IIDA Perspective - Summer 2018 - 16

PRE/POST |

BEFORE

AFTER

What's old is celebrated in this ARCHITECTURAL
FIRM'S NEW HEADQUARTERS, which is
housed in a more than 100-year-old department store.

I
"

By | Ali Morris

Every
piece of
furniture
or product
that we put
into the
building is
drawing
reference
from the
building
itself and
its story.

-Maria Cheung

perspective

In its heyday, London, England's first department
store-Bon Marché-was the picture of Edwardian
opulence. But as the 112-year-old space aged, it
fell into disarray, eventually was abandoned, and
ultimately became the backdrop for graffiti and a
home for squatters.
The Brixton neighborhood building recently has
been given new life thanks to U.K. architectural firm
Squire & Partners, which transformed the space
into its new headquarters in late 2017. But while
the renovation gave the five-story, 66,165-squarefoot (6,147-square-meter) building a much-needed
modernization, the design team worked hard to keep
remnants of the past intact.
For example, the wedge-shaped building originally
featured ornate plasterwork that embellished towering
columns and grand ceilings, and the firm wanted to
keep it-whether it was perfect or not.
"With the plasterwork, if it was in its original state
and not broken, then we painted it back," says Tim
Gledstone, one of the firm's four partners who led the
renovation. "But if it had fallen away, we left it and
didn't try to patch it up."
The original space contained Burmese teak boards,
mosaics that lined the floors, elaborate stained-glass

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windows, and decorative metalwork in the stairwell. Over
the years, carpet and ceiling tiles were installed to cover up
many of these touches, but the team was able to bring these
elements back to their former luster. At the same time, they
uncovered a grand central staircase that had been hidden in
an elevator shaft.
The result is a perfectly imperfect patchwork of faded
green paint and crumbling plasterwork interspersed with
original and restored tiles, wooden floors, and even the
more recent graffiti next to slick, new fixtures.
On the ground floor, an in-house model shop partitioned
by Crittall glass walls sits just off the lobby where a
triple-height void-one of a series that cuts through the
building-provides views to the floors above and below.
Patterns taken from the building's original stained-glass
windows and moldings have been worked into printed ply
floors, rugs, crockery, and even stationery that is produced
in the firm's model shop. And the business recently
purchased a series of office stools that were customized by
printing the wooden seats with a geometric pattern inspired
by the building's original tiled floors.
"Every piece of furniture or product that we put into the
building is drawing reference from the building itself and
its story," says Maria Cheung, director and head of interior
design at Squire & Partners. "It's a total design."

Photos by: Squire & Partners

Before and After, Done Right

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