Metro Studio Complex

Status: 1998
Location: London

Client: Metro Imaging Ltd
Value: Confidential

 

The proposed building is designed to provide photographic studio facilities for world class photographers that complement the clients’ adjacent photographic laboratories on Clerkenwell Road. Together with a restaurant for use by both photographers and the public the development will significantly improve the amenity of Great Sutton Street and introduce a dynamic, vibrant contemporary landmark building to the area.

Metro is a young and dynamic forward looking company and the building endeavours to reflect the clients’ image. The building will employ contemporary methods of construction and materials whilst respecting the character of the Conservation Area and its immediate surroundings. The building has been intentionally disengaged from the light industrial buildings to the east in order to create a pause between new and old.

The new building thus acts to soften the transition between the 15m high frontages and the smaller 19th Century buildings with shop fronts.

Cast glass sections are employed to create translucent transparent veils, providing abundant light for the activities inside. High quality textural pre-cast concrete will be used to give weight to the building, in keeping with the appearance to the adjacent masonry buildings. At a more detailed level the junction between the new building and the existing terrace will be carefully articulated to lock the old and new buildings together.