Minimalist lido and surf shack open a stones throw from London
Minimalist lido and surf shack open a stones throw from London
Birch hotel promotes next-generation escapes in the English countryside with a design by architecture collective Red Deer – and now, the retreat comes with a new minimalist lido and poolside bar
Photography: Lesley Lau
‘Birch looks like a hotel but feels like a festival,’ goes the new creative escape’s website, and in designing it, architectural collective Red Deer, placed that slogan at the heart of their approach. Soft-opening during the pandemic and launching its brand new, blue-green minimalist lido and surf shack-style poolside bar this month, Birth is a hospitality offering centering on a sense of retreat and community, and a holistic environment that offers calm and flexibility, a stone’s throw from London.
Died: March 9, 2021. SIMON Winstanley, FRIAS RIBA, who has died aged 73, was an architect who brought a very personal, modern and ecological style to his work. His business was centred in Castle Douglas and much of it was carried out in the Dumfries and Galloway area. He had a canny ability to balance domestic demands with practical and fundamentally workable designs that maintained his distinctive vision for the finished house. This is clearly evidenced in his own house, The Houl, in Dalry, near Castle Douglas. Here he created a practical and elegant home which in 2011 was included in a Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) shortlist for the prestigious Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award.
Carmody Groarke revives Victorian vaulted space for Manchester museum
Carmody Groarke revives Victorian vaulted space for Manchester museum
Architects Carmody Groarke revive a vast, brick space for the flexible new Special Exhibitions Gallery at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester
A flexible gallery has just been completed as part of the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester. The project, spanning an impressive 725 sq m and forming the institution’s new Special Exhibitions Gallery, has been designed by London-based architects Carmody Groarke.
The new cultural space occupies a majestic Grade II-listed structure, dating back to the 1880s. Housed within a part of the museum’s network of Victorian railway viaducts called New Warehouse, the design embraces the original architecture’s historical character. High vaulted ceilings (at 5m tall) define the structure, which is largely made of cast iron and terracotta-coloured Victorian brick.