North Kensington Library and Youth Centre
Royal Borough Kensington & ChelseaA refined library, youth centre and multi-use games area.
North Kensington Library and Youth Centre
Royal Borough Kensington & Chelsea
Overview
The new North Kensington Library and Youth Centre will combine library, youth centre, multi-use games area and third-party use. The library is zoned around three spaces: a grand double height space for reading and study; an informal reading area; and a children’s library.
Piercy&Company have distilled an architectural language that is well-crafted and contemporary, yet also sensitive to the local area and neighbouring Ladbroke Conservation Area. The external brick skin has a noble civic quality that responds to the local context and will age gracefully. A regular façade grid adds articulation and richness to the massing. A ground floor ‘plinth’, distinct from the regular grid, gives a human scale to the entrance. The public facing massing has been ‘crumbled’ into three blocks, breaking the scale down and echoing the massing of the neighbouring buildings.
Details
- Client:
- Royal Borough Kensington & Chelsea
- Location:
- Ladbroke Grove
- Type:
- Architecture, Cultural
- Gross Floor Area:
- 42,450 sqft
- Stage:
- RIBA Stage 3
Project Team
- Mace, Contractor Client
- Taylor Whalley Spryra, Structural Engineer
- Hurley Palmer Flatt, Services Engineer
- The Fire Surgery, Fire Engineer
- Clarke Saunders Associates, Acoustician
- RPS Group plc, Ecologist
- TTP Consulting, Transport Consultant
- Pegasus Group, Planning Consultant
Credits
- Studio Archetype, Digital Imagery
- Jack Hobhouse, Model Photography