Some of you spotted the photo I took from my bike of the dismantling of one of Oxford Street most eye catching moving facade systems: Debenhams. Built in 2013, the playful cloth-like system, made out of 185,000 suspended aluminium shingles, responded to the changes of its surroundings in a lovely manner.
The rippling effect of wind was almost hypnotising... To me at least.
Designed by Adrian V Montagu and Partners in 1971, the original building (now peeking through again) felt quite harsh in its context and the cladding Collab between Archial Architects and artist Ned Khan completely transformed it.
At the time, there was plenty written about it and hence won't be difficult to find more if you are interested... AHMM will be responsible for the refurbishment of the building with a proposal that will add three storeys, a terrace and a new, outward looking façade.
With Grafton + Piercy&co doing something similar in the back of Debenhams and the M&S building refurb being reconsidered , I am hopeful that clients will stop asking for full demolitions to give way to samey looking glazed boxes or horrible facadism and are encouraged to work with existing more .
If you like glazed buildings, I give you three reasons:
1. Waste: why use resources (material and financial) to rebuild something you already have?
2. Birds: glass buildings contribute to the death of millions of birds (on impact) across the globe. And campaigners are not heard enough.
3. Running energy consumption: self explanatory ...I hope
Thoughts?
