On Site - Jamie Fobert Architects

Part of our redevelopment at the National Portrait Gallery includes a new Learning Centre for visitors of all ages, with studios, breakout spaces, and high-quality practical facilities.

Film courtesy National Portrait Gallery.

Here, Jamie talks with the Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Dr. Nicholas Cullinan, about some original architectural details of the Gallery that have been uncovered during construction.

Film courtesy National Portrait Gallery.

In conversation with the Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Dr. Nicholas Cullinan, Jamie describes the welcoming and accessible new entrance and forecourt which are currently in construction.

Film courtesy National Portrait Gallery.

Last weekend the JFA team travelled to São Lourenço do Barrocal, a family run estate in the heart of Portugal’s Alentejo region, to visit the site of our new residential project. The house, which is currently in design, will take full advantage of the extensive views of the surrounding countryside. Cattle roam free and Neolithic dolmen dot the rustic landscape, amongst olive trees and shrubs, which the house plans to sensitively manoeuvre. After looking at the proposed drawings together, we walked the marked out site and got a real sense of this beautiful place.

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.

Jamie discusses designing for Kurt Geiger ahead of their new boutique now open at Selfridges.

The starting point had to be the Kurt Geiger customer, London style and very strong, independent women. We wanted to create a retail space where the individual and the individual shoe are celebrated.” Designed by Jamie Fobert, the new Kurt Geiger boutique is now open at Selfridges London – come and discover it for yourself #KurtGeigerXSelfridges

A post shared by Kurt Geiger (@kurtgeiger) on May 25, 2018 at 10:31am PDT

Our redesigned Gallery 2 in Selfridges Women’s Shoes opened this weekend.

Fragmented and interlocking shapes in grey and white were designed for 100% recycled mid-floor display tables and perimeter shelves, with seating in a darker grey.

The flooring is French Oak, laid in a gentle bespoke pattern within the retail display areas and in a distinctive herringbone pattern to mark out the walkways.

Our new sneaker walls were unveiled in the Selfridges Shoe Galleries yesterday. They offer a striking display for the department store’s extensive selection of womens sneakers.

Vertical bands of stainless steel have been folded to form a individual display shelves. The vapour-blasted finish on multiple facets creates soft reflections.

Currently on site, our House in Primrose Hill involves the remodelling of an 1840s villa into a comfortably, contemporary family home. Constructed using handmade bricks, the new building elements will make an elegant addition to the streetscape, which sits within the Primrose Hill Conservation Area.

With less than a month until the re-opening, the Kettle’s Yard team is busy preparing the new galleries for the inaugural exhibition, ‘Actions: the image of the world can be different’.

We have reconfigured and extended the existing building to comprise a new entrance and welcome area, two new galleries, a new education wing which includes two learning spaces, a cafe and a shop. The spaces and facilities of Kettles Yard have been vastly improved and yet the particular character of the place, created by curator and collector Jim Ede, is retained.

Our excitement for the re-opening of this much-loved Cambridge gallery is shared by The Art Newspaper, Frieze Magazine Archiboo, and The Times, all of whom have included the event in their previews for 2018.

Aerial photographs taken using a drone this week show us Tate St Ives’s new building in plan, reminding us of our own construction drawings. The drone is controlled by the site’s resident crane driver.

Here you can see the paving of the rooftop pathway in progress. At the same time, preparation is being made for the planting of Cornish wildflowers. Weaving between the elevated volumes of the light chambers, the new public route meets an existing path which leads to the sea.

This week, Jamie has been in Trinidad to visit our newly completed House in Port-of-Spain.

Click at the top of the image to take a tour from the dining terrace and across the living room terrace to the north garden.

The house is built in travertine and the beautiful gardens and lagoon-like swimming pool are by Todd Longstaffe Gowan.

There’s some beautiful joinery made by Coulson being installed at Kettle’s Yard.

Here’s the beginning of a double handrail in Douglas fir. It will lead down to the basement education room, with one rail at a normal height and one a little lower, just right for the visiting children.

Charleston is currently a hive of activity with their annual literary event, the Charleston Festival, in full swing and with the ongoing installation of our hand-crafted wooden building frame.

Former Trustee Charles Saumarez Smith has on his blog described his delight at seeing the progress of the works.

BAM Construction and Absolute Glazing have been installing the roof light glass at Tate St Ives.

The six large light chambers on the roof capture St Ives’ particular light for the new gallery below.

Our new building at Charleston is starting to take shape. Cross-laminated timber elements which have been fabricated off-site are now being installed piece by piece.

Reference is made in both form and materiality to the historic barns of the farmhouse site, but at the same time employing modern fabrication techniques.

Yesterday, Tate hosted a press launch to announce that the new Tate St Ives will be opening to the public on 14 October 2017, with double the existing exhibition space. With great excitement, curators revealed that the first exhibition in JFA’s new gallery will be a solo show by artist Rebecca Warren.

Jamie and project architect Matthew Whittaker shared our design with the gathered press. Dezeen gives a descriptive account of how we are channelling St Ives’ beautiful light into our submerged gallery.

More of the faience cladding has been installed at Tate St Ives. We can now begin to see how our rooftop pavilion will look once it is complete.

The ceramic tiles are hand glazed, with beautiful natural variation and they are paired with anodised aluminium for the trims and intermediate elements.

In form and materiality, the pavilion has a quality and richness of expression appropriate to and indicative of its gallery use. It is designed to be visually interesting not only from close proximity but also from a distance, since the pavilion is the only element of the new building which is visible within the town of St Ives.

In order to enjoy and learn from the project at this critical stage of construction, the whole JFA team visited the site at Kettle’s Yard. After looking at the construction drawings together, we walked from the existing Leslie Martin building through to the reconfigured galleries, then from the excavated basement education room up through the new building to the second floor, with its completed roof beams.

We are very grateful to the builders, SDC, who accommodated us all for the afternoon.

There were celebrations in Cambridge yesterday at the ‘topping out’ ceremony for our new building for Kettle’s Yard. The completed project will include a four-floor education wing, two remodelled galleries, a café, and a new entrance.

Kettle’s Yard director Andrew Nairne expressed his delight at the occasion: “Being able to stand in what will be the new galleries and education spaces is so exciting. We can now get a real sense of what the new Kettle’s Yard will feel like and all the opportunities it will bring to welcome new audiences.”