KPF’s Scalpel Skyscraper in the City of London

 

Laurence Grigorov, who is director of a leading residential development company, enjoys keeping track for new developments around the South Africa and the globe. Such developments provide an insight to Laurence Grigorov on forthcoming trends and market changes which better allow the company to adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs and requirements.

Architecture studio Kohn Pedersen Fox has completed the 190-metre-tall Scalpel skyscraper alongside the Lloyd’s building at 52 Lime Street in the City of London.The Scalpel is the latest skyscraper to be built in the City of London cluster, which also includes RSH+P’s Leadenhall Building, Foster + Partners’ Stirling Prize-winning 30 St Mary Axe and the Foggo Associates-designed 70 St Mary Axe.

Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) created the 38-storey skyscraper’s angular shape, which gave it the name the Scalpel, to allow it to be built along Leadenhall Street without interfering with any of London’s protected views.

“At the outset of the project the city cluster was in its infancy. Working with the planning authorities, KPF demonstrated the potential for a tall building on the site that would maintain the street edge, preserve protected views and enhance the public realm through the provision of new public space between 52 Lime Street, the Willis Building and the Lloyd’s building.” William Pedersen, co-founder of KPF, told Dezeen.

The building’s facade leans back from Leadenhall Street. This means it is hidden behind St Paul’s Cathedral when viewed from Fleet Street.

“The kinetic views along Fleet Street played an important role [in the building’s form],” said Pedersen. “To protect the view of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the building needed either to be stepped or inclined behind the dome. The inclined facade and taut sculptural form offered a calm silhouette as well as providing a wider variety of floor plate types and greater efficiencies,” he continued.

According to the architect the building was designed to add to the drama of the City of London’s skyscraper cluster, and mirror the form of the Leadenhall Building.

“At KPF, our aspiration from the earliest days was to find a way for tall buildings to create a more ‘social’ interaction with the cities they inhabit – they need to be able to respond and gesture to their context. In the City of London what has been created, in effect, is a type of urban drama. 52 Lime Street responds by leaning back to respect the view corridor, creating a paired but mirrored gesture to the Leadenhall Building, which makes for an exceptional urban conversation, one which is theatrical in its nature.” continued Pedersen.

As with other nearby skyscrapers that have been given nicknames based on their shape – the Leadenhall Building is known as the Cheesegrater, 30 St Mary Axe as the Gherkin and 70 St Mary Axe as the Can of Ham – KPF’s skyscraper at 52 Lime Street was given the name the Scalpel.

However, unlike the other towers that have maintained their official names, this skyscraper has adopted its nickname officially, something that Pedersen approves of.

“As for the nickname, which came from an article in the FT in 2012, I love it,” he said. “Cutting-edge… who wouldn’t want that?”

KPF’s Scalpel skyscraper is a global architecture studio founded by Pedersen alongside Eugene Kohn and Sheldon Fox in 1976, which is responsible for numerous skyscrapers in many of the world’s major cities.

Words and image courtesy of www.dezeen.com

2 Pybus in the Sandton CBD

Laurence Grigorov is director and founder of a Johannesburg based residential property development company. The company is constantly evolving in the architectural products it provides to its customers. Laurence Grigorov has noted the significant and constant change to the Sandton CBD over the years and decades with ever-increasing notable and exciting buildings and developments.

Laurence Grigorov recently noted in the Architect & Builder Magazine, 2 Pybus, a new commercial development located in rapidly developing CBD of Sandton.

Through its architectural redevelopment, the site now has significant presence along Rivonia Road close to the Sandton Drive intersection, within a stretch of redeveloping real estate home to a range of blue-chip tenants, inducing many attorneys’ practices, engendering a natural symbiosis with advocates’ chambers. The site is well positioned in terms of visibility as well as vehicular and pedestrian access within the neighbourhood, ensuring that wayfinding is clear and logical, and that building users can easily reach the excellent surrounding amenities.

2 Pybus seeks to represent the pursuit of business and legal practice with transparency, equity, and humanity, giving the advocates chambers an identifiable and distinctive home from which they can more easily integrate with their city context. Individual chambers with their own identities are gathered within a collective whole where strength stems from unity with diversity. The architectural expression is contemporary yet sleek and timeless, and both internationally referential and locally grounded.

The scheme responds to the site specifics of orientation and topography, knitting the new building into the supporting environment including the adjacent 90 Rivonia Road development by the same architects, and creating a generous and welcoming architectural form which contributes to and engages positively with its surrounds.

Construction of 2 Pybus commenced in early 2017 with the demolition of the existing small-scale building awkwardly positioned on the site. The new building, which boldly capitalises on the property shape, was largely completed at the end of 2018, with some elements of tenant fit-outs continuing into 2019. Rentable office area of approximately 11,000m² is arranged over nine floors, along with support amenities including ground floor meeting suites, a coffee shop, entertainment areas and a beautiful north facing elevated garden and terrace, all above six floors of parking. In total the development is some 34,000m² of construction.

Words and image form Architect & Builder magazine.

Huamu Lot 10 in Shanghai, China

Huamu Lot 10

Laurence Grigorov, as director of a residential property development company, finds ideas and inspiration from international architectural designs for residential development projects that the company is involved in. Laurence Grigorov has been developing luxury residential projects in Johannesburg, South Africa since 2003. He enjoys modern design trends and attempts to instil these inspirations in the upcoming projects.

China has many new impressive developments and designs and is pushing the boundaries in terms of architectural aspects which Laurence Grigorov constantly keeps up to date with.

One such project that impresses Laurence Grigorov is Huamu Lot 10 in Shanghai, which will create a sustainable mixed-use urban environment that welcomes tenants and visitors to experience nature and art in an active setting, demonstrating a new form of participatory urbanism.

The project is defined by three office towers and a future museum carefully situated around a central grand plaza. Landscaped with lush greenery, subtle water features, and meandering walkways, the plaza is activated by surrounding cultural programming and is designed to accommodate large-scale artwork.

Each of the three towers is efficiently planned and rationally massed to make a strong statement and respond to a variety of future contexts. The glass curtain wall facades allow for panoramic views and bring plentiful natural light to the buildings’ interiors, while strong horizontal elements emphasize their rigidity. Subtle cantilevers at uniform heights create a visually connected Sky Gallery, a dramatic and iconic gesture high above the surrounding neighborhood. At night, these cantilevered elements are illuminated to become grand lighting features, marking Huamu Lot 10 from afar. Stepped gardens located on building roofs and terraces provide building occupants with verdant outdoor gathering space an offer sweeping views of the city.

Sustainability is a key component of Huamu Lot 10’s design. Each façade is outfitted with shading strategies to reduce solar heat gain while still allowing daylight to permeate the interiors. Storm water collection on the roofs capture rainwater for landscape irrigation and tower cooling, while vegetation provides insulation and reduces the urban heat island effect. The development’s integrated public transit connections also encourage more sustainable forms of transportation.

“We’ve conceived the project as an integrated place of culture and commerce,” says KPF Design Principal Jeffrey A. Kenoff. “The project seeks to flip the equation of a tower, which typically includes an iconic top, and instead uses the gallery program as a cantilevered volume near the mid-point of the tower. The result is a moment that engages the pedestrian realm while simultaneously sculpting the project’s identity within the Shanghai skyline.” 

Words & image courtesy of www.architectmagazine.com

 

 

OMA’s design for Xinhu Hangzhou Prism

Laurence Grigorov, as director of a leading residential development company, keeps abreast of international design trends using such influences in upcoming projects the company is involved in. Laurence Grigorov is involved in luxury residential projects in Johannesburg, South Africa.

OMA’s design for Xinhu Hangzhou Prism integrates modernity into the beauty of the surrounding natural landscape. The complex will house a hotel, retail space, lofts and an atrium garden. Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, is known as one of China’s most beautiful cities with a high quality of life. The city is rapidly developing into an important tech-hub, home to some of China’s largest technology companies (including Alibaba Group Holding and NetEase) and a burgeoning start-up scene. Hangzhou competes with Beijing and Shanghai to attract China’s new-economy workforce and young tech graduates

The 50,000 m2 Prism is shaped by two radical oblique cuts through the building envelope, creating terraced lofts with generous scenic views. A large interior void creates a publicly accessible garden with water features and playgrounds.

A pinnacle reaching into the sky, the Prism pays homage to the ancient saying that the there is “paradise above, and Hangzhou below”. The Prism is complemented by an adjacent 35,000 m2 residential tower, reflecting the geometry of a prism in its façade, and will encourage the development of a creative community in the new CBD of Hangzhou. The design enables flexible programming and a broad repertoire of communal outdoor spaces, while maintaining a strong visual identity: striking in its form, archetypical yet contemporary.

Words and photo courtesy of www.architectmagazine.com

Xinhu Hangzhou Prism