Design Engine has won the commission for the new £500,000 reception area of LSE’s iconic Old Building in Houghton Street, WC2 ahead of A-EM Studio and ADP.
The creative competition-winning scheme involves the remodelling of the interior, creating a new reception, split level waiting areas, new cloakrooms, and a green room for the theatre. It also involves integrating lighting, signage and wayfinding in a single solution and external installations in order to bring cohesion to LSE’s Houghton Street buildings and bridges.
After 6 months of post-competition design development, the project started on site in June and will be complete for the start of the 2010-11 academic year.
Design Engine has won an invited competition to design a new multi-use centre for Radley College, Abingdon. The new facility is designed around a listed Rackets Court and will house the Racket pro’s offices, history classrooms, art studios, gallery, sculpture courts and a café. The scheme won unanimous approval from the Governors and will be developed for a planning application in October 2010.
Design Engine has won an invited competition to design a new chemistry building for Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey. The competition involved five architects in total: Design Engine; Hopkins Architects; Panter Hudspith, Belsize Architects and Pringle Richards Sharratt Architects.
The project is seen as an opportunity to reconstruct a very damaged and poorly utilised part of the the main Gothic campus which was originally built in 1872. The new two storey building will contain 6 new laboratories, three on each floor along with preparation areas and staff offices. The northern elevation which faces the principle entrance approach to the school is dominated by 3 stone chimneys which house the chemical flues from the laboratories. In contrast the southern façade faces into the main campus introducing a two storey colonnade providing a new external pedestrian route at ground floor and first floor access to the classrooms whilst offering solar protection to the building.