Brewery Square / Hamiltons Architects
Architects: Hamiltons Architects
Location: Brewery Square, Clerkenwell, London, England
Consultant Team: Blyth & Blyth, Eachus Huckson, Anstey Horne & Co, KHK Group Ltd
Program: 198 private apartments, 6 town houses
Project year: 1999-2005
Photographs: Dennis Gilbert
Located on the approach to London’s historic Smithfield Market, Brewery Square is part of a larger masterplan by GML Architects and Erik van Egaraat. Hamiltons was commissioned to design the largest plot on the site for residential and retail use with associated public realm. The massing and architecture is a direct response to the masterplan with it’s direct connections and juxtaposition of forms.
location
Both massing and movement were handled carefully,ensuring that permeability was active, safe and connected with the urban grain of the historic industrial area. The architecture is robust and simple enclosing a series of space and routes.
The ground floor glass enclosure houses retail and workspace, above which there is a modular cladding system of copper, zinc or glass. The projecting boxes facilitate larger apartments and are the backbone of what has become a very ‘sociable’ development. Further phases by other design teams are still on site. Brewery Square has been widely exhibited, published and has been part of London Open House.
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Often times looking at a building such as this I think how it may have looked quite good when it was modelled, and imagine that the architectural team must be as disappointed with the final result as I am. But this one? Yuch. In the context it looks like a prison ship has been dumpped in the middle of the street. Well done Hamiltons you just ruined my day.
Sometimes I like its randomness and the sense of movement coming from the balconies. But sometimes gives me the idea of dirt, accumulation and lack of edit. Too many ideas shaping the building? I think so.
There is no discipline to the street elevations; they are just chaos, and not “cool” chaos. Are architects nowadays embarrassed by composition?
Actually I have an inverse opinion. At first I thought “Jesus, one more container-like thing”, but this one is actually quite interesting… Only the fact that it stays aligned but disrupts the rigid façades alignment is cool, but I also liked that the apparent disorder also gives birth to a nice community feel, the interior courtyard is surrounded by open circulations, and there is much individuality between apartment units.
I have to vehemently disagree with the comments other than Yoriks. This building looks and feels far better in reality – this isn’t to disagree with your comments, more an indictment of experiencing urban environments/ architecture through a handful of photographs on a screen.
The experienced reality of the project doesn’t feel arbritarily random or chaotic in its composition, it responds well to a good masterplan & breathes some animated urbanism into an intimate serious of urban blocks. In animated I don’t mean crazy juxtapositions of forms, it feals seamlessly urban and part of the urban fabric mainly because at ground level it responds well to the street. It doesn’t need discipline in the elevations beyond ground level, in fact beyond ground level it’s preferable if it doesn’t over an entire urban block.
The facade is animated – not in a purely geometric and arbitrary sense, but animated in that it provides spaces, balconies etc for life to happen in, people to sit, hang out washing etc.
I agree with commenter Yorik, I also think this project is very interesting, the use of materials is grand, and although it has very diverse angles and lines and may appear boxy, there is something about the distribution and the scale of modulation that must be considered.
I’d give it a C+ at best. Very busy, not consistent in massing and material composition/resolution, meets the ground poorly.
oscar,
I totally agree with you.
I´d love to live on the apt at the corner of the 3rd floor.
Oddly, the facades of the courtyard are somewhat composed and ordered, as opposed to those on the street and belonging to the public realm. What does this say? What does it mean to scatter balconies all over a facade on a public way? Is it any more than just a way to say “I’m sick of all this 19th (or whatever) century order, and I’m not going to do take it anymore”. Many who back this kind of dumbness are seduced by images of randomness and feel it “cool”, and apply as much discipline to their trade and thought process as a teenager does when picking out a pair of torn jeans.
urban migrane
muy chévere.
The dynamism is good. The diversity has to be tamed though.
I present my congratulations to the Hamiltons Architects, just because of the intelligent idea behind it. And this idea is that this building will never ever get old, because he was already born dirty and confused!! People who likes new experiences and have money for that can now experience how is to live in a slum! And I don’t find another word to express what I saw in the first image but slum…
9:15 AM Jul 29th
Sensacionall!!!! Brewery Square / Hamiltons Architects | ArchDaily http://bit.ly/c3oUoe #ARCHITECTURE #URBANDESIGN
9:41 AM Jul 29th
Sensacionall!!!! Brewery Square / Hamiltons Architects | ArchDaily http://bit.ly/c3oUoe #ARCHITECTURE #URBANDESIGN
9:42 AM Jul 29th
RT @SIArquitetura: Sensacionall!!!! Brewery Square / Hamiltons Architects | ArchDaily http://bit.ly/c3oUoe #ARCHITECTURE #URBANDESIGN