After a 2-year trial, GROUPWORK and Amin Taha Architects won the motion against demolishing the 15 Clerkenwell Close building.
The architects behind the RIBA award-winning project have been in an ongoing battle with local planning authorities over attempts of demolishing the 7-storey building in the city of Clerkenwell, UK. Taha has also received an enforcement notice last year, claiming that "the structure does not reflect the building that was granted planning permission and conservation area consent in 2013".
However, a planning inspector overturned the council’s demolition request, granting the architects planning permission regardless of the differences between what was proposed and what is developed.
In his statement, the planning inspector admitted that while there is a difference between the proposed designs and the actual project, the building was not harmful to the conservation area. However, the inspector did order the architects to find alternative ways to rework some surfaces, as he was not satisfied with the building's smooth elevations, describing them as "intrusive and prominent" unlike the building’s rough columns and beams.
Open More Doors: Groupwork + Amin Taha
Open More Doors is a section by ArchDaily and the MINI Clubman that takes you behind the scenes of the world's most innovative offices through exciting video interviews and an exclusive photo gallery featuring each studio's workspace. This month, we talked with Amin Taha of Groupwork + Amin Taha to discuss his firm's work and office space.
15 Clerkenwell Close / GROUPWORK + Amin Taha Architects
31 Text description provided by the architects. The brief began with a requirement for a loose fit building able to accommodate apartments and offices/studios across column free floors. Enough time was available to investigate context and a number of possible solutions for a replacement building that would sit within the all but vanished boundaries of an C11th limestone Norman abbey.
