A Tale of Two Buildings

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) is about as conservative as it gets. It is almost entirely made up of conservation areas and these are fiercely guarded by well heeled and articulate locals. The land value and property prices reflect this. However the south and north ends of the borough are the exception, social housing and employment tend to be located at these extremes. In fact North Kensington is an area of social depravation, in a recent survey the Golborne Ward was the second poorest in London.

Consequently the opportunities for adventurous architecture tend to be limited in RBKC. So it is perhaps surprising that 2016 has witnessed two very different projects coming to fruition that sit at very different ends at the table of architectural taste. Surprisingly neither are neo classical, something you would be forgiven for assuming would be the case in the Royal borough.

The Design Museum occupies the shell of the Commonwealth Institute, a listed building by RMJM from 1962. It moved there as part of a planning deal to build three new blocks of luxury flats on the edge of Holland Park. The cost of this relocation, rumoured to be £80m, was sufficient to relax the requirement for any affordable housing.  It also found a use for a redundant building. OMA and Allies and Morrison built the boxy blocks of flats and John Pawson was employed to fashion a museum space under the undulating parabolic roof of the old building.

Minimalism does not come cheap, but sometimes can unintentionally look it. There is so much wood and whiteness in the triple height void at the heart of the museum that it moves into this territory. It has the feel of Oslo airport, or as a colleague uncharitably said, Muji. It says event space more than museum, tasteful but erring towards the bland and corporate. The restaurant is on the second floor, (why not on the courtyard or overlooking the park with terraces?) and it is the latest offering from Terence Conran. Unfortunately it is a dull soulless room that seems to drain the life out of the occupants as well as the food on the plates. It is the place you would take your partner on the last date not the first. Conran has been quick to criticise others in the past, but I doubt he will be allowed to get away with this one, it will surely be rethought and “softened” very soon

Walmer Yard sits further north on Walmer Road W11 and is a collection of four houses by Peter Salter for the architect and developer, Crispin Kelly. 

This is Peter Salter’s first work and at almost 70 years old is the reverse of a comeback. It is the culmination of a life of teaching and thinking and it shows.  It is an extraordinary work of craft, it ignores fashion. Layered with references, there is no hint of minimalism, it is worked, honed and sculpted. It does not feel British, it should be in Tokyo perhaps. It will not be everyone’s cup of tea but it is a very important project, all the more so for being in RBKC, an expensive and difficult borough to build in.

Of these two buildings, Walmer Yard is the most challenging, perhaps because it has not relied on a safe minimalism that has become the currency of estate agents and shopkeepers.