168 Upper Street

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

This mixed-use building occupies a former bomb site and forms the missing piece of a 19th century parade. The form is a full-height double-skin hollow shell, cast in-situ from a terracotta pigmented concrete mix. Up to half a metre thick, this simple but monolithic cast performs as load-bearing structure, external and internal finishes and thermal envelope.

Judge's comment:

This structure uses modern materials and building techniques to mirror the original bomb damaged building and the missing piece of this 19th century parade, which had been incomplete since the World War II. The hollow-core walls are formed from terracotta pigmented in-situ concrete with complex CNC-cut expanded polystyrene formwork bonded to plywood to form the exact geometry of the original facade whilst enabling a completely different internal space arrangement and fenestration; that is, solid elements where the previous windows had been allocated and new windows to suit the spatial requirement of the new building. Rather than attempting a neoclassical restoration, which replicates the original building, the construction techniques and the form were built using contemporary construction and fabrication processes. The outcome is a hollow-cast concrete memorial of the former facade, complete with blemishes and the modern twist of the new internal structural arrangement.