” We were appointed to design this new sustainable living quarter following success in a competition sponsored by The New Deal for Communities, New Cross Gate. The brief was to provide health, educational, community, creative and performing arts facilities together with a new public square and housing.
The winning scheme proposes 76 residential units surrounding a large public square planted with mature trees. At ground floor along the perimeter of the square are a doctors’ surgery, dentist, pharmacy, community hall, performance space, crèche and community café. A prominent civic building on New Cross Road houses a new adult learning center and library.
The scheme demonstrates our obsession with shape, form and place-making. The scheme is like a Rubik cube unfolding – a series of complex buildings which together form a unified whole. This is one of the Mayor of London’s 100 spaces and our aim is ambitious: to pull together all the inter-connecting routes across this extensive site, to form a community with a strongly defined edge.
The square aims to put the built and natural environment on an equal footing. Green planted walls and flowering trees will provide animal habitats and a quiet urban oasis that will change with the seasons. Wind turbines will generate electricity to irrigate the trees with stored rain water. By defining the square with buildings of differing architectural languages, the square establishes itself as a public space for the entire community rather than a facility limited to this single development.”
About FCB Studios
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios was first established in 1978 and with offices in Bath and London we have grown steadily over the years to our present strength of 24 partners and 110 staff.
We believe the best buildings emerge from a clear concept that then finds its way into the DNA of the details. They also come from a strong working relationship with committed clients and creative consultants who understand the transformational power of architecture. Designing buildings is a process about which we are passionate, leading to a product we hope others will enjoy. It is a way of thinking – a way of life – leading to the creation of form and space that is memorable and inspirational.
Philosophy
Architecture is a social art with the ability to reflect and inform, to educate and transform. It is more than the creation of a functional built environment: it allows us to influence social change and respond positively to the environmental crisis of global warming.
Our architecture is rooted in a humane modernism which began almost a century ago with a radical re-evaluation of the way we see the world, and came to fruition in the post-war era of social reform and renewal. But we also have a reverence and fondness for the making of buildings that was embodied in the Arts and Crafts movement that preceded this. Re-interpreting the role of the craftsman gives our architecture a profound sense of materiality.
We produce work that is challenging and discursive. Work that informs, reflects and interprets.
We believe we have a unique understanding and approach to the environmental forces that shape our buildings, allowing the climate to impact on our architecture so that our architecture has minimum impact on the climate. Our architecture also needs to be robust enough in vision and concept to accommodate inevitable change. ” FCB STUDIOS - http://www.fcbstudios.com