When completed in 1966, Centre Point
represented a beacon of optimism within
its original context of a run-down,
post-war London, standing out for
its avant-garde architecture and
engineering. However, it remained
underused for years until, in 2010, it was
acquired by developer Almacantar, who
enlisted Conran and Partners to bring the
building into the 21st century. The first
phase has seen the firm design 82 modern
apartments and a series of amenity
spaces, including a pool and a private
lounge/club house area with screening
rooms and treatment rooms for residents
and their guests. Ellie Stathaki
conranandpartners.com‘You’d originally sit with a typewriter
on the windowsill, then swing round
and write longhand at your desk,’
says Deborah Saunt, explaining the
Smithsons’ tailor-made office space
for The Economist magazine. Saunt’s
practice, DSDHA, won the competition
to refurbish this London icon, a
building that took the raw pragmatism
of brutalism in another, very different
direction. The best-known shots
of the structure – three ‘roach bed’
Portland stone-clad towers around a
central plaza – were taken by a young
Michael Carapetian, a friend of the
Smithsons who brought a cinematic,
reportage-like quality to his images.
The AA-trained architect recalls that
he ‘wanted a day that was slightly
misty and wet. It was the first time a
new building had been photographed
in the rain.’ The imagery cast has a
moody, atmospheric light. ‘It wasn’t
seen as shocking, but the building
was respected for its ability to blend
in with the rest of the street,’ he
recalls. ‘The idea was to elevate the
plaza above the rest of the street –
a sort of utopian idea.’ Saunt says the
practice envisaged the structure as a
blueprint for a new form of urbanism,
linked by walkways and quasi-public
spaces. Her studio’s modest but
comprehensive refurbishment strips
away interiors that themselves were
wholesale replacements of Smithsons’
careful original detailing. ‘We’ve made
it a lot more harmonious, but have
embraced their vision of architecture
as a framework,’ she says. The
revitalised building will see one of
London’s most elegant public spaces
brought back to life. Jonathan Bell
dsdha.co.ukCENTRE POINT, 1963-1966,
BY RICHARD SEIFERT & PARTNERSAN IMPRESSION OF
HOW AN APARTMENT IN
THE REVAMPED BALFRON
TOWER MIGHT LOOKECONOMIST BUILDING, 1959-1964,
BY ALISON AND PETER SMITHSONlong service corridors leading to single and
two-storey lats. SEW and ARD divided the
units up between them, creating open-plan
layouts that connect kitchen and living
spaces while completely redoing the services
and inishes. The palette of materials was
painstakingly compiled following research
in Goldinger’s (substantial) archives.
One of each of the original six lat typologies
will be preserved as carefully recreated
‘heritage’ lats for future generations.
The rest of the 140 lats will adopt a more
contemporary approach.
London’s brutalist classics are now
considered as integral to the city’s heritage
as the Georgian square or a Christopher
Wren church. The Barbican’s Blake Tower,
the former YMCA designed by estate
architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon in
1969, is another example of the burgeoning
commercial clout of brutalist fetishism.Now repurposed by Conran and Partners as
a 17-storey building of 74 private apartments,
the concrete provided what project director
Simon Kincaid describes as ‘a remarkably
rich starting point’. The architects have left
exposed concrete in the apartments, an
unthinkable design decision barely a decade
ago. Richard Seifert’s Centre Point has
also undergone an image-boosting overhaul
and recalibration, with its neo-pop brutalist
façade containing a clutch of extremely
high-end apartments. The nearby Economist
Building, designed by brutalist pioneers
Alison and Peter Smithson in 1964, is also
getting a new lease of life courtesy of
DSDHA. Where commerce meets culture,
change is inevitably not far behind. Careful
design has ensured all these buildings will
bring the best of the past into the present. ∂
londonewcastle.com; abrogers.com; egretwest.com;
brody-associates.comThe New Brutalism: London
068 ∑
Interiors: Amy Heffernan. Photography: Leandro Farina; Luke Hayes; Michael Carapetian