roz Barr Architects
Start on site January 2021 Completion C3 building: August 2021; D1 building: TBC Gross internal floor area C3 building: 1,596m²; D1 building: 1,353m² Construction cost Undisclosed Architect Roz Barr Architects Client Design District/Knight Dragon Structural engineer N/A M&E consultant Skelly & Couch Quantity surveyor Artelia Main contractor NJ Richards Annual CO2 emissions Not supplied
Tags Greenwich Design District Greenwich Peninsula London Office Roz Barr Architects
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