DEAL PIER CAFE
AUGUST 2017

The Guardian has written a piece about CHALKUP21, a 21st-century architectural coastal trail along the Strait of Dover. The trail has been created to raise awareness and appreciation of recent coastal architecture. Along the trail you can see The Wing at Capel Le Ferne (2015), the Samphire Hoe Education shelter(2014) and on the Dover Esplanade, Tonkin Liu’s Three Waves (2009), the Dover Sea Sports centre (2010) and Alma Tischler Wood’s North Downs Way START/FINISH line (2010); the National Trust Visitor Centre (1999), the Pines Calyx (2006) at St Margaret’s Bay and our Deal Pier Café.
To see the full article please click here.
ATHLETES OCCUPY OLYMPIC HOUSING
AUGUST 2012

In the run up to the London Olympics, the Athletes’ Village housing block N15, is now occupied with athletes’ preparing for the games. Niall McLaughlin Architects have designed the external skin of the housing block on a ‘chassis’ designed by Glen Howells. The facade samples fragments of the Elgin Marbles, scanned from the British Museum and converted into 3D pre-cast panels depicting galloping horses from the Parthenon Frieze.
Niall McLaughlin commented on the practice’s approach to the unusual commission in Building Design. ‘I was very interested in the principle of the facade being delaminated from the building’s core form. Usually it’s something one tries to swim against to retain a sense of ‘authenticity’, but here we decided to embrace it….I like the idea of setting Ruskin’s conception of the craftsman against the absolute Taylorism of the construction process. Through digital reproduction, these deracinated stones are now doubly lost.’ (Building Design 27.01.2012)