Oyster Pearl Roundhouse
House of Fairy Tales, community arts centre, Canning Town, London
Our remit here was to assist the child-centred, artist-led project, House of Fairy Tales (HoFT) to fundamentally influence the ethos, character, design and evolution of a larger upcoming housing development – to give it a real working flavour and to make it a unique place in London for the local population and for visitors from throughout London and the world.
The HoFT HQ is to be a community centre, an Oyster in the Pearl, working title the Hoy Street Portal. It will be child-centred and artist-led. The task of this exercise was to clearly define the character of this new place, as a beating heart for creative industry supporting a residential quarter, based on the principles and philosophy of HoFT employed to inform the whole-block design as it develops, in terms of its interactivity, material realisation and performance, of its functionality and its ability to inspire – firmitas, utilitas, and venustas.
The illustrated brief is written through briefing exercises, the consultation and participation that has taken place and is to come through the lives of the development. It’s not static. It’s a model for the design development process, the building process and then the life of the building itself. Brief is merely the starting point, the guide. It must be imaginative, poetic and of course practical – always useful to the processes of living.
Service: Client Advisers
Location: Canning Town, London
Client: House of Fairy tales
Cost: Undisclosed
Areas: XX m2
Dates: 2013
To Live In To Learn In To Work In To Play In