Ten thousand ceramic tiles make up the façade of this office building on London’s Savile Row, designed by EPR Architects, and which has been presented in a movie by architectural photographer Jim Stephenson.
The seven-storey structure is situated on the corner of Conduit Street and Savile Row, the street synonymous with London’s tailoring history, and home to the city’s most exclusive suit makers. EPR Architects, also based in London, designed the building to include retail space at street level and offices above. The aim was to deliver a design that carried the same level of craftsmanship as the clothing that is created in the area.
“Savile Row’s unique tailoring heritage, in which the concept of the ‘bespoke’ was born, demands a setting of elegance and style where design is at the forefront,” explains EPR. “The word bespoke was invented in Savile Row, where suits were ‘to be spoken for’ by a specific client. EPR knew we had to create a bespoke building, featuring material and design of the sort of quality to match and echo that tradition.”
The architects clad the main façades in 10,000 crystalline hand-glazed ceramic tiles, individually crafted by London-based ceramicist Kate Malone. The colours for the square tiles – pale grey and deep blue – were chosen from tones found elsewhere in the Mayfair Conservation Area to help them fit with the surroundings.
“The whole building becomes an ever-evolving canvas as the tiles reflect and refract daylight, capturing differing moods and subtly changing the appearance and tone of the building, depending on the weather and time of day,” comments EPR.
The building’s height steps down along Conduit Street, where the elevation is also divided to follow typical plot widths along the road. Dark frames surround large windows, some of which project from the façades and others recess into the walls.
More than 100 sq. metres of photovoltaics help to power the building, while an energy efficient cooling system, LED lighting and green/brown roofs add to its sustainable credentials.
Photography by Jim Stephenson (clickclickjim.com).
A new post by Joe Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, August 2017.