Architecture
CI Refurbishment
The calm, orthogonal geometries of the
The Commonwealth institute’s main
new residential buildings pose a deliberate
exhibition hall will be the new home of
contrast to the dramatic hyperbolic
the Design Museum, offering nearly three
geometries of the exhibition hall’s roof.
times the space of original location at Shad
The facades of the new buildings register
Thames, meanwhile dedicated to house
the amplitude of the roof’s curvature like
Zaha Hadid’s archives.
‘graph paper’.
With the exception of the roof and it’s
Each residential façade is a hybrid of
supporting structure, the building has
two different façade types: one being an
been almost entirely rebuilt.
array of identical vertical windows, the
other essentially an expression of the
A new basement has been installed
buildings’ structural grid. The latter offers
beneath the full footprint, and the floors
the apartments magnificent views and
within have been rebuilt at new levels to
also incorporates their outdoor spaces,
accommodate the needs of the Design
including the large terraces on the upper
Museum. The outmoded 1960s facades
floors.
have been replaced with energy efficient
fritted facades, designed to resemble the
The two façade types coexist in a
original.
seemingly accidental relationship. The
addition of skyboxes gives a certain
The refurbishment of the Commonwealth
plasticity to the building volumes, allowing
exhibition hall has been funded from
(some of ) the apartments to extend
revenue made from the residential
outside the building perimeter, redirecting
development to the point that the Design
the view back to one’s own façade.
Museum has been offered a for-purposebuilding as though it were new, without
the obligation to pay rent.