A Room with a view, London, a competition entry, October 2010

In collaboration with  Bernd Felsinger of Atelier one, and the artist Dee Ferris.

Yael Reisner Studio participated in the competition hosted by Living Architecture and Artangel in association with the Southbank Centre and the London 2012 Festival - A room that will sit on top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall roof at the Southbank Centre in London and will allow up to two guests at a time a chance to spend a unique night in an exemplary work of art and architecture overlooking the British capital. 

Design Concept

The location for the ‘Room for London’ was probably selected because of its incredible views east and west along the River Thames. To the west, The Houses of Parliament with the clocktower and ‘Big Ben’, the London Eye, and the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank.  In the east, the historic dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral the towers of the Barbican Centre, the Gherkin and Tower 42 in the City of London. Across Waterloo Bridge there is Somerset House, and the ever-changing foreground of the River Thames with its passing boats and the ebb and flow of the tides. People constantly pass along The Queen’s Walk below and gather in crowds drawn to pockets of activity all along the South bank. 

The Room for London is expected to host up to two guests, but we think, given the opportunity, they will probably be keen to invite a few of their closest friends, to marvel at the views and share the experience of this inspiring environment; to have conversations, to dine and to make the most of this retreat in the heart of London. We have designed it for 8 extra guests joining the invited inhabitants.

At street level there exists a low-level space covered with graffiti, where skateboarders enjoy showing off their stunts. It’s a streetwise, high energy, loud environment, both aesthetically and acoustically, looking up, as it does onto the riverbank and the continual movement of the passers-by.

A Room With Five Views will stand in direct contrast to this existing ‘niche,’ perching as it does, high above, on the concrete roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hall. It will be a retreat. An acoustically quieter space where, both indoors and outdoors, there will be an opportunity to leave the noise and bustle of London and enter a different environment. A place of calm and reflection.

The room will be protected by its envelope and thermal glazing. Ventilation will be natural, via attenuated automatic louvers in the shell, which maintain the overall insulation. Internal acoustics quality will be very good, due to the convoluted inner form and the presence of added sound absorbing elements (including the contents). The room will be computer modeled and auralised before construction, so that the internal acoustic can be experienced in our 3D sound studio, or listened to on conventional stereo headphones. The external courtyard wall will act as an acoustic barrier, reducing traffic noise significantly.

Five spaces with five different views and ambience; Four to the north, south, east and west, plus the dome of the sky; a muted view with no urban landscape, just the sky with moving clouds or blue on a clear day.

Each niche extended by a ‘collar’ consist of openings which function on a number of levels: As frames to the imposing London sights immediately outside; spaces to inhabit, protective enclosures in which to relax and unwind; and as “links” that blur the boundary between exterior and interior, both inviting the external ambience in (through abstracted form and colour) and, vice versa, as highlighted ‘lips’, taking the internal out and acting as soft beacons for passing viewers. (Inspired by the idea of the “collar” - the part of a shirt, coat, dress, blouse, etc., that encompasses the neckline of the garment and is sewn permanently to it, often so as to fold or roll over. An inspiring one is the  ‘reticella collar’ worn by, for example, Princess Elizabeth Stuart, later Queen of Bohemia.)

The expansive nature of the design as a whole is mirrored in the creation of floor (made of an underlay of recycled car tires, 'regupol', and covered on top with a translucent silicone), which extends from indoors to outdoors continuously.

In addition to each distinctive and varied aesthetic and sensory experience, the five niches could, as a whole, propose, a simple mode of living that would invite a quiet contemplative experience, in which the inhabitants are invited to move through the space in accordance with the changing atmospheric conditions of each day.

Associative References

A possible scenario for a day in the life of the Room for London:

One wakes up in the morning in the large space of the Western Niche, an impressive triangular opening that gives way to a warm, inviting space, wrapped with upholstery, and infused with a diffuse light. It houses a large bed (which can also be used as a sofa, before and after dinner, from which to take in the magnificent views towards the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament).

Bathing takes place in the Northern Niche, a panoramic opening that reflects the horizontality of the river. Bath and sink are covered with a silicone matt (digitally printed) material, which introduces aspects of the view immediately outside – water, skies, treetops…

Breakfast can be taken in the Eastern Niche, sitting (if two people) one opposite the other, and taking in the cool morning light and the view towards St. Pauls. The auroral atmosphere is reflected in a nimbus-like opening.

There is an added portable table that can act as a table surface added to the east niche for breakfast when needed. This is a multifunctional mobile element, which usually hangs above the circular table in the middle of the room. It can serves as a trolley to serve drinks etc.

Lunches and dinners may be enjoyed under the Skylight Niche, which is unique among the niches for its provision of an ambience of changing light. The nature of the material/painting of this niche means that it can enhance, or amplify, the daylight coming from above. At night, it will be lit with atmospheric light with the interior controlled by the guests, which in turn, can be seen from the exterior.

Between meals the table could act as a desk if needed, with a strong natural and varying light source coming from above. Along the dining table - which is under the skylight  - there are also two benches that one can add when necessary for the extra guests who might be invited.

When weather permits, the Southern Niche offers the experience of an open-air English garden - with seating amid the fragrant roses planted amongst the green roof garden, and surrounded with a painted acoustic wall. 

Draft render

See an extension and further articulation of the garden side at the next project Dream Pipe and Sweet Sweet Bulbs.

Yael Reisner Studio

Architectural assistants: 

Lorene Faure

Damjan Ilieve