News - Jamie Fobert Architects

The Modern House has commissioned a lovely new set of photographs of Kander House, which is currently up for sale. See the listing and images here.

Kander House, a Victorian townhouse situated in London’s Primrose Hill is structured around a distinctive concrete figure, a compelling object in its own right, which also acts as structural support for the building. The garden was embraced as integral to the design of the main living space. It has made a wonderful family home for our clients for the past 15 years.

The house was awarded the 2007 RIBA London Award and shortlisted for both the Manser Medal and the Stephen Lawrence Prize. To learn more about the project click here.

Jamie contributes to Pamela Buxton’s article on how the Covid-19 pandemic has influenced and may affect museums and galleries, as they begin to open their doors once more to visitors. Topics from safety to funding and sustainability are discussed, along with some possible changes we can expect to see put in place moving forward.

Jamie comments that “The one positive thing that might happen is that when they [galleries and museums] do come back, people will appreciate the experience they offer all the more.”

Read the full article in The RIBA Journal.

We are very happy to have been appointed to the new Southwark Council architectural services framework; from a ‘fiercely competitive’ shortlist, we have been selected for ‘Education, social care and community projects’ over £10m.

The framework, administered by LHC, is open to any contracting authority in London. It intends to be an antidote to typical local authority frameworks, opening up public sector opportunities to ‘the best architectural practices able to deliver innovative construction services’. Certainly, the line-up of designers appointed is very impressive. We are proud to be among them and excited for the future opportunities offered.

Read more in the Architects’ Journal.

Jamie recalls fond memories of visiting Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute in San Diego for the first time, when discussing buildings that we will look forward to seeing again after the coronavirus pandemic.

‘With its extraordinary setting and views, as well as its immense physical form, is the most powerful reminder of the importance of the direct encounter’.

Read Amanda Baillieu’s full article on Dezeen here.

We are very excited to be tasked with bringing a new Maggie’s Centre to Coventry, serving Warwickshire and the West Midlands.

Warm and welcoming and full of light and open space, Maggie’s Centres are designed by leading architects to be uplifting places for people with cancer and their families and friends. Professional staff at each centre offer free practical, emotional and social support.

Fundraising is currently underway to deliver the new centre at University Hospital Coventry. The project was launched publicly at Coventry Cathedral on 23 January.

Our project at Kettle’s Yard has been confirmed as a successful project in the 2020 Civic Trust Awards.

The redevelopment has enabled Kettle’s Yard to curate exhibitions with major artists from around the world and to display 20th and 21st century art in optimal gallery conditions. The high-quality visitor facilities enable even more people to enjoy this much-loved House and Gallery. And the new Learning Centre has transformed Kettle’s Yard’s work with children, young people and community groups.

Established in 1959, the Civic Trust Awards scheme identifies projects which exhibit strong sustainability credentials and a high level of accessible and universal design, and which have provided a positive civic contribution.

Jamie will lecture next Tuesday, the 15th of October, at 7pm at the University of Hertfordshire.

This is a collaborative event between the University and the Hertfordshire Association of Architects in which Jamie will speak about our projects which have been both, inspired by art and carefully designed to accommodate it.

You may find more information and book your free tickets here.

Photograph by Jim Stephenson.

Along with more than 600 other UK practices, we have signed up to Architects Declare.

This means that we are committed to:

— Evaluate all new projects against the aspiration to contribute positively to mitigating climate breakdown, and encourage our clients to adopt this approach.
— Upgrade existing buildings for extended use as a more carbon efficient alternative to demolition and new build whenever there is a viable choice.
— Include life cycle costing, whole life carbon modelling and post occupancy evaluation as part of our basic scope of work, to reduce both embodied and operational resource use.
— Collaborate with engineers, contractors and clients to further reduce construction waste.
— Accelerate the shift to low embodied carbon materials in all our work.
— Minimise wasteful use of resources in architecture and urban planning, both in quantum and in detail.

Please read more here.

Our working models and samples of the ceramics created for Tate St Ives will be exhibited as part of ‘Hand Held to Super Scale: Building with Ceramics’ at the Building Centre. The exhibition celebrates the resurgence of ceramics in contemporary architecture, showcasing newly completed projects, buildings still under construction, handmade items and classic examples of ceramics in architecture.

The faience-clad pavilion at Tate St Ives makes reference to the history of ceramic artists in St Ives. The extruded tiles were made by Agrob Buchtal with an ochre engobe and the beautiful blue-green glaze was produced and applied by Froyle Tiles. The tiles went through many iterations – several of which are on display here – to achieve a finish which captures the colour of the sea and sky.

‘Hand Held to Super Scale: Building with Ceramics’ is at The Building Centre from 20 September 2019 until 31 January 2020

Mon to Fri: 9.00am – 6.00pm
Sat: 10.00am – 5.00pm

The Building Centre, Store Street, London, WC1E 7BT

Kettle’s Yard is one of 54 new buildings – and one of 6 University of Cambridge buildings – to win an RIBA National Award 2019.

The RIBA National Awards recognise buildings which make a significant contribution to UK architecture. We are so pleased that Kettle’s Yard now joins Jamie Fobert Architects’s little rosta of projects which have received this accolade – Tate St Ives, Levring House, Luker House, Kander House and Anderson House.

The Globe and Mail, Canada’s foremost newspaper, has published a feature about Jamie.

Writer Katherine Ashenburg met with Jamie in our Shoreditch studio to learn about our projects, focusing on significant gallery projects for Kettle’s Yard, Tate St Ives and the National Portrait Gallery. She tells the story of Jamie’s journey from being a young student in Canada to an established architect in London:

“The lessons we learned in first year,” Fobert says, “are still some of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned: that
architecture should be unpretentious and it should be humane and it should be about the users and about improving their existence and their lives in ways that were beautiful.”

Photograph ©Justin Griffiths-Williams/The Globe and Mail

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On Wednesday 12th June at 6.30pm, Jamie will be talking about his approach to concrete specification and detailing as a part of Concrete Elegance.

Produced by The Concrete Centre and The Building Centre, this series of architectural lectures showcases the use of concrete to achieve elegant and innovative designs.

The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, London WC1E 7BT

Wednesday 12th June, 6.30-8.45pm

For further information and to book, click here.

We are delighted that Kettle’s Yard is the winner of an RIBA East Award 2019, announced last night at the regional awards event in Cambridge.

The jury commented, ‘Jim Ede’s domestic museum, Kettle’s Yard, which was established in the 1950s and extended by Sir Leslie Martin in the late 60s, has been given an authentic and faithful enhancement through this careful and sensitive project. Rectangular gallery spaces, perfectly proportioned and laid out for international exhibitions, have been set into the random shape of the site with all its nooks and crannies. A deep coherence has been achieved within what had been a disparate collection of parts, and a very pleasing combination of rational and idiosyncratic architectural spaces has been created.’

This week, the Burlington Arcade celebrated its 200th anniversary.

But we wonder how many visitors who stroll through the arcade today realise that its striking stone floor is a very recent addition?

Built in 2016, the new floor was designed by Jamie Fobert Architects. The ambiguity – is it old? is it new? – is intentional. It does not compete with the Regency architecture, but responds sympathetically in terms of geometry, tonal variation and craftsmanship. We are delighted when visitors assume that it too has been there for 200 years.

Jamie sat down with Nick Carvell, Editor of The Jackal, as part of the magazine’s Citymakers portfolio to discuss architecture in the city, including the proposed new public space at the National Portrait Gallery:

“Public space is an integral part of what makes a city great – or not. Many of these places already exist, but what is important is how they are handled, how inviting they are, how open they are to having events, or to having people sit.”

This article is out now in the latest edition of The Jackal Magazine or you can listen to their conversation on the podcast by clicking here.

The first courtyard at Les Cours de BHV in Paris is complete.

In 2014 we began studying how timber paving could be introduced into our project to bring disused courtyards back into the public life of Paris. We considered various shapes and sizes of wood blocks and were drawn to the hexagon patterns but as the project was about a public route leading from one court to the next we began to introduce a chevron path of rectangular blocks that playfully lead you on your way.

We are delighted that Jamie Fobert Architects is shortlisted alongside five other practices in the Public Building category of the BD Architect of the Year Awards 2019.

Our submission included three completed public gallery projects – Tate St Ives, Kettle’s Yard and Charleston – and our reconfiguration of the National Portrait Gallery, which is currently in the design process.

Read more about all the shortlisted practices and their work here.

We are so pleased that Tate St Ives was awarded a Civic Trust 2019 Award at the 60th Anniversary Civic Trust Awards Ceremony on Friday evening, at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester.

The judges commented that Tate St Ives is “a wonderful space with a strong connection to the community which provides an excellent visitor experience. Stunningly simple, elegant and suited to its context and natural landscape”.

Joana was joined in collecting this award by David Derby from Price & Myers.

On Wednesday 30th January, Jamie will be on the panel for The Architecture Foundation’s ‘Part Four’ event which gives the opportunity for young architects to pitch questions about professional practice to four panel members.This event offers the chance to ask about all the subjects that are not covered through traditional education, from issues such as fees & finance, practice management, dealing with clients, ensuring sustainable growth & resourcing, self promotion etc.

For more info and to register for this free event click here.

30 January 2019, 18:30 – 20:30

Fora Space, 71 Central Street, London EC1V 8AB

As part of their public fundraising appeal, ‘Making History’, the National Portrait Gallery has today revealed the first images of our proposed designs for ‘Inspiring People’.

Working in partnership with historical specialists Purcell and a design team including engineers Max Fordham and Price and Myers, our proposals involve a significant refurbishment of the building, restoring historic features and creating a new and more welcoming visitor entrance and public forecourt on the building’s North Façade, enhancing the Gallery’s visibility and accessibility.

Jamie said: “Ewan Christian’s original 1896 building is both handsome and rich in decorative detail. Our work is one of revealing this building and working with it to create a new, open and welcoming National Portrait Gallery. I am particularly happy to be able to reconsider the public area to the north of the Gallery and transform it into a new public space for London.”

For more information on the project and how to donate to the public appeal visit npg.org.uk/inspiringpeople

Image by Forbes Massie Studio