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Aqueous

Aqueous shower was a top ten  professional  entry in the Reese Bathroom Innovation Award 2012 by christian harrup design.

Spira

Georgian Terrace by Christian Harrup Design

Something old before something new

Some new architectural work coming soon! In the meantime here's some old work perhaps you have or have not seen before.

Monsieur Francois Mansart

The Veritable Monsieur Francois Mansart  was a relatively famous 17^th century untrained architect who not only brought to France his great understanding of classical and baroque orders of architecture but was also responsible in some way for one of most famous roof types in the world, the Mansard. It’s popularity due to his almost trademark roof type became the quintessential French look revived after his death in the years of the second empire style by Haussmann's grand renovation of Paris in the latter part of the 19^th century. 


My first real encounter was on a French exchange with a visit to the Eiffel tower at the age of around 15. The grandness of Paris really is best to be seen from above it really shows the extent of the order and planning that was achieved. The Mansard is also incredibly apparent especially towards the Louvre along the Rue de Rivoli. My thoughts centred on the repetitious nature of the roofscape, the endless windows and complete largesse of the buildings. On the ground the Grand romantic boulevards breaking the sky with embellished dormer windows leading ones eye towards the sky. What goes on in that attic space, what views would they have above the streets and canopies of trees, the mysterious and unknown but ultimately beautiful.

 This popular French invention which proliferated through most of northern Europe and America in various configurations is probably  one of the most successful and interesting ways of maximising floor area in city’s or towns that were constrained by height, light penetration and massing limitations.

There is also something intrinsically attractive about this roof type that for many reasons has been lost in the modernistic dogmas of 20^th century architecture.  But today through our more enlightened less ridged architectural expression could it be making a comeback. Some see such things as uncomfortably regressive, perhaps because it is an older methodology that has connotations with pomp and imperialism not socialistic ideals architects these days continue to pursue.  It’s artful way of ending and facade and approaching the fifth elevation is an expression of the aesthetic but is in reality a very practical and useful device.

Back in Francois’s day designing grand fairytale like palaces such at the Château de Maisons in Maisons Laffitte in Paris’s North West the use of the mansard is very prevalent in this baroque masterpiece. Not only was the mansard to become an almost French style of architecture but it blended beautifully into all the neoclassical gothic and baroque styles France and most notably Paris was to revisit in the Haussmann's renovation of Paris. In this built vision the buildings where roughly 20m high with a 45 degree incline in the roof, the height was only measured to the cornice line and this is where this roof type came into play. It allowed more useable floorspace that inturn could add more floors, up to four in some cases.

Examples in London were more evident in the parred down elegance of the Georgian Terrace and through Victorian and Edwardian architecture usually resulting in some of the grandest buildings we have left in London today. Some notable examples being The Grosvenor Hotel in Victoria, the remodelled Regent Street and the Midland Hotel in St Pancras.

Today the roof I feel is possibly having a small renaissance of its own through modern interpretation it can be an effective architectural treatment especially when used in an historic setting. Examples say by Foster and Partners recently completed The Walbrook in the city use the curvature of the roof that embodies the principles of the Mansard in a technically advanced less literal way. It’s a clever nod to the past but is definitely looking to the future. Another example in the strand by Grid architects uses laser cut metal filigree formed into a mansard like profile that is a recognition of the area’s fine Beaux Arts and English Baroque buildings. It replaces a rather nasty building that thankfully will not be with us for much longer yet brings a far more contextual architecture back to the Strand .In Hanover square Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands uses the mansard to create a respectful yet forward thinking approach to urban renewal above one of the entrances to a new Crossrail Bond street station.

These additions to London’s architecture pursue a case that there is still a future in the Mansard, It’s maybe not a language to everyone’s taste but this is possibly a good thing that architecture is not blinkered to melding the traditional with the modern. 

A Silicon Roundabout?

The much lauded silicon roundabout is an almost mythical place, located at the junction between City road and Old street it’s synonymous as an entrance to one of London’s more creative quarters gentrified to a degree and now branded ‘East London Tech City’ by the present Governments pr machine. The idea is that as the entrance to London’s answer to Silicon Valley we will witness a tech city from Hoxton to Stratford further east.

Ok so this is lovely and an acknowledgement of the success of entrepreneurialism in the area but someone seems to of forgot about the epicentre of all this creativeness, old street roundabout itself.

The roundabout’s location like many of London’s roads has become a thoroughfare for cars with people precariously placed around it edge. At its centre is Old Street tube station which to some who have travelled through it feels more like decrepit bunker of confusing ramps and tunnels designed keep you ‘in’ rather than exit.

 By its nature as an ‘underground’ station way finding has never been its strong point, in fact I cannot think of any strong points apart from feeling so run down and awful that it’s almost become part of the experience.  Above the roundabout are inaccessible green spaces hosting a range of tired looking plants, protruding air vents and an apparent ‘urban sculpture’ above.  If you are lucky enough to find the exit, past the inbuilt shopping precinct ( if you can call it that) the five ramps leading you out of the station are mostly open  to the elements apart from the south east entrance where we are treated to an ungainly architectural folly, but why just this ramp, does it not rain on the other four?  

Around the periphery of the roundabout some urban renewal has occurred, Tonkin Liu’s Promenade of Light is a brilliant exercise to show perhaps the future of Old street and how it could be. Unfortunately it ends there. The masterplan was to include the roundabout itself but because of the bureaucratic nature of local governance nothing has happened since.

Development around Silicon roundabout is undergoing a transformation not through any initiatives but purely because of the locality and development potential this area has. There are many schemes in the pipeline that are either a precursor to the future of the area or a terrible mistake. A mix of hotels large scale residential and office buildings all bringing differing improvements to the area depending on your point of view. 
Hoxton has always been a place of surprises and small scale enterprise but the increasingly large developments are perhaps ignoring the reason why the place works. The nature of the place is very old London and should be kept as such to preserve this very reason.

What is sad is that the spin by the Government mentions very little about urban improvement or for that matter how degraded old street roundabout really is. Words need to be turned into reality, dreams into the physical. Relying on private enterprise alone is not enough to bring business to an area you need to commit investment to bring investment. Silicone roundabout really is a dream rather than a reality.

colour block

Trad or Mod?

Like a strange slightly deranged argument the old vs modern question has arisen. Not that it’s ever really  gone away but recently a comment made by Paul Finch regarding his admiration for modernist structures at the nearly to be complete Olympic site in London has ruffled a few classical feathers especially Robert Adam’s.  

It’s an inconclusive if fraught argument often very opinionated and bias but you do have to hand it to Robert Adam for standing up for a breed of architect that is often seen as tertiary to mainstream architecture in Britain today. Often it’s hard to quantify why there is such a divide and really why there is so much negativity to anything that isn’t achingly along the lines of the modern idiom.

I believe that there is space for both and that we should respect a traditional standpoint as well as a modern one. It is ignorant to ignore the past but it is also arrogant to dismiss the future. The real argument should be vented about integrity. 

Regulator 1

DRAG

The poor old high street bank

When internet banking fails and our normal virtual conception of money is abruptly not working sometimes we have to venture to the bank.

On a recent visit to my local bank I noticed that the Artex inspired rough plastered ceiling had been replaced. The ubiquitous refurbishment had occurred. I wasn’t expecting much to be honest and my preconceptions were not let down either. New carpet ,stick on plastic signs, corporate coloured institutional like seating, perspex over protective shields for the members of staff, super graphics of the local area, all very dour predictable banking interior.

Local banks are certainly not places to be inspired I think hospital waiting rooms have more excitement going for them. They are places more associated with a discount chemists these days rather than the lofty aspirational temples of old. On a normal high street the bank was the grandiose building, sending a sense of authority and permanence throughout the community. They were also interesting spaces too often giving the impression of stability and order.

Today’s banking is a very different beast divided into infinite financial variations but still integral to our everyday lives, so why have things been streamlined to the bare minimum. 
To some degree technology has had an impact on the local banks usual patrons. The rise of the internet and the shuffling around of funds has been handed over to us. The banks too through their many arms probably now see high street banking as a far less glamorous devision compared to their aspirational higher profile jobs.  

It is obvious that corporate identity to banks is very important but the image represented to the public today seems so  blatantly about profitability that it’s risking the adverse effect of actually looking like we the normal customer are being neglected. But where this neglect occurs on street level up in the headquarter office complexes where the major banks reside money it seems is of no object.  Lavish lobby’s leading to high concept workplaces are the order of the day far removed from the almost utilitarian spaces Joe public has to put up with. It leads to a division demographically that I think is something to be looked at. Are banks losing touch with the very reason why they exist? are banks too big to care anymore? don't we deserve better?

There are of course examples of high street banks showcasing new flagship branches and it is commendable that some banks usually smaller ones are trying harder to forge an identity that values the customers needs not only in a functional way but also aspirational and dare I say it 'interesting' too. But all too often we witness the sub standard world that is the high street bank a place of nondescript dreariness perhaps one day this will change but I will not be holding my breath.

ION

Christian Harrup Design / first book publication/ 'Plus design. Beautiful design for living' by Monsa Barcelona

Bend light by Christian Harrup Design, one of 5 projects featured in 'Plus design'

Easy chair , Light 4 and Light 3 by Christian Harrup Design, one of 5 projects featured in 'Plus design'

Christian Harrup Design was invited last year to participate in a publication promoting beautiful design. Altogether the book features  55 international designers. 5 projects from Christian Harrup Design are featured in the book bend, light 3, light 4, SL01 stack link chair and easy chair. Plus Design is published by Monsa publications Barcelona and I thank them very much for allowing me to contribute to this wonderful book.

For more information on the book or to purchase follow the link http://www.monsa.com/en/design/design-industrial/plus-design-beautiful-design-for-living/

Effra

Vauxhall is a funny old part of town, love it or loathe it’s a typically London juxtaposition, seemingly unplanned and a tad ugly, saturated with traffic, snarled up around awkwardly tight Victorian sized roads all thrown together with a dash of MI6 and a satellite gay /club world extravaganza VOHO. It’s also incredibly well connected with overland train lines and underground with a station and bus interchange that could be construed as a bizarre communist like monument to the roundel logo.

River Effra site Lambeth Water Works ( far left) Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens ( above) and the Oval ( bottom right )

It’s also a bit of a mess. The traffic over the years as divided the area in two, the 19^th century railway hasn’t helped either. New architecture has been somewhat deranged ,we have a bizarre fortress deco homage that is MI6 and across the road a truly gruesome collection of beige and green glass lacklustre ticky tacky Pomo apartments with virtually no redeeming features apart from the fact it’s just so incredibly wrong. There are the 60’s Eastern European style buildings along the river towards Lambeth and then a collection of iffy residential complexes replacing some actually rather nice 20^th century buildings.

But dig deeper into Vauxhalls history you realise not a great deal has changed behind the soot stained railway viaducts. The street pattern hasn’t dramatically altered literally since the early eighteen hundreds most notably the Victorian railway is one of the only major physical changes to the area and that happened in the early 19^th Century and of course the Albert Embankment.

Vauxhall Spring Gardens by Samuel Wale 1751

                                                       

Open spaces are in essence virtually intact too but have changed purpose or lost their charm over the years. Vauxhall Gardens or Vauxhall Spring Gardens as it was once known, was originally the playground of the Glitterati in the Georgian era but has now become little more than another anonymous green space that seems to lack any purpose or presence a far cry from its hedonistic, rococo past. Down the road the Oval a cricket ground since the 1845 is still in place, gone has it’s quaint rural charm, I suspect it once evoked, replaced with a far more professional affair such is the passage of time and success of the sport.

Lambeth Windmills

Like most parts of London pre the industrial revolution Vauxhall and the surrounding area was little more than a villagy like place with small farm buildings ,windmill’s and scenery that would be an ideal chocolate box foray. Over the years as populations grew and London expanded Vauxhall has be swallowed up into the major conglomerate that the city has become today.

Building of the railway viaducts

Some of the lost features of Vauxhall are the river Effra a tributary that has long disappeared into the Victorian rationalisation of the embankment. The river still stretches from Upper Norwood but has mostly been hidden weaved into the sewers like most of London’s lost rivers. The River Effra today empties out into a spot not too far away from its original position. It is now a small opening in the Albert Embankment under the MI6 building only visible from the river in low tide.

The River Effra outlet under MI6

My earliest visions of the Effra Site as a child were of a massive concrete edifice, the nine elms cold storage facility. This enormous yet strangely evocative concrete building was austere to the extreme, purposeful as a colossal meat laden fridge would probably look like. It embodied probably all what was not right with London at the time, shameless planning of industrial sites placed with no care to the locality. The poor Effra site has been an unfortunate place for industrialisation and development.  In 1847 the site was designated a gas works called the Phoenix Gas Works much to public condemnation at the time it was expanded and taken over by the South Metropolitan Gas Co in the 1870s. The cold storage facility was built 1965 and closed in 1979. It lay empty up until the early 1990’s when St George developers proposed the overbearing cascading beige concrete development we have there today. I have always considered it to be a failure of the site. It neglects to link with the surrounding Vauxhall area, a fortress like development that ignored Vauxhall in favour of views down the river. There are token bland open spaces and strange passage ways but little has been done to try and link with surrounding street patterns transport or the fact that this really could have mended once and for all this important riverfront location.

When viewed from afar with its butterfly faux copper patented roofs and green glass upvc glazing I feel some despair about the nature of such developments and there long lasting legacy to London.

For it are residential developments that stay with us for longer than any commercial building will and surely this should be treated with some care and attention.

Thinking about this for a long time I thought about theoretically coming up with an alternative of ‘what could have been done’ a sort of unrealized vision if you like. My conceptual idea’s would bring back some of lost parts of Effra reinvigorating its riverfront, creating points of interest ending road alignments and vista’s with something more meaningful and more in line with traditional and successful areas of London. It would aim to bring a level of architecture from the monumental to the townhouse combining this with road realignment and rational Pedestrianisation. Open spaces too would take a precedent as such would views of the river. The mix would hopefully encourage business and residential to be more connected avoiding too much architectural hierarchy using smaller plot sizes to reduce the scale and increase the complexity of the area.


Since I wrote this a year ago the nine elms area has had some major redevelopment proposals which promise to be far more successful in urban terms compared to what we have now. It does have the potential I think to be a great showcase to urban renewal in London on an almost grand scale. Only time will really tell but I have hope.

60/CH Wrist Watch

For more information follow the link ( 60/CH Wrist Watch )

200x300

3 rug designs cross, afraid and rotor.

What on earth happened to St Thomas’s?

Walking along the Thames from Westminster to Embankment one witness's some of the more successful and enriching urban parts of London’s rich architectural history.
It’s palatial like buildings a combination of government, hotels, offices and monuments really do show off some of the best achievements of this great city. The leafy enclosed parks offer places to breathe and contemplate overlooked by the imposing but attractive buildings in all their Portland stone grandeur.
It is what postcards of old London are made of yet really what we see today originates from the Victorian and Edwardian era with a spattering of art deco in the form of Shell Mex House and the Adelphi hotel.
Unfortunately this almost perfect composition of 19th and early 20th century architecture has not quiet been achieved on the other bank of the Thames, through no fault of its own.
The South Bank, the working side of London, used to house seemingly endless warehouses and cranes servicing London’s great industrial heritage. Today we see very little evidence of the warehouses cleared mostly by post war demolition.
What now stands is really a homage to brutalism and 1950’s optimism.
It is has now been re branded ‘the south bank’ or what is sometimes called the largest ‘arts complex in the world’ fully justified in regard to the sheer concentration of cultural institutions residing there.
The place works though and its recent attempts to clear up the odd circulation problems and refurbishment of the Royal Festival Hall have resulted in a renaissance of sorts.
Leaving the cultural epicentre towards Westminster Bridge past the London eye you come across the County Hall, an impressive Edwardian Baroque building that used to house the Greater London Council abolished in 1986. This grand old building achingly underutilized is mostly empty and in need of a proper restoration especially the public realm which is insanely busy and looking a tad on the tatty side. Recent building work to the rear of the complex is not very successful, strange pomo type residential complexes trying so hard to fit in have been built and an island block dubbed the worst eye saw in London (although I could think of worse) that looked like a soviet concrete bunker/carpark has been replaced with what some would call another modern day eye saw.

Across the bridge we come across St Thomas’s hospital. This is where I get most frustrated. What we are witnessing is how 1960’s planning just didn’t get it. It’s a place no one really wants to admire or notice mainly because it’s so anonymous and bland. Access is difficult and sunken car parks replace the long lost Victorian buildings. It’s a sad place that feels damaged and degraded, perhaps an analogy for the NHS. The confusing plan is a collection of woefully dull buildings obviously built to a budget post war could afford. But now as the NHS has realised the need to improve we get more ad hoc reclads and additions becoming more confusing and messy by the day.

 

Early engraving of St Thomas's



The history of St Thomas’s goes as far back the 13th century but the buildings we see today are mostly post war and Victorian. In the Second World War St Thomas’s was badly damaged ,4 of the pavilion type buildings closest to Westminster Bridge were demolished in the 1960’s to make way for a new masterplan. The new hospital would realign the Lambeth Palace Road to the rear of the site to increase the functionality and size of the hospital and provide much needed space for expansion. What was built on the river was a large completely out of scale white tiled box, probably perceived as modern at the time but completely wrong for such a location opposite the palace of Westminster. We lost what was one of the most wonderful compositions of architecture of the age.

 

View from Victoria Tower Gardens


The hospital pavilions were designed by Henry Currey built in 1868-71and very modern in thinking for their time. Looking like a collection of classical villa’s in an Italianate Style with French Renaissance detailing the intention was to allow natural light to permeate the buildings allowing fresh air throughout separating patients from infectious diseases and connected by low colonnaded corridors facing the river. This type of hospital was endorsed by Florence Nightingale as a model for modern hospital design. It not only combined the elegance of the classical style architecture but was a befitting backdrop to the Gothic styled Westminster across the river.



View from Victoria Embankment



View today from Victoria Embankment

It’s sad today because this rather unplanned and ugly part of London was once actually a rather beautiful site and I am passionate it could be again if the will by government was there to once again bring back some elegance and beauty to this stretch of the river. If St Thomas’s was re planned resulting in a new hospital to the rear in a staged development, bringing back the pavilions could be a viable proposition. This rationale could implement a new hospital that's properly suited to the needs of modern medicine yet respect the history of the site in a far more complimentary manner. I’m of course not advocating that modern architecture could replace the existing hospital with something better but sometimes we could be courageous and actually repair to reinstate the splendor so deserved in this part of London and hopefully someone might actually notice it again.



For more information on the architecture of St Thomas's go to:http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-204398-south-wing-at-st-thomas-hospital-excludi

Images courtesy of English Heritage

Graphical Interlude

graphicon by christian harrup design

If humans are getting taller why are ceilings getting shorter?

Perhaps my title is somewhat dogged with anomalies but I will press on.
In fact there is evidence that we as humans are not as tall as we may of previously believed compared to our ancestors. For example in the middle ages humans were nearly as tall as we are today due to reduced populations and a generally healthier lifestyle void of those contactable deseases associated with dense populous, like cities. Many factors have influenced height be it population, disease, hygiene,food consumption, climate and population density.

So in our super dense cities are we right to believe that we may get smaller due to our more compact existence or bigger due to our improved longevity and health? I cannot predict anything of the sort but in our mass consuming carb fuelled world where obesity is rife and climate change on the horizon could we be on the cusp of another transitionary period. Are developers onto something?

Getting back to the point..... ceiling heights are often the curse of the new build. We often aspire for high ceilinged spaces, they somehow evoke a sense of freedom spatially and make tiny rooms look wonderfully proportioned. Unfortunately in today’s world we are in most cases given the standard 2.25m more akin to a utility room than a living space. This height reduction has many reasons behind it, primarily cost. But there are other factors such as our change in lifestyle, building height restrictions, cost of land, furniture and generally the way we live as well as the cost of heating such a space. Of course they are all valid reasons but haven’t we lost something that our predecessors so relished.

From an interior design perspective low ceilinged interiors can pose many problems one being how to make a room look liveable without looking cramped and overbearing. Try and put a chandelier in a low ceilinged space and immediately a problem arises. Its almost as if our preconceptions of design and furniture have to be reassessed and all those relics of the past thrown out or miniaturised which infact has happened over time. The tall Rococo inspired wardrobe has been replaced with a inbuilt and anything taller than 2m is obviously is never going to happen. Not only are we given limited choice vertically but this restriction leaves very little opportunity to be truly expressive or adaptable for future use which in terms of sustainability is a rising concern.

Another problem with low ceilings is the sense of space. Proportion is often improved when higher ceilings come into play.The reason why period homes look proportionally correct is space and height; start altering one of these factors and it’s lost. You may for example have a large apartment but without height it will give the appearance more akin to living in a long enclosed corridor. I suspect this is a reason why a lot of furniture you buy today is so low. If you don’t have everything at the height level of a small pet to give you a sense of space, anything slightly higher just looks ridiculous. Our compressed world dictated by this spacial fascism is acceptable to a degree but it's incessant abundance almost seems a lost cause amoung developers flogging us 'luxury' but to be honest it's more like 'basic'

Recently researching the subject of ceiling heights I came across evidence that low ceilings do not provoke heightened conceptual thinking more so that it suppresses such thoughts. An interesting concept that probably has some truth. Would you go to an art gallery if it was the size of small cupboard and subsequently get the same thought processes in a large lofty open space? probably not.The same should really be applied to where you live. I’m not arguing that we should all be living in 3m and higher ceilinged homes but a little more than the average could have a positive socioeconomic effect as well as enlightening and freeing our interiors and quite possibly our minds.

So should we increase the height of our ceiling or not. Morally I would say yes, there has to be an increase on the pitiful 2.25m we often encounter but is there the will or the economy to do so.

Default Street

When walking down ‘Default Street’ with its countless often irrelevant signs, the ad hoc appendages to lampposts, the mismatched and usually ugly street lighting, you do wonder what’s actually gone wrong here. It’s often a question I ponder about and usually provokes me to imagine what it could be like. But really why are our streets so damned incoherent, almost devoid of beauty at street level?

Since the explosion in personal transport modes i.e. the car, our streets have become more traffic gyratory systems than places we actually like to walk along and inturn the pavements have been reduced in width, lighting degraded to a utilitarian motorway standard and the road signage increased to confusing proportions.

Sometimes you do see pockets of sense where the power’s that be have seen the light and understood the importance of visually clean coherent street. Unfortunately this usually is more than often a token effort targeted at tourism infused areas rather than a wider ranging all encompassing urban design approach.

What is distinctly lacking are robust higher quality and better designed systems. This applies not only to its street furniture but the quality of the materials and execution of the design intent. Landscaping issues are often overlooked too or seen as an unnecessary ‘ luxury’ expense , instead we just get a few random tree’s and hope for the best. It is this lack of conviction that find most frustrating yet other European countries have a much better understanding of urbanity yet we still carry on churning out ugly lampposts, horrible railings and terrible footpaths blanketed without care or attention to our poor streetscape.

To be fair though things are improving 'a little' and I do believe or have faith that our rather ad hoc off the peg approach is becoming less prevalent but still walking down ‘Default Street’ you can see what I mean when it comes to bringing things together, the lack of finesse and clumsiness of it all and distinct lack of pride.

Some would argue that this ‘urban grit’ is our culture, that in some way’s its ugliness breeds beauty but then you could say that where has the beauty been personified? The real reason the stagnation in design of our streets is lack of investment and lack of drive or desire to design decent spaces and objects that enlighten our senses. We are given an economical answer to a lamppost for example but is it a thing of beauty? No. We need to work harder to build an environment that approaches design again as a saviour of our streetscape and our architecture and we need to invest in proper master plans that understand locality and to find the best solution , banishing the term ‘acceptable’. It’s very simple really.

Where is the love?

I'll keep this short but my concern is that architect's should perhaps think about the architecture before the science experiment.

Space Sky/Architecture/Christian Harrup Design

Spacesky is a novel approach to public space that envisages a public amenity in the sky that inturn will give back to the local community a new park containing various functions for local use.More to come..

spacesky by christian harrup design

SL01 stack link chair by Christian Harrup Design

SL01 chair by christian harrup design

This is the sneak preview of the SL 01 chair stack link chair which is  based on an old concept of mine but has been reworked. The aim of the project is to have a chair that is ultra minimal in appearance yet designed to be functional and elegant institutional stack/ link chair in it's  form and construction.

It features a unique feature in the armed version inspired by holding hands. This application allows for the seating to be arranged and rotated in a multitude of variations and arrangements not possible with fixed solutions while still adding an element of control to the user.

The polyamide fibreglass seat features a flat steel frame in chrome or lacquered epoxy.