GKA wins Keith Hayman Award for Public Art from Sheffield Civic Trust
We are delighted to announce our Sheffield Covid Memorial won the Keith Hayman Award for Public Art from the Sheffield...
Continue ReadingWe are delighted to announce our Sheffield Covid Memorial won the Keith Hayman Award for Public Art from the Sheffield...
Continue ReadingA brightly painted, timber clad ‘Sky Garden’ has been completed in time for the new school year, providing much needed outdoor space for students at an East London School. The project, a collaboration between Holt Architecture & George King Architects, is located at the London Enterprise Academy, a school for 11-16 year olds in Tower Hamlets, London’s most densely populated borough.
The school, a converted office building in Whitechapel, originally had no outdoor play space, a situation that became increasingly problematic during the Covid pandemic and so the designers were challenged to find a way to provide outdoor recreation on this confined site. As a result a pair of bright steel and timber terraces with planted borders have sprung to life above an existing car park and basement, providing an escape from stuffy classrooms.
Conceived as a series of interlinked timber clad tree houses, the bright yellow hyperboloid columns appear as tree trunks with multiple branches supporting the lightweight sky blue canopy above. The zig-zagging boundaries break down the mass and create a series of lookouts and semi-private balconies for students to unwind and enjoy lunchtime bites. A living plant border adorned with enlarged patterns reminiscent of botanical cellular structures hugs the edges, inviting biodiversity and offering a natural learning hub for students to grow their own plants.
The structure of the platforms is tightly knitted into the existing building, with columns carefully positioned to respond to the structural grid of the basement whilst allowing continued access to the car park and electricity substation directly beneath during construction and use. Access to the platforms comes directly from the existing school by modifying the landing of an existing fire escape stair to create a secure entrance. The hyperboloid column structure, designed in collaboration with Price and Myers Engineers, creates an extremely rigid geometry that is braced in multiple directions resulting in an efficient, lightweight structure with large spans from a minimal amount of material.
GKA has won a design competition held by Sheffield City Council to design a Covid memorial for the city’s Balm Green Gardens. The sculpture takes the form of a willow tree and will be fabricated from stainless steel.
The individual branches of the tree twist and turn before coming together to create the trunk, symbolising that as a community we are stronger together and that by supporting each other we can withstand adversity. Architecturally the form of the Willow tree with its far-reaching branches hanging down to the ground creates a welcoming, sheltered, protected space underneath which can be used for people to gather, remember and leave flowers on anniversaries.
GKA has begun work on the project and is working with a local Sheffield based fabricator. The memorial is due for completion in Spring 2023.
A collaboration between GKA and North Kensington based Grow2Know has been selected from a shortlist of six to design a series of sculpted gardens around Notting Hill Gate. Kensington and Chelsea council partnered with the London Festival of Architecture to run the competition with the aim of enhancing the high street.
The design will incorporate a series of small, sculpted pocket gardens that will create a new landscape for the community to explore and enjoy. The installation will draw upon the colours, patterns and traditions of the local community, including the Notting Hill Carnival and the nearby Portobello Road Market. Each garden will be formed from upcycled oil drums which will be painted and decorated to form planters, seating and insect habitats.
GKA and Grow2KNow will work closely with the council and the local community to create a landscape that will enhance the area and provide opportunities for locals to learn about nature and the role it plays in our cities.
GKA’s project in King’s Square, Gloucester had its official opening this weekend, with a day of entertainment and family activities.
The £5m regeneration of the square takes its inspiration from the world famous Severn Bore, a spectacular tidal surge which occurs along the South West’s Severn River. Inspired by the beauty of the bore and the excitement it creates, Kings Square will be defined by a series of sculptural stone waves which flow around the four edges of the square. Weaving through the trees and soft landscaping the waves create a range of spaces from small pocket gardens to larger amphitheatres.
George King and Alex Bilton’s Greenwich University design studio started the new academic with a visit to Makerversity at Somerset House. The second and third year students were taken on a tour of the creative workshop and listened to talks from some of Makerversity’s resident makers. This year’s studio brief is entitled ‘Out of Office’ and explores the new ways of working that have emerged since March 2020 and what this means for our cities. This is George’s fifth year leading Greenwich’s Unit 3 undergraduate studio.
GKA have a new studio! We have moved in Build Studios in Waterloo, a co-working hub for companies working in the built environment. The studio is located just 5 mins walk from Westminster, Waterloo and Lambeth North stations, so if you’re in the area why not drop by and say hi!
Work on GKA’s sculptural redesign of Gloucester’s Kings Square continues, with new aerial photos showing a birds eye view of the site. A number of the stones that make up the sculptural edge of the square have been laid, hinting at the flowing stone landscape that will define the space.