Journal Posts - Jamie Fobert Architects

Heading up the FT’s compilation of “The best museum gift shops in the world” is our very own shop for Kettle’s Yard, which was completed alongside the new galleries and learning centre in 2018.

The FT writes, “This small, light-filled extension echoes the simple beauty of the original 19th-century
cottages-turned-museum created by collector Jim Ede.”

The retail team at Kettle’s Yard has filled the shop with imaginative and beautiful products and reproductions of objects from the house, allowing every visitor to bring a piece of this magical place home with them, if they wish. Our design for the shop began by adapting the ‘homemade’ joinery of Jim Ede’s cupboards and shelves into a simple set of units, all made in tulip wood and hand-painted on site. Even Jim’s beloved corner China cabinet is recreated, though simplified.

On 18th October, the Architecture Foundation is hosting a very special event to celebrate the presentation of the 2023 Pritzker Prize to Sir David Chipperfield. The evening will feature an onstage interview with Sir David conducted by Jamie, who worked for David Chipperfield Architects for 8 years before setting up his own practice.

Catering will be provided by the award-winning kitchen at Rochelle Canteen. Space is strictly limited to 70 places. Find out more and book your tickets here.

On Thursday 17th August, Jamie will lead a tour of the recently reopened National Portrait Gallery for The Architecture Foundation.

The tour will take place between 4pm – 5:45pm and will offer ‘an in-depth look at a range of architectural interventions, from a new public forecourt, which leads to a generous entry hall, to the creation of a dynamic new learning centre. The project has also revealed areas inside the building that have been hidden for decades’.

You can find more information and book your tickets here.

We are currently looking to recruit an architectural assistant with outstanding 3D image-making skills to join our London studio to work on a range of cultural, residential and retail projects.

We are keen to meet candidates with: high proficiency working in Rhino and 3D rendering software, V-Ray or similar; an intuitive understanding of 3D space; a keen interest in materiality; self-motivation, enthusiasm and an ability to work well as part of a team; excellent CAD skills, which ideally will include knowledge of MicroStation.

To apply for this opportunity, please send by Monday 28 August 2023: a cover letter introducing yourself, outlining your motivation and highlighting relevant experience; a CV, detailing your education, work experience, software skills and languages; a concise illustrated portfolio.

All enquiries and applications to: recruitment@jamiefobertarchitects.com

The National Portait Gallery reopened its doors on 22 June, following the most extensive transformation of its building since 1896.

Led by Jamie Fobert Architects, alongside heritage architects Purcell and a highly skilled design team, there has been a complete refurbishment and reconsideration of the building. The architectural interventions can be understood as a number of parallel projects, from a new public forecourt, which leads to a generous entry hall, to the creation of a dynamic new learning centre. The project has opened up windows, doors and areas that have been hidden for decades. By creating a new accessible entrance into the historic façade, the building has been reorientated to face the city, presenting a generous welcome and connecting the Gallery with the vibrant area of London on its doorstep.

You can book your tickets here.

Photographs © Olivier Hess (1 and 2) and © Jim Stephenson (3,4 and 5)

Applications are invited from outstanding Part I Architectural Assistants graduating this Summer.

We love to see candidates with beautiful image-making skills, precise model-making skills, confidence with CAD software, an intuitive understanding of 3D space and an enthusiastic approach to being part of the JFA team. Successful candidates will be working on a range of cultural, retail and residential projects.

Please send a cover letter detailing your relevant experience with a CV and concise illustrated portfolio to recruitment@jamiefobertarchitects.com or in hard copy to Benna Schellhorn, Practice Manager, Jamie Fobert Architects, 22 Club Row, London E2 7EY.

Photograph ©Olivier Hess

This year the RIBA Summer Exhibition will feature a dual-screen film installation titled ‘The Architect has Left the Building”. An innovative installation presenting the work of photographer and filmmaker Jim Stephenson, which has been edited and sequenced with photographic artist Sofia Kathryn Smith. Our gallery at Tate St Ives will be one of the featured projects showing the lesser documented ways people use the space.

“The films engage at different scales to quietly disrupt the traditionally ‘neat’ visions of these perhaps already familiar buildings, as usually presented to the public”.

Photograph © Jim Stephenson

You can find more information here.

3 June 2023 – 12 August 2023

The Telegraph’s chief art critic Alastair Sooke has had exclusive access to the National Portrait Gallery throughout its three-year-long transformation.

In this film, Alastair visits the site while construction is in progress and speaks with Jamie and the Gallery’s Director, Nicholas Cullinan, about how the project makes the most of every part of this handsome historic building, making it beautiful and welcoming and very much part of the city.

The AR Museums Issue arrives just in time to share a wonderful peek at the National Portrait Gallery as it prepares to reopen on 22 June after the biggest redevelopment in its 127-year history.

With the final touches to the building still being made, writer Ellie Duffy took a walk around with Jamie: “Part placemaking, part architecture, in the architects’ hands ‘obvious’ becomes effortless … ensuring that what could have been mere gesture in fact reverberates deeply throughout every corner of the gallery.”

Read the piece in full here.

Jamie will be speaking at the National Portrait Gallery on the 30th of June with gallery director Dr Nicholas Cullinan, to discuss the redevelopment of the historical building, creating more public space with our new forecourt and uncovered original architectural details.

You may find more information and book your tickets here.

30 June 2023, 19:00-20:00

The Ondaatje Wing Lecture Theatre, National Portrait Gallery

Today is the 5th anniversary of the reopening of Kettle’s Yard, after our building project to add new galleries as well as a shop, cafe and education wing.

It has been wonderful during the past 5 years to watch visitors experience the new spaces, and we have been amazed by the depth and variety of exhibitions the Kettle’s Yard curators have brought to the galleries: from Antony Gormley’s tension cables connecting across the spaces, to Ai Wei Wei’s moving installations, and so many others. And it was very special to be invited back by Director Andrew Nairne to work with Jennifer Lee on her installation of pots in 2019.

We are very excited that the National Portrait Gallery has today announced that it will be opening its doors for the first time since 2020 on 22 June 2023.

Visitors to the new NPG this summer will experience a complete redisplay of the Collection, a transformational refurbishment of the building, as well as an enhanced welcome and greater access through the new entrance. There will also be a new Learning Centre for visitors of all ages with studios, breakout spaces, and high-quality practical facilities.

We are leading the design team for this major project in collaboration with Purcell, Max Fordham and Price & Myers, and contractors Gilbert Ash are working hard on site to deliver a beautiful new building and forecourt.

If you would like to be the first to hear about the NPG’s 2023/24 exhibition programme, you can sign up to the Gallery’s enewsletter, here.

Jamie talks about working with specialist fabricators: creating a raw black steel stair for Pace Gallery with Cake Industries, developing a family of light fixtures with Opus Magnum, and working with teams of stone specialists to build a travertine stair and a new stone floor for the Burlington Arcade.

Read the whole piece in the RIBA Journal, here.

@JamieFobert

For the past few days the JFA team have been exploring Matera, Basilicata, Italy, an ancient city carved out of the tufa (soft limestone) cliffs of a steep ravine. For thousands of years the people of Matera lived in Sassi, cave homes, and worshiped in churches carved into the cliffs. Poverty and disease propelled the Italian government to forcibly drive the people from these homes into a New Town built on the plateau above. In 1964 the abandoned city was used as the setting of Jerusalem in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s ‘The Gospel of St. Matthew’ (6th image). But in the past decades the old city has come back to life, maybe with a few too many hotels and restaurants, but the fabric is extraordinary. A single material city of immense beauty. The churches carved in tufa with fragments of frescos dating back to the 10th century were so moving.
And the laughter of the team at our Xmas dinner and late night Christmas quiz (thanks to @thomas_longley) made it all the more wonderful.

#matera #city #architecture #caves #fresco #stones #italy #magical

We are delighted that Tapio Snellman‘s film of our House in Primrose Hill has been shortlisted for ‘Best Use of Video’ in the Archiboo Awards 2022. The Awards recognise inspirational design and great storytelling in the way architecture is communicated.

Tapio’s film takes us, like invisible guests, on a journey around this contemporary family home. We see that the house presents itself to the city in a very unassuming way. It feels as if nothing has changed since it was first built. But when you walk through the door, you are met with an extraordinary transformation, with a space which seems like it shouldn’t fit inside. In itself a collaboration between architect and filmmaker, the film reveals the complementary, collaborative efforts of architect and client by capturing fine architectural details and half-glimpses of family life.