Many architectural practices tend to concentrate upon specific areas of their expertise. One practice that has deliberately steered away from this approach is Meadowcroft Griffin Architects, based in Kentish Town, London.
Practice Director Phil Meadowcroft explains, “Ann Griffin and I started the practice in 2001 and so, this year, we are celebrating 10 years of successful trading. Unlike many other architects, we have built our business around a diverse range of projects from the scale of a single dwelling to large areas of London. We are very much a design-led practice combining architecture, landscape design and urban design with research and teaching. Many of our recent projects have been in the public sector, with a core focus on education. I was a CABE Enabler for Early Years Education projects and we have just completed a new two form entry primary school at Lauriston in Hackney. This followed our success in the National Neighbourhood Nurseries Competition in 2001 from which we became involved in numerous Sure Start nurseries and Childrens’ Centres.”
“At the other end of the scale we became involved in urban regeneration and social infrastructure work in London. These include urban design projects within Thames Gateway, the Lea Valley, as well as master plans for Erith, Poplar Riverside, Crystal Palace Park and The Roman Road, Ilford. In many of these areas, deprived communities had become fragmented and we were faced with the challenge of producing strategies that would knit the communities back together again.”
In the middle of this has been work for private clients, including new art galleries and residences in Clerkenwell and Portobello Road and most recently a new private house on Spaniard’s End in London.
Now we are looking to expand our range of work. “With the way that things have changed, we have had to look increasingly outside the public sector and this has thrown up new challenges. We do not design from a preconceived style or image. Rather, our designs develop through dialogue with the client and users, through reference to its cultural and physical context, and from the specific conditions of each project. We are respectful of the role played by individual buildings within their urban context and the relationship they have to public space within the city. At times it is appropriate to design buildings with a strong civic identity – for example our new school at Lauriston which lies at the heart of the community. We also firmly believe that one of the biggest challenges is to design buildings within certain settings which are more humble in appearance and form part of the background to the life of the city. For example
designs for a new office building for the Coram Foundation in Bloomsbury and the house and gallery at Portobello Road are both developed as contemporary interpretations of adjacent Georgian and Victorian terraces.
Each of Meadowcroft Griffin Architect’s projects is concerned with ways of making, materials and light along with an innovative approach which extends across all aspects of design from site wide issues to consultation techniques, construction methods and the thematic use of materials. Most recently structural prefabricated laminated timber panels were developed at Lauriston to reduce construction time on an occupied school site and to support the elevated school’s ‘treehouse’ character. Elswhere the lightness of materials such as timber and metal mesh cladding has been pitched against heavy weight fair-faced concrete to express the dialogue between earth and sky and to introduce landscape qualities to interiors within dense urban situations.
Looking ahead, Phil says, “These are difficult and changing times. We are a small practice but we are now involved in projects of £10 million and over. We are quick to respond to different markets and can produce high quality designs for any type of project quickly. We are looking to expand our early years and primary school experience as a stepping stone to higher education, universities, and private schools, also to developing our experience as a springboard to diversify further and to engage with a range of mixed use projects across a broader range of sectors .”
For further information please telephone 0207 485 0494 or visit http://www.meadowcroftgriffin.co.uk/
