2nd ProofTitle: BA: Architectural Design
Job No: CPD0810-27/4028150-169 Chapter 3 final (3.5)_.qxd:layouts to chapter one 8/18/10 12:53 PM Page 162
The design projectConstruction and occupationProject: The London Library
Location: St James’s Square,
London, UK
Architect: Haworth Tompkins
Date: 2010
above:
During the construction phase of the
London Library project an existing
courtyard lightwell was exposed.
Construction work enabled better
access to this part of the building
than had been possible beforehand,
due to the tightness of the site.
Provision had been made before
renovation began, to assess its
qualities during construction.
A detailed photographic survey was
pinned up in the office to enable
discussion on how the space should
be treated prior to implementing final
design decisions on site.
right:
Architects’ drawing of the WC plan
detail showing floor tiles by artist
Martin Creed, who collaborated with
Haworth Tompkins on the project.Steve Tompkins
Once you’ve built a few buildings you realise that a CAD
line with a 1.5mm tolerance is a joke and you’d just be
exposed as an idiot to go on site and insist on those kinds
of tolerances. You’ve just got to understand the material
you’re dealing with and make the detailing appropriate to
that. The job we’ve just done in Oxford, the North Wall [Arts
Centre] was clad in green oak in shakes and strips. We knew
that those strips would move so we detailed it to expect it to
twist and move, and for the roof cladding to curl and move
around. If you’re expecting that not to happen it’s a disaster,
but if the details welcome it and anticipate it then it’s really
joyful; that’s a part of the texture of the architecture.
What is the best way to understand the way different
materials are put together?
Steve Tompkins
One-to-one drawing: a big sheet of paper on the wall,
because in CAD it’s scaleless and so you actually never
necessarily get a sense of seeing the tactile scale of what
it is you are designing. So we cover the walls of these rooms
with one-to-one details and we sit and sweat over them for
an afternoon.
Graham Haworth
At the beginning of the work on site we make a presentation
to the builder and talk to him about the design. So often you
find that they just get the drawings and they build it and they
don’t really know why the drawings are the way they are.
Steve Tompkins
In the end, we have to be creative leaders on the project and
we have to acquire a strong voice that inspires confidence in
everybody else. You can’t duck that as an architect so you
have to claim the authorship of it, but along the way you can
enlist other voices and be self-confident enough to listen
as well as lead. It’s brilliant when the job is maybe a month
from completion and, if you’re lucky, you’re just getting the
sense that it’s maybe going to work out and there’s that real
palpable sense of excitement that somebody has taken
your idea seriously enough to build it. It’s always a brilliant
surprise that never goes away. A childish delight, really.Text
2nd ProofTitle: BA: Architectural Design
Job No: CPD0810-27/4028150-169 Chapter 3 final (3.5)_.qxd:layouts to chapter one 8/18/10 12:53 PM Page 162