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McChesney Architects London

Contemporary British Architectural Practice, London, England, UK

post updated 7 August 2021

McChesney Architects News

6 Sep 2018
McChesney Architects News

Gallery Bench

The practice recently launched this Gallery Bench prompted by the success of benches by the studio at Granary Square. Available in oak or walnut the bench is available to order and is ideally suited for galleries, rece ption areas and large hallways.
It has a highly crafted form with a gently curved top and bottom face giving it a very natural feel. The bench is carved on a state-of-the-art CNC machine and then assembled and finished by skilled English craftsmen.

Materials: available in oak (natural or white oil) or walnut (natural or oil)
Lengths: increments of 0.5m between 2m – 4.5m
Prices: please contact for a price list.

Rooftop Room

We recently completed this new workroom and bathroom on the rear portion of a Victorian terraced house in southeast London. The project was designed to fit with in Permitted Development rules avoiding the need for planning permission.

Lyndhurst Way

This is a view of a new helical staircase being installed at Lyndhurst Way, an 1850s Georgian style house that we are fully refurbishing in the Holly Grove Conservation area in Peckham.

Soho Place Public Realm

We were delighted to be invited by Derwent London to take part in a design competition for the public realm at Soho Place, a new mixed-use scheme on the corner of Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road. Soho Place comprises two buildings separated by a newly pedestrianised area – the southern building will contain a new theatre. We proposed a modification of the theatre entry paving, along with two new monumental stone benches. While providing seating the benches would also help to safely divide the spaces either side of the steps and entry ramp to the right of the building.

Uist Sketchbook

This summer we visited Isles of North Uist and Berneray in the Outer Hebrides. I’ve always made drawings and sketches when travelling and this year I worked mainly on small 200 x 250mm oil sketches.

26 Feb 2017

Motion sculpture: English National Ballet, London, England, UK

This is a motion sculpture at the new home of the English National Ballet in East London.

An assemblage of three delicate elements slowly transforms itself playing out a graceful balletic motion in the square.

The sculpture consists of three, twenty-metre-long carbon fibre spars, connected via rotating axis points, enabling the sculpture to move in a subtle dance-like motion.

The project was developed in collaboration with robotics specialists, aerodynamic engineers and specialist art fabricators.

The practice has made a short animation of the sculpture which you can view by clicking the link below:

Motion Sculpture at the new home of the English National Ballet from Ian McChesney on Vimeo.

Recent Designs by McChesney Architects

‘Memorial to those lost at sea, Valentia Island’, Republic of Ireland
27 Feb 2013 – This is a recent proposal for a memorial to those lost at sea off the Island of Valentia off the Republic of Ireland.

About the piece:
We see mooring bollards at quay-sides all over the world, universal symbols of travel, solemn monuments to journeys. They are the last land-based object the sailor touches on departure and the first he-or-she touches on arrival.

image : Ian McChesney

I recently made a piece of work based mooring bollards entitled ‘Arrival and Departure’ for Plymouth University, to represent its marine history and the journeys both metaphorical and physical of the students.

My proposal for Valentia adopts a similar theme. While in Plymouth I adopted a pair of forms representing journeys completed, a single form is proposed for Valentia representing journeys incomplete, there has been no arrival.

A single, solemn form is proposed, redolent of a mooring point it is a monument to those who have untied from this island and never come back. It is poised to reach out to sea and sky, its large grey surface somehow alluding to the vastness of the ocean. It awaits forlornly for those lost who are never to return.

The monument would be hand sculpted from Valentia Slate or Kilkenny limestone, both of which have a grey colour. At the lower end would be a simple inscription. The top flattens like an altar to form a place where people might lay flowers or offerings.

It is intended to be a very simple, beautiful object, hand-crafted from the highest quality Irish stone. It is not figurative but a symbolic piece, from it people can form their own interpretations. Through its elegance and abstract nature it can appeal to many people in a variety of different ways.

‘Out of the Strong Came Forth Sweetness’, The Angel Building, London, England, UK
Date built: 2011
Design: Ian McChesney Studio

image : Ian McChesney
Angel Building Sculpture – Major Design
Out of the Strong Came Forth Sweetness is a stunning new sculpture by Ian McChesney for the Angel Building in London. The shape of the piece was generated by allowing treacle to fall from a spoon – the resulting form is then inverted.