The White Building is situated amongst a community of artists on Fish Island in Hackney Wick and accommodates a gallery, an events space, a cafe and a series of artists' studios.

Lambswool hangs in nets to cover the underside of an existing asbestos roof that is supported by red steel trusses.

Five new entrances lead into the building, allowing the different rooms to be used in flexible configurations.

The project is one of a number of "Olympic Fringe" projects instigated by Design for London for sites bordering the Olympic park. Others include public realm improvements by architects Muf and the London Pleasure Gardens.

See more stories about London 2012 »

Photography is by Will Pryce.

Here's some more information from David Kohn Architects:

‘The White Building’ is a new cultural venue in Hackney Wick commissioned by the London Legacy Development Corporation.

Situated across the Lea Navigation Channel from the Olympic site, the project overlooks the Olympic stadium. The refurbished building, a former print works and previously a sweet factory, will house artists’ studios, a gallery, hire space, café and micro-brewery.

The project was won through invited competition by David Kohn Architects in collaboration with Michael Pawlyn of Exploration Architecture, specialists in environmentally sustainable design.

The competition was organised by Design for London, part of the Greater London Authority, as part of the ‘Olympic Fringe’ a string of small-scale projects aimed at stitching the Olympic Park into the surrounding city fabric.

Hackney Wick Fish Island, a former industrial area, is currently celebrated for being home to the highest concentration of artists studios in Europe.

The end user is Space Studios who contributed to the project brief to create a cultural venue in Hackney Wick that would serve the existing community as well as provide a public face to visitors. Space Studios is a charity that has been providing platforms for artists since 1968.

In response to the competition brief, David Kohn Architects proposed that the White Building would:

» be built by local people for local people;
» foreground the pleasures of making;
» resonate with the history of the area;
» work with the existing building fabric;
» demonstrate innovative sustainable design;
» be realised affordably and quickly;
» show a past and future London at the Olympics.

The eventual built project used local businesses extensively for supplying materials and skills from glazing to sign-painting, steelwork to joinery. The project was delivered on time and budget.

New interventions complimented the existing building fabric, such as blockwork walls on the ground floor that incorporated steel-framed windows. The ground floor was opened up to the canalside and Queen’s Yard to create a light-filled interior with the feel of an urban courtyard.

On the first floor, existing red-painted steel trusses supported an asbestos sheet roof with no insulation. In order to improve the environmental performance of the building and the appearance of the interiors without interfering with the asbestos, lambswool was suspended in red string nets to create soft vaults between the trusses.

Throughout, there was a design approach that sought to use conventional construction materials, but in a playful way. Material junctions were detailed in such a way as to give even the most industrial construction a lightness of touch.

Five new entrances were created that allow the building to be used in a variety of different configurations. The ground floor houses a café, pizzeria, microbrewery and group studio space. The first floor offers four artists’ studios, a gallery and hire space overlooking the Olympic stadium. External works included wide steps from street level down to the canalside.

Space Studios currently have a ten year lease on the property. The hope is that during that time, The White Building can become a significant local asset, well-used by the creative community and public alike. If it proves to be successful, then the project could become key to the retention of cultural activities in the area during future urban change and development.

Address: Unit 7 Queens Yard, White Post Lane London E9 5EN
Client: London Legacy Development Company
Tenant: Space Studios & Crate Café
Planning Department: LB Tower Hamlets
Project Period: December 2010 – July 2012
Construction Period: 12 weeks
Gross External Floor Area: 760m2
Gross Internal Floor Area: 695m2
Construction Value: £550k

Design Team
Architects: David Kohn Architects, Liz Betterton, Saya Hakamata, David Kohn, Tom McGlynn (Project Architect), Ulla Tervo
in collaboration with Michael Pawlyn, Exploration Architecture
Landscape: Muf architecture/ art
Structural Engineer: Alan Baxter Associates
Civils Engineer: Stockley
Services Engineer: Capita Symonds
Project Manager: Capita Symonds
CDM Co-ordinator: Capita Symonds
Cost Consultant: Sweett Group
Graphic Designer: Modern Activity

Contractors
Main Contractor: BRAC Contracts
Blockwork: Plasmor
Glazing: Caplin Glass
Sheep’s Wool: Black Mountain Insulation Ltd
Metal Windows: Monk Metal Windows
Steel Doors: Dove Steel Doors
Steel Sign: PJ Signs
Outdoor steps steelwork: Lemon Steel
Hand-Painted Signage: Ornamental Conifer and Mark Bayley

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Writing for The New York Times, Elias Redstone declares the project a "wonderfully surreal vision" that "originated from surprisingly practical concerns," namely the tight budget and challenging location.

An account from The Guardian's Liz Bird gives an insight into what it is like to stay in the vessel. She writes: "the pièce de resistance is the snug upper deck, filled with London-themed books, which we quickly rename 'The Bridge' and where we write up the ship's log".

Observer critic Rowan Moore praises the project as "an enjoyable and well-made jeu d'esprit", but warns readers not to be disillusioned into thinking of the project as an aid to urban regeneration, stating that "it is not a prototype for future Thames-side development".

Contrastingly, Edwin Heathcote of the Financial Times discusses the "unheimlich" (uncanny) qualities of the rooftop apartment's nautical aesthetic, and controversially compares it to the "shocking and visceral images of the aftermath of the Japanese tsunami last year" when fishing boats were "left marooned on roofs after the waters had subsided".

A few Dezeen readers got caught up in the fun aspects of the project, with one keen to "spend all day interpreting scenes from Jaws" and another imagining images from Mary Poppins - see all our readers' comments here.

You can see images of the project in our earlier story here, or see more stories about the instigating organisation, Living Architecture, here.

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A boat-like structure temporarily anchored to the roof of London’s Southbank Centre is in fact a rentable one-bedroom apartment by London architect David Kohn and artist Fiona Banner.

Completed following a design competition instigated by Living Architecture and arts organisation Artangel, A Room for London will remain atop the Queen Elizabeth Hall until the end of the year.

The apartment was modelled on a riverboat that travelled to the Congo in the nineteenth century and features a pyramidal steel mast.

Magenta and turquoise-stained wood lines the interior, where bespoke furniture includes a bed that slides on rails and a combined sofa and bookshelf.

A pull-down ladder leads up to a first-floor library, which contains a logbook where guests can note any observations from their stay.

Living Architecture have commissioned a series of holiday homes from renowned architects - you can see more of their projects here, including the early designs for this project.

Photography is by Charles Hosea.

The following text is from Living Architecture:

A Room for London

Sell out architectural installation on South Bank opens January 2012.

A Room for London is a one-bedroom installation available to rent throughout 2012, and a programme of extraordinary events. The initial bookings for a night in this remarkable architectural space sold out within minutes when they went live in September. The second tranche of bookings (for nights July – Dec 2012) go on sale on 19 January 2012.

A Room for London is a major collaboration between Living Architecture and Artangel, in association with Southbank Centre. Designed by David Kohn Architects in collaboration with Fiona Banner, it was the winning entry in an open competition to create a room on one of the most visible sites in the British capital, where up to two people at a time could spend a unique night in an exemplary architectural landmark.

They set out to create a visitor experience of dramatic contrast between public and private space: the familiar and domestic are all here, contained within this intimate structure, perched on one of London’s most public vantage points. Despite this, the visitors’ privacy is completely protected and it is they who are able to look out at London and the people below. A Room for London thus becomes an urban landmark for 2012.

Kohn and Banner’s design shows contemporary architecture at its most playful and thought-provoking. The structure is inspired by the riverboat captained by Joseph Conrad whilst in the Congo in 1890, a journey echoed in his most well-known work Heart of Darkness. The pyramidal steel mast makes reference to one of London’s architectural highlights, the spire of Hawksmoor’s Christ Church. The inte- rior timber lined walls are reminiscent of boats of ‘old’, but have been boldly coloured magenta and turquoise. Bespoke furniture has been carefully integrated, including a centrepiece bed which slides on rails to make the most of the views over London. A pulldown ladder gives access to a small library room above the main space, where one can further absorb the views across London whilst completing the log book. Each aspect has been considered and crafted to produce a one-off, stimulating space.

A Room for London will be a visionary land- mark for the city in its Olympic year, presenting an opportunity, for those in London and beyond, to celebrate and connect to the capital and its cultural past, present and future.

Artangel is producing a programme of writings, readings and live music webcasts created in A Room for London. The programme includes A London Address, a series of urban reflections by writers; Sounds from a Room, a sequence of live webcast performances by musicians from across the globe; and Ideas for London, a competition, in association with the Evening Standard, to discover Londoners’ most remarkable ideas for their city. This extraordinary variety of words, sounds and ideas will be featured on A Room for London’s website. The programme is part of the London 2012 Festival.

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London studio David Kohn Architects and artist Fiona Banner have won the A Room For London competition to design a temporary one-bedroom apartment on top of London's Southbank Centre.

The winning design resembles a boat beached on the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

A Room for London was a design competition instigated by Living Architecture and arts organisation Artangel, as part of London 2012 Festival, to create a room for two people to spend the night on a visible site or building in London. Visitors will be able to stay in the room during 2012 and bookings can be made from 8 September this year.

Images are courtesy of David Kohn Architects and Fiona Banner.

See also: Skyroom by David Kohn Architects.

All our stories on the Living Architecture project »

Here's some more information about the project:

David Kohn Architects and artist Fiona Banner have been selected to design A Room for London, a temporary installation that will sit on top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall at Southbank Centre, London and be part of the London 2012 Festival.

The design competition for A Room for London, which attracted entries from around 500 architects and artists from across the world, was instigated by Living Architecture, and Artangel, in association with Southbank Centre. The brief was to create a room on one of the most visible sites in the British capital, where up to two people at a time could spend a unique night in an exemplary architectural landmark.

Kohn and Banner’s winning design is for a boat which, perched on the Queen Elizabeth Hall roof, will appear to have come to rest there, grounded, perhaps, from the retreating waters of the Thames below. From the lower and upper ‘decks’ of this beautifully crafted timber structure, there will be extraordinary views of a London panorama that stretches from Big Ben to St Paul's cathedral.

On arrival 'aboard', a nautical flag will be raised to signal occupation, with the visitors invited to fill in a logbook on the 'bridge' of the boat, detailing what they have experienced during their stay, out of the window as much as within themselves. This is contemporary architecture at its most playful, beguiling and thought-provoking.

Alongside public booking, the Room will play host to a guest programme of special visitors – artists, writers and cultural commentators of all kinds. These ‘thinkers-in-residence’ will be invited to stay and encouraged to muse on the city at a moment in time, through writing, image-making, online postings or live webcasts from the Room itself as their own idiosyncratic entries in the logbook. Some contributions will be instantly experienced by the public; others developed slowly during the course of the year. All visitors will be offered a chance to share experiences of a night in the Room.

Bookings for A Room for London - for no more than one night - will be available through the website from 1 January – 31 December 2012 with advance bookings going live on the website from 8 September 2011.

A Room for London is a cultural collaboration between Living Architecture and Artangel in association with Southbank Centre and the London 2012 Festival. The London 2012 Festival is the finale of the Cultural Olympiad. It will be a 12-week UK-wide cultural celebration from 21 June 2012 that brings leading artists from all over the world together to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games through dance, music, theatre, the visual arts, film and digital innovation.

See also:

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Skyroom by David Kohn Architects	Studio East by Carmody Groarke	Nomiya temporary restaurant by Pascal Grasso

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The Skyroom is a rooftop event space designed by David Kohn Architects above the Architecture Foundation's London offices.

Opened to coincide with the London Design Festival last month, the steel structure is enclosed by copper mesh walls and topped with transparent plastic.

The mixture of enclosed and open-air spaces will be used for lectures, performances and parties.

Photographs are by Will Pryce.

The information that follows is from David Kohn Architects:

Skyroom

The Skyroom is a new rooftop venue to host events programmed by the Architecture Foundation. Sitting above their offices on Tooley Street, the structure offers a range of rooms, both covered and open to the sky, for different occasions and uses ranging from lectures and performances to dinner parties and sun-bathing. The project opened to coincide with London Design Week on 20th September 2010.

The project features a central courtyard open to the sky, framing the rising form of The Shard being built high above London Bridge Station. A balcony cantilevered over Tooley Street offers breathtaking views through the More London development to the Thames and the Tower of London beyond.

Akin to a small theatre space, the proportions of Skyroom enable it to be occupied in a variety of different arrangements. Four niche spaces extend from the courtyard to provide an intimate setting for meeting and relaxing. On the south facade a louvred screen frames a Black Tupelo tree with purple autumnal leaves which will eventually turn an intense bright scarlet, affirming the rooftop as a new ground and a site available to be colonised by nature.

With a bespoke structure constructed of steel with copper mesh facades and larch flooring, Skyroom is topped with six Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) cushions.

The structure and materials used throughout the scheme have been chosen for their lightness and varieties of transparency: the white steel structure is like a drawing in space, marking out the territory of the rooftop and framing key views of the site and sky.

The stainless steel and copper mesh panels create moiré patterns that lightly obscure their surroundings. ETFE, a material originally designed by NASA to create enclosures on the moon, is used here in sizes ranging from 2m sq to 8m x 3m. Stippled with sun-blocking silver dots, this continues the fabric-like quality of the enclosure across the roof.

The design of Skyroom is a response to a number of major constraints: the limited structural capacity of the existing roof; location of the building within a conservation area with strict guidelines on the appearance of developments; building to a limited budget; and access to the roof for construction.

As the roof was not able to support any additional load of either materials or people, the creation of a new structure above it was crucial. In order to transfer load into the existing steel columns, a new steel deck was created, passing through the roof to connect to the heads of the columns below. Newly built large steel sections enable the transfer of load through the steel deck into the existing structure.

Excluding the cantilevered balcony, the scheme is set back from the building perimeter to negate the need for expensive scaffolding on all sides as well as to comply with planning regulations to limit the amount of the structure visible from the street and consequent change in appearance to the overall building.

Additionally, materials used throughout were selected to satisfy the local authority’s requirement for quality finishes that would age well and compliment the conservation area.

Both points reveal that there are indeed opportunities to adapt the capital’s skyline even when faced with the rigorous planning control of a conservation area.

A limited budget and tight programme were additional factors that steered the design of Skyroom, which went from detailed design to completion in just eight weeks. The project, commissioned and funded by the landlord of Magdalen House, Lake Estates, demonstrates an imaginative re-use of one of London’s neglected roofscapes and is in keeping with the Mayor of London’s policy to encourage the occupation of the city’s rooftops.

See also:

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Studio East by Carmody Groarke	Nomiya temporary restaurant by Pascal Grasso	More about David Kohn Architects

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