#amintahaarchitects

[modernlove20]

Stone and steel #staircase designed by @webbyates and #AminTahaArchitects. 👀#JeanProuve lamp just off to the side.

[jhcoe]

Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom Amin Taha Architects Ltd

MEMORY + FACADE Memory is the overall binding concept, in that by retaining the existing neoclassical street facade as architectural archaeology we extrapolate its origins into a fictional historic narrative. This leads us to imagine and rebuild the missing pieces of a Belle Époque mansion house originally built for Lillie Langtry by her then lover the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. Its forgotten rooms leave an internal palimpsest reflected externally as a ghost façade.  The scale, quality of detail and form of the retained building are used as a 1:1 imprint. New floor plates sit behind and detached from it at levels not aligned with the ‘original’ window positions, with wide and light weight balcony structures spanning from floor structure to façade. As with mashrabiya the bronze perforated skin acts as a sun shade and privacy screen. When opened for clear views the ‘façade shutters’ are positioned in line with new floor plates and therefore cut across the cornice lines, pilaster and window details of the extended facade. In this way expressing the separation and activating an overall building form into open-able sun shades during the height of summer from a monolithic monument to the past.