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Image © Jeremy Cockayne for Arcaid
C20 Society has submitted a listing application for the former office and studio of David Chipperfield Architects in Camden, North London. 1 Cobham Mews was the practice’s first building in UK, and should the application be successful, would become their first project to be nationally listed. Sir David Chipperfield is supportive of the listing bid and has described the building as “an important early project for our practice”.
Developed by Chipperfield between 1987-89, Cobham Mews was a backland site and former scrapyard off Agar Grove. The project combines influences from Le Corbusian-style modernism and traditional Japanese architecture, inducing an atmosphere of calm and abstraction from context. It was the practice’s first home and was occupied by them for over 20 years, until they moved to new premises in 2011. It has subsequently been the studio of landscape architects Gustafson Porter + Bowman, and there is now a live planning application for conversion from office to residential, creating 4 new dwellings within the existing building.
The Society supports the conversion in principle, but as the proposed change of use would involve internal and external alterations, a listing assessment that results in a designation would ensure any changes are sympathetic to the heritage of the building.
Image © Jeremy Cockayne for Arcaid
Loft-like spaces
Built on an awkward triangular plot, bounded by the back gardens of surrounding properties on all three sides, the building has only one visible ‘elevation’. The geometry of the site and a planning condition that stipulated avoidance of overlooking neighbours, led to a design that favoured top-lit loft-like studio spaces. Chipperfield has stated that the ‘controlled views’ of the building drew inspiration from Victorian artists’ studios and the traditions of Japanese architecture.
The main studio spaces are externally represented by two double-height glass block screens, redolent of Maison du Verre in Paris (Pierre Chareau and Bernard Bijvoet, 1928-32). These symmetrical screens are separated by a spine wall of exposed in-situ concrete, with two substantial oak doors located either side. Each door opens onto a stair, which runs up along the spine wall to studio space on the mezzanine level. The stairs have exposed concrete treads and each has a slender metal handrail, with a profile that references that at Le Corbusier’s Maisons Jaoul (Paris, 1954-56). Overall the interiors are composed of simple, carefully detailed, high-quality materials; an early example of what would later become known as a hallmark of Chipperfield’s work.
The client was Derwent Valley Properties (Derwent’s David Rosen and Simon Silver worked on the project). David Chipperfield was the partner in charge and Michael Cullinan the project architect, with assistance from Jorge Carvalho, Evan Webber, Robert Maxwell and John Southall. Price and Myers were the structural engineers. We understand that the building survives in excellent condition, externally and internally. Its original layout, finishes and fixtures remain in-situ.
Image © Peter Cook for View Pictures
David Chipperfield Architects
Sir David Chipperfield (b.1953) is aBritish architect of international importance. Chipperfield graduated from Kingston School of Art in 1976 and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in 1980. He then first worked under Douglas Stephen, Norman Foster and Richard Rogers before establishing David Chipperfield Architects in 1985. It grew into a global practice, which now has offices in Berlin (Est. 1998), Shanghai (2005), Milan (2006) and Santiago de Compostela (2022).
Chipperfield has received numerous honours and awards for services to architecture: he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2004, he was knighted in 2010, received the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2011, was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 2021, and in 2023 he won the Pritzker Prize.
The practice has an international reputation for expertise in design process and for the enduring quality of its projects. Working across the private and public sectors, the practice’s diverse portfolio includes celebrated cultural, residential, education, retail, workplace and civic projects. Among the their major completed works are the rebuilding of the Neues Museum in Berlin, Amorepacific headquarters in Seoul and The Bryant in New York. The practice has received over 100 awards for design excellence.
Image © Peter Cook for View Pictures
Comments
Catherine Croft, Director – C20 Society
“Before the Neues Museum and the Hepworth Wakefield, before the Pritzker Prize, there was 1 Cobham Mews. In this modest, modernist ‘backlands’ project, we can see early evidence of the rigour and meticulous attention to detail that would later become hallmarks of David Chipperfield’s work. Historic England’s listing guidance for residential buildings recommends ‘particular credit where architects are designing for themselves’. We’d contend that this also applies to architects places of work, where the intimacy of the working environment and the values of the practice are manifest.”
David Chipperfield – David Chipperfield Architects
“Cobham Mews is an important early project for our practice. We found the opportunity and introduced it to the developers, Derwent Valley, who then commissioned us to design the building. During the process we agreed to rent one half of the building as our studio. The site is completely landlocked by the gardens of the neighbouring buildings. The design and realisation of the building was totally determined by this condition, and the fact that the tree roots of the neighbouring gardens had to be protected. The lack of aspect meant that the building had to receive most of its daylight from roof lights or via small courtyards. The inspirations for the building were the typical Victorian artist studios in London, and the normal small-scale industrial buildings of the area. The building provided us with a very comfortable working space for many years.”
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