Rivington Place, Shoreditch Building, Project, Photo, Arts Design, Property

Rivington Place London : Shoreditch Architecture

Key Arts Building Development in London design by Adjaye Associates, England

7 Nov 2012

Rivington Place

Location: Rivington Street, east London
Date built: 2007
Design: Adjaye Associates

New photos from 12 Nov 2012:

Location: Old Street / Shoreditch area, just off Great Eastern Street

Rivington Place

Architect: David Adjaye

Summary of key aspects:

– purpose built international visual arts centre in Shoreditch
– commissioned by two publicly-funded visual arts organisations, Iniva and Autograph ABP with the intention of establishing the new venue as a major international visual arts centre in Shoreditch.
– in the late 20th-century, this part of the East End had emerged as a new arts quarter, famous for harbouring the YBA movement, with leading private galleries such as White Cube in nearby Hoxton Square.
– both Iniva and Autograph were founded to reflect and promote cultural diversity in the visual arts, and it was hoped that the new building would advance this aim.
– five-storey building
– £8m cost
– first publicly-funded new-build international art gallery in London since The Hayward Gallery opened more than 40 years earlier.

– primarily a free public gallery, for most of the year, the two exhibition spaces are used to show contemporary visual art shows organised by either Iniva or Autograph.
– 1,445 sqm of space
– venue also houses education facilities and seminar rooms as well as the offices of Iniva and Autograph ABP
– home to the Stuart Hall Library, which is Iniva’s public reference library for research into diversity and the visual arts.
– five floors within the building, but eight rows of windows
– windows diminish in height, as they rise up the elevation.
– width of the windows change along the length of the main façade to Rivington Place.
– rows of saw-tooth rooflights face south – instead of north – and most of them lack glass.
– black concrete panels in a chequerboard pattern feature externally.
Alternating with this are in-fills of flush or recessed glass, forming the windows, and opaque, black polyester, powder-coated panels.

The narrow plot, combined with the requirements of the internal programme, means the main entrance has had to be located halfway along Rivington Place, rather than, ideally, on Rivington Street.

photos © Nick Weall

David Adjaye
– David Adjaye OBE is one of Britain’s leading contemporary architects.
– voted most powerful black person in UK in 2012 – Power 100
– born in Tanzania
– influences range from African art and architecture to contemporary art and music.
– Sowei mask from Sierra Leone was the inspiration for the unusual lattice pattern that articulates the exterior of Rivington Place

Adjaye Associates led by David Adjaye Architect

Adjaye/Associates Architects

Location: Rivington Street, London, England, UK