Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects, London Design Office, Buildings, Image, FBM Studio

Fraser Brown MacKenna : Architects

Contemporary British Architecture Practice, UK Design Studio News

post updated 4 May 2022

Fraser Brown MacKenna News

Contemporary Architecture by FBM

30 Oct 2019
UEA Institute of Productivity, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
In creating a home for UEA’s new Institute of Productivity, this architects practice have removed later additions to reveal hidden details of Denys Lasdun’s original building – creating a state-of-the-art home for a new generation of “Visible Engineers”.

4 Jul 2017
Sherborne House, Coventry, Midlands, Central England, UK

photograph © Tim Crocker Photography
Sherborne House Coventry Student Residences
Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects’ new student residences in central Coventry have been completed by Pickstock Construction, using a volumetric system to deliver the building in just nine months from planning approval to occupation. The new building provides 114 new studio rooms and improved communal facilities at Sherborne House, an existing halls of residence operated by Axo Student Living.

8 Nov 2016

Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects News

1-3 Broad Lane Student Residences, Coventry, Midlands, Central England, UK

8th of November 2016 – FBM were delighted to gain planning approval from Coventry City Council for the refurbishment and extension of 1-3 Broad Lane to provide 48 high quality student rooms for Axo Student Living on a corner site on the edge of Hearsall Common.

The existing end of terrace house will be refurbished and extended, with new accommodation set around a landscaped courtyard. The design of the extension reflects the form and massing of the surrounding residential buildings in a contemporary way; with clean lines and detailing. Clad in a high quality, dappled buff brick with a dark grey standing seam zinc roof and translucent polycarbonate cladding surrounding the new landscaped courtyard, the new development will provide 48 high quality study bedrooms, grouped into flats each sharing a kitchen and living space.

The design proposals were granted planning approval on 27 October 2016.

3 Dec 2012
Apartments and supported housing in Hackney, Northeast London, Southeast England

photograph © Tim Crocker Photography
Hackney Housing by Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects
Sites for new affordable housing are often challenging; in creating 62 high quality new homes for One Housing Group, Fraser Brown MacKenna had to overcome a complex, overlooked, landlocked former industrial site in Hackney.

3 Dec 2012
Museum of the Mind – archive & gallery at Bethlem Royal Hospital, London, England
2012-

picture Courtesy Fraser Brown MacKenna
Museum of the Mind at Bethlem Royal Hospital
Fraser Brown MacKenna have won an invited design competition run by the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust to create a new “Museum of the Mind” at Bethlem Royal Hospital, due to open in 2014.

Recent Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects Designs

8 Nov 2012
Corten clad modular classroom suite at Carshalton Boys Sports College granted planning permission, England

pictures Courtesy Fraser Brown MacKenna

Fraser Brown MacKenna are delighted that the proposal for a new classroom suite at Carshalton Boys Sports College has just been granted planning approval by the London Borough of Sutton. The new building will be clad in mesh, perforated and solid corten panels and has been designed to utilise off-site manufacture to meet programme, budget and sustainability requirements.

The new facility will replace an existing, outdated temporary building providing eight new classbasses, staff offices and WC facilities within a new 775sqm single storey building at Carshalton Boys Sports College in the London Borough of Sutton.

Internally, we have sought to maximise the spatial quality of the classrooms. Floor to ceiling vision panels are located on the same axis as the external windows to enhance the connection with the landscape.

The form of the building has been eroded to create a canopy at each entrance – these sculptural voids, which will be sensitively lit, will aid wayfinding. The generous depth of the space will also provide shelter and a zone of transition between the inside and out. Externally, the appearance of the building uses a simple palette of two materials, corten pre-weathered steel to enclose the primary envelope with a lighter, patterned aluminium panel to the areas which have been eroded or cut-away from the main volume. These materials reflect the tone and texture of the built context whilst retaining a special quality of their own.

The south east elevation is protected from excessive solar gains through perforated corten panels which obscure part of the windows. The mesh provides a secondary, safety, function in view of the adjoining playspace and basketball courts. The northwest facing classrooms will experience less solar gain so the windows here are not obscured, although they are recessed from the outer skin, the panels between the windows articulated in lighter, patterned aluminium. The entrance canopies are identified in the same high quality panel finish with a textural pattern to provide a robust yet tactile surface for these high-traffic areas.

The project is part funded through the Academy Capital Maintenance Fund grant and has been designed to utilise offsite manufacture to meet programme, budget and sustainability requirements.

Carshalton Boys Sports College is a non-selective convertor Academy in a selective borough. The majority of students are from socioeconomic backgrounds below the national average. Despite this, achievement is significantly above the national average and improving rapidly, with the school included in the 100 ‘most improved schools’ for the past three years running.

A groundbreaking National Centre for Bowel Cancer Surgical Innovation designed by Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects has opened its doors at Queen Mary University of London.

2 Oct 2012
A groundbreaking National Centre for Bowel Cancer Surgical Innovation designed by Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects has opened its doors at Queen Mary University of London, England

Completed under a fast track design and build contract, the new centre, which is located on the first floor of the Abernathy Building on Whitechapel Road, is the first of its kind in the UK. The NCBRSI (National Centre for Bowel Research and Surgical Innovation) brings together under one roof scientists, clinicians and clinical trial specialists.

Creating a space which would encourage collaboration and innovation within an inter-disciplinary team was at the heart of the design proposals as Professor Norman Williams, Director of the Centre and President of the Royal College of Surgeons, explains;

“We can make great strides if we can pool expertise from different sectors of the medical chain, but we need an organisation and a structure with which to do that.”

The new centre provides different specialised lab areas as well as office and meeting space for researchers, academics and administration staff. The layout optimises space efficiency whilst promoting the transfer of knowledge with a sequence of spaces that provide a safe, secure research environment. The design incorporates air lock lobbies, ante-rooms and a separate pressurised ventilation system. The laboratory areas are grouped into a distinct zone, assisting with rationalisation of servicing and the sequencing of activities, lab security, maintenance and hygiene procedures.

Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects were novated to Hutton Construction under a Design & Build contract to complete the project,which is a joint venture between Queen Mary University of London, Barts and the London NHS Trust and the charity Bowel & Cancer Research, which contributed £2.4m of funding to enable the centre to launch.

Key Fraser Brown MacKenna -Projects

Featured Buildings by Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects, alphabetical:

Antony House for the Peabody Trust, Hackney, east London
2007

photograph : James Morris
Pembury Estate Hackney
30 units of shared ownership accommodation. The challenge throughout has been to maintain a degree of permeability whilst ensuring security in an area known for high levels of crime.

Blackheath Road, Greenwich, London
2008-

image : Sanders Shiers
Blackheath Road Greenwich – planning approval, 2010
Mixed use development, incorporating 92 apartments and a 230 bedroom hotel on a gateway site in the London Borough of Greenwich.

Docklands Student Village, east London
2007

photograph : James Morris
Docklands Student Village
£31m student residence complex on the Royal Albert Dock for the University of East London has been completed.

House, Hertfordshire, England
2003

photo : Hélène Binet
Hertfordshire House
Residence for a patron of contemporary art and a sponsor of a major art school – he and his wife had decided to reflect the change in their lifestyle resulting from the departure of the last of their four children by remodeling their existing 1920’s house.

Ronaldson’s Wharf, The Shore, Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland
2003
Design: Fraser Brown MacKenna with Dignan Read Dewar

photo : Adrian Welch
Ronaldsons Wharf – Water of Leith Housing, 120 flats
Design Competition winner: jury consisted of Henri Ciriani, John McAslan, etc.

Warwick University Competition, Warwickshire, England
2008

image: Sanders Shiers
Warwick University – Halls of Residence to accommodate up to 500 students
Fraser Brown MacKenna one of six shortlisted practices