UK studio Residents Design Bureau has given a vibrant retrofit to Jacksons Lane, an arts and circus centre in an previous church in London, with the intention of decluttering and simplifying its inside.
The studio aimed to enhance the performance of the grade II-listed constructing, which was once a church however has been a neighborhood hub and “main centre in up to date circus arts” for the reason that Nineteen Eighties, Residents Design Bureau stated.
“The earlier format was an actual jumble of areas that did not work from a purposeful perspective,” the studio’s director Katy Marks instructed Dezeen.
“Our method was to declutter the previous church constructing, in order that the unique construction was extra seen, giving a way of the symmetrical cruciform of the unique plan and utilizing the drama of these areas to full impact, bettering acoustic separation, performance in addition to making the constructing totally accessible,” she added.
The venue in Highgate, London, had a dated inside with greater than 20 completely different ranges.
Whereas reconfiguring its areas to make them extra purposeful, Residents Design Bureau added a restaurant and hireable studios within the former church’s double-height transept.
New particulars that make Jacksons Lane extra purposeful embrace acoustic home windows, in addition to ramps and lifts that create simpler entry to the completely different areas.
It additionally restored some components of the church that had been hidden underneath newer interventions. This included reinstating the primary entrance of the constructing to the unique church porch, which had been boarded up.
“You’ll typically see individuals nonetheless climbing the steps as much as the unique, boarded-up door, making an attempt to push it open,” Marks stated.
“In a grade II-listed constructing, we had restricted scope to make massive modifications to the outside, so we felt that opening up the unique and intuitively apparent entrance was probably the most impactful transfer we may make, to make the constructing way more legible and welcoming to everybody,” she added.
Contained in the centre, Residents Design Bureau launched a heat color palette of deep reds and oranges with teal accents, which enhances the present brick, stone and dark-wood particulars.
“The constructing has undergone many modifications over many years of use, so the inner cloth particularly has a layered historical past,” Marks stated.
“Now we have used color to precise these layers – white for the church construction, a teal blue for components that have been added within the 70s, after which volcanic oranges, reds and purples for fully new insertions with pops of different colors within the lighting, reflecting the playfulness of its present perform as a inventive area, specialising in circus arts.”
The studio clad a few of Jacksons Lane’s ceilings with a pale-green concertina type that improves acoustics.
Lamps with vibrant orange cables add one other vibrant contact to the area.
Jacksons Lane is utilized by lots of people within the native space and Marks stated the suggestions up to now has been “fantastic”.
“We hope that what we’ve achieved actually expresses the ethos and character of Jacksons Lane with readability and a little bit of pleasure, raises a smile and is the sort of place that folks actually wish to hand around in,” she stated.
Residents Design Bureau has beforehand added a “delicately perforated” Corten extension to Manchester Jewish Museum, for which the studio was longlisted for a Dezeen Award in 2021.
The images is by Fred Howarth.
