Architects Future Systems have completed the facade of a building on Oxford Street in London.
The project involved adding an extra floor to the existing building and two new facades.
The faceted glass surface reflects the surrounding buildings from the outside, and allows views along the street from offices and retail space inside the building.
Photographs by Gidon Fuehrer.
Here’s some more information from Future Systems:
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OXFORD STREET FACADE
The brief was to transform the quality and appearance of a tired 1960’s building at the undeveloped end of Oxford Street. Our proposal removes the brick and glass façade and replaces it with a subtle yet vibrant jewel-like glass frontage that delicately unifies the lower ground and first floor retail units with the office space above. Through the repetition of crystal-like glass bays, a sense of scale and rhythm is created that reflects the grain of the adjacent properties as well as giving the offices panoramic views along Oxford Street. At night the façade will be illuminated from inside giving off a subtle coloured glow. The scope of this scheme includes the addition of 1 floor and 2 new façades.
Project architect John O’Mara said: “It is an interesting way of employing a different technique to deal with an existing building and applying a new facade concept on it.
“We like the way the facade operates on a spatial level, particularly the way you can step into the little bays and get a view down Oxford Street, and also the improved thermal and acoustic performance of the building. It is a fun solution to the brief.”
Client Private Investor
Architect: Future Systems
Services Engineers: Arup
Structural Engineers:Arup
Quantity Surveyors: Savant
Cladding Consultant: Billings Design Associates
Completion: 2008
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Posted by Rose Etherington
November 21st, 2008 at 2:51 am
is it a coffin?
November 21st, 2008 at 7:04 am
i am convinced of the fact that the ‘emergent school’ of design is indeed looking backwards to find new frontiers to pursue, not just in cool renderings but also in real-life……..
“fractalism” was definitely hot!, even during those days of “classicism”…and we can see how are they being re-viewed at….
kool work!!!!…appears very un-’ism’-ic!!!!!
November 21st, 2008 at 7:44 am
it’s a system but it’s not the future
November 21st, 2008 at 8:59 am
haha, what a copy of this: http://www.centrum-warenhaus-dresden.de/pics/Galerie/Copyright_ThomasKantschew_Fassade-schwebend.jpg … a department store from ‘73 in Dresden, Germany. It solves the problem of ending of finishing such a facade on top and bottom much better, my opinion.
November 21st, 2008 at 9:58 am
Looks nice..i gotta go see it..
November 21st, 2008 at 10:56 am
This must be a joke…..Works well if you’re back in the 70’s but we live in 2008….Is this really Future Systems???? Really??????????
November 21st, 2008 at 11:08 am
I kinda dig this, yet it looks so dated. Seems like we’re back to the 80’s…
November 21st, 2008 at 1:21 pm
looks nicer in real imho… like the spatial idea of having small bays to step into und enjoy the view down the oxford road (as if this view could be enjoyable at all)… but so it would be more interesting to have inside photos!
November 21st, 2008 at 2:37 pm
This is the past and not the future! Get real!
November 21st, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Like a big, bad version of the Champs Elysees Citroen showroom:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meteorry/1676103745/in/photostream/
November 21st, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Brilliant!
November 21st, 2008 at 4:52 pm
that 70’s show
November 21st, 2008 at 4:58 pm
THERE IT LOOK BETTER http://www.future-systems.com/architecture/architecture_05.html# YOU DON´T REMEMBER?? : “EVERYTHING WAS ALREADY HERE” … IT´S MAYBEE NEW (”OLD”) WAY … SHARP-LOOK IS FUTURE TOO
November 21st, 2008 at 6:01 pm
What’s the problem with it looking ’70s? Good design is good design no matter what the decade. My Arne Jacobsen tea pot was excellent when created in 1967 and those produce in 2008 are excellent too.
November 21st, 2008 at 7:04 pm
the faceted & framed reflections are very interesting urban wallpaper. there is much poetry in exterior surface of this building.
November 21st, 2008 at 7:36 pm
I too am totally disillusioned by this so called future: by all accounts, we should by now be commuting in hydrogen fuel cell personal trousers, eating helicopters in capsule form, wearing tinfoil trousers and have rendered our nuisance genitalia obsolete via test tube factory procreation, whilst looked over in our stem cell cultured abodes by a shadowy but benevolent dictatorship. This was all promised, and never delivered. Bastards.
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:20 am
…i don’t know if i like it…
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:40 am
Stirling is live
November 22nd, 2008 at 5:45 am
Dood! this is so rad!
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I saw this last weekend, and I thought it was some hideous old office. And it is. But it turns out it was designed by one of our ‘best’ architects. Man.
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Fling, as someone who pwns noobs regularly, i gotta say you pwn the comments section on this website.
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:36 pm
‘Future’ Systems? It’s basically Stirling’s Leicester Engineering Building roof inverted.
November 24th, 2008 at 12:17 am
whats with the critisim?
Atleast somebody tried to do something-either its reviving the past or future, and anyways who knows what future holds for us?
Apart from all that fiasco of designing original and what not, why doesnt anybody give credit to the person who took such a beautiful photographs-atleast somebody has an idea of what this building fabric is all about and what it portraits.GOOD JOB I am proud of you Gidon!
And for all those how are complaining, Please study Architecture for 7 year, then find a job and then get a project and built something esp interesting and then please complain!
November 24th, 2008 at 2:18 am
Futile Systems have done it again…
November 24th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Fling’s posts are like emergency eye showers after letting far too many mind- and humorless posts corrode my irises.
Clap. clap..
November 24th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
I want Fling’s future trousers too please.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Devil! Is this facade back lit LED strip fun with coloured film, hmm
This could have spin geometries relating to phi,
Looks Icelandic .Duh
November 27th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I know it looks like dresden and many other other facades too, but I like it. I think it is the nicest facade on oxford street. it is like a shiny diamond.
November 27th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
i wonder how this got planning…
November 27th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
ps. its def gothic
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:30 am
certain origami tessellation, quite easy for an origami expert
February 8th, 2009 at 12:04 am
It is actually very well executed, looks better than the pictures show.