The Grade II-listed BAFTA headquarters in London’s Picadilly have obtained an overhaul from native studio Benedetti Architects, who raised the roof to squeeze in a brand new high flooring whereas unifying its disparate interiors.
Constructed in 1883, the constructing initially served because the Royal Institute of Portray in Watercolours and was tailored advert hoc over the following years earlier than the British Academy of Movie and Tv Arts (BAFTA) took over in 1976.
Benedetti Architects was introduced on board in 2016 after profitable a contest to fully rework the house.
Scrambling round within the loft as a part of his analysis, mission lead Renato Benedetti found two huge Victorian roof lanterns, full with ornate plasterwork, that had been boarded up greater than 40 years prior when BAFTA created a cinema within the house under.
The apply’s pitch centred on lifting up the roof and turning the loft right into a members’ space, with the 2 large skylights being eliminated, restored and reinstated because the crowning glory of the brand new high storey.
“BAFTA liked the concept though they did not assume it was attainable,” Benedetti instructed Dezeen. “However that is precisely what we did and it has been the motive force for the entire mission.”
Moulds had been made earlier than the intricate plaster was fastidiously eliminated, permitting specialist restorers to match new sections seamlessly with the unique design.
Apart from the roof lights, virtually all of the constructing’s unique options similar to flooring and staircases had been misplaced as sections of the constructing had been rented out by completely different tenants over its haphazard historical past.
Below the financial institution of seating within the cinema although, the crew discovered simply sufficient of the unique oak flooring to suit inside the brand new top-floor boardroom.
“The lengthy strips had been fairly broken, so we lower them right down to shorter lengths and laid them in a geometrical sample,” stated Benedetti.
Equally, the remaining bits of marble from completely different schemes across the BAFTA headquarters had been collaged collectively to create an announcement countertop for the boardroom.
The room is centred by an oval timber desk, which the studio designed to really feel “extra pleasant and fewer hierarchical” than a typical boardroom, full with snug “wrap-around” chairs that may also be stacked.
“We used a personality grade of oak with huge knots and imperfections, which I really like,” stated Benedetti. “It makes the timber extra attention-grabbing.”
Elsewhere throughout the constructing, responsibly sourced European oak was laid in quite a lot of patterns to cowl flooring and partitions.
For the primary circulation areas similar to the doorway corridor and the steps, the studio used an ivory-coloured terrazzo with brass trims peeking out between the large-format tiles.
Brass accents are repeated all through the constructing on handrails, trims, lighting and on the reveals across the lifts. “Right here, the sheet brass has a slight sheen, just a little lustre however not too blingy,” stated Benedetti.
The terrazzo, too, is flecked with gold-coloured specks that improve in amount because the consumer ascends up by the constructing and peak on the members’ flooring on the high.
“The highest flooring feels just like the end result, the crescendo of the house,” stated Benedetti.
This identical thought is repeated throughout the partitions, with the decrease flooring wrapped in stained-oak slats punctuated by black acoustic panels whereas on the members’ flooring, there is a extra refined profile to the oak slats and the panels are changed by a brass mesh.
Travertine is the ultimate key ingredient of the headquarters’ materials palette, utilized in large slabs and as fluted tiles in addition to forming one of many constructing’s bars.
“It has a fantastic texture and it has been in use since Roman instances, so it is fairly timeless,” the architect defined.
The constructing’s trio of roof lanterns, together with the 2 that had been newly uncovered, now sit over the David Attenborough rooms – a members’ space that appears out throughout the tree cover of St James’ churchyard.
The furnishings right here was chosen by the architect in collaboration with Soho Dwelling – the interiors arm of members’ membership Soho Home.
To scale back warmth achieve and preserve out dangerous UV rays, the roof lights are built-in with photo voltaic shading home windows by Dutch firm Eyrise.
“It is an attention-grabbing new materials, from the within it seems to be clear, however from outdoors it appears to be like virtually black,” Benedetti defined.
The members’ flooring additionally homes a brand new intimate 41-seat cinema, its wealthy crimson color palette knowledgeable the selection of crimson Italian marble for the adjoining bar.
The bigger unique cinema was fully up to date in partnership with Dolby, integrating a high-tech audio-visual system.
In the meantime, the Ray Dolby Room is designed as a flexible occasion house, the place the conventionally wood-panelled partitions and moulded ceiling may be rapidly remodeled into an area for 360-degree wall-mapping projections.
Benedetti was lately named because the architect on one other high-profile renovation within the British capital – the £20-million revamp of the Grade II-listed RIBA headquarters.
Beforehand, the architect was one half of McDowell+Benedetti, which was recognized for modern bridge designs together with Hull’s Scale Lane Bridge and Castleford Bridge in West Yorkshire earlier than the duo disbanded in 2016.
The pictures is by Luca Piffaretti until in any other case acknowledged.
Jorda Anderson, Thomas Alexander, Rory Mulvey, James Newton, and Jim Stephenson.
