Sugar Coated

In the age we live in it is sadly becoming decreasingly surprising to turn a corner of an area we are deeply comfortable in and discover a new development of a monstrous scale that we have never before been aware of, and like two ruthless blows from a shotgun this is exactly what has happened to me over roughly the last month.

As if abstracted from a scene in the famous War of the Worlds film, two new pieces of architecture located on the Northern end of Wellesley Rd. and Fell Rd, which arguably border on being in themselves a development, have landed in Croydon ready to force attention and generate yet more fresh and unnecessary scars on the land. The absolute principal consideration for myself when observing these new urban additions to Croydon's urbanscape is not the function of/or design (although both should be heavily considered in order for architecture to progress!), but the long-term impact the materials, processes and scale of construction will have on the town both physically and socially.

The first example of these new UFO structures is the new Croydon council building on Fell Rd, the basic form is staggered in three stages by addressing the flyover at its highest point and then continuing to sympathetically step down to the height of Croydon Town Hall. First impressions undeniably incline towards the modern and beautiful with the sky seemingly invited to street level by the reflections off the facades and generous entrance spaces. Yet what is most striking about the buildings design is the exhausting use of glass, far in excess of what would actually be resourceful and/or appropriate there is the first external skin connected to the structure to make it weather tight and then a second skin hung off of the first to act as what can only be a massive glass anorak. So although I also believe that the new council building may turn out to be the saving grace of a few park spaces and streets around this area that were socially dead before, we as a community must decide whether it was the correct decision to tear down the existing concrete building that stood here before just to replace it with another concrete building?

The behemoth scale ground floor pillars that touch the earth like a giants hands are the foundations of a new architecture currently being constructed on Wellesley Rd, the second and last example. The basis of this construction is a mixed use development contained within an intriguing form with an addition of car park spaces, all constructed once more out of concrete. With the need for more apartment style housing that is both interesting and intriguing it is again not the function or form of this particular project that I have issue with, it is the connection with society and the existing context. Take a walk along Wellesley Rd and passed this development and you will soon feel within yourself the unmissable presence of those ground floor columns rising up around two to three stories, is this scale of design and construction really necessary, a case of form over function? Nevertheless, what can be learnt from this architectures design is the courage to address the harshness that is the Wellesley Rd, whilst so many buildings in East Croydon have turned their back on this piece of problematic infrastructure in the past, this young building attempts the unthinkable.

When large-scale architectures land in an already complicated urban cocktail of a town such as Croydon it can be only too easy for not only the architects and planners but also local inhabitants to begin to see the development though a restricted scope and drift away from what is ultimately their context and environment. The immense glass facades of these contemporary boxes with their sugar-coated taste of the marketing and visualisations is hard to resist and of course these things are designed to win over the hearts and minds of the local community, but we must always remember that the initial sweet and joyful taste of these architectural cupcakes will inevitably become waste at the days end.

tW

Fell rd.

Wellesley rd.

Corinthian Cantilever

The English Summer is approaching, and once again I increasingly begin to find myself either playing cricket and batting for my life or sitting outside on the patio drinking coffee and pondering what exactly to do next. The latter of which I am thankfully partaking in as I write this entry.

The Summer period and the sunshine that arrives with it almost never fails to create a new platform on which to view our surrounding architecture, as it does in a similar way towards woman when the dresses turn into an explosion of colour and lightness, and revealing more than usual I dare say. In an almost identical move the materiality and form of our surrounding architecture is also revealed in a new dimension with its play alongside the sun as it hangs higher in the sky allowing the light to slice and exaggerate corners and curves that were never before apparent, allowing them to enter into their full aesthetic and/or functional glory.

One such example of this theatrical summer expression is the cantilevered canopy associated with the office building on the Dingwall Rd known as Corinthian House. Extruded over the main entrance of the building is an unmissable gargantuan beast of a cantilever with the title 'Corinthian House' delicately grasping onto the very edge of this urban umbrella, in no way an exaggeration if one is to view the building from a satellite view you can clearly make out the cantilever escaping the building. Residing in East Croydon it is not too surprising that such a striking architectural detail exists, being surrounded by other corporate architecture and aesthetic preferences in this area of town makes for strong competition and an increasing feeling for the need to be considered and approved. Were as this situation usually creates over-sized aggressive architecture where the choice of form and material is often highly questionable, at Corinthian House the form and function of the cantilevered canopy both come across as well considered. The thin white profile of the canopy creates a wafer like appearance off of the bulk mass of the concrete building encouraging intrigue and question from visitors, whilst receiving appreciation for the function of protection from the elements all the way to the pavement and onward travel. The apparent structural defiance of the canopy is beautifully crafted and ultimately achieved, but it is such a shame that being so off of any main network full appreciation of its form fulls far short of what should be expected.  

tW

A Fresh Shape Up

Last night whilst I was in Croydon drinking a few beers and continuing to drag my hearing closer to an untimely death in the Black Sheep Bar, I noticed that the graffiti smiley-face ball that used to be on the zebra crossing outside was now within the confines of the sheep. A shame that this amusing chap cannot continue to brighten up mine and possibly a few other peoples week with its mixed embedded message of happiness and disorder, but I guess the dub-step coffin of the Black Sheep Bar is a far more suitable location for this small piece of Croydon culture than the local landfill.

tW

Last one out of Wellesley Road, burn it to the ground!

Two weeks ago I had the great pleasure of consuming a cup of coffee whilst discussing the present and future of Croydon with James Naylor, a local young gentlemen who has successfully imagined Croydon Tours a company where an insight into 'the most interesting town in Britain' is available. No longer will visitors simply be muscled out of East Croydon station and then left to their own devices, a genuine and insightful tour of Croydon is there for the taking.

So, like a bull to a matador I took the opportunity before I met James to visit the area of town opposite the Whitgift Centre across the Wellesley Road desert in an attempt to find more forgotten or never fully appreciated architecture. A great deal of time passed by with me walking in the company of the many corporate office buildings with their monstrous glass facades and columns in an attempt to be individual, yet I strongly began to feel the full effect of being in an area of town that is so centred on the business and financial operations of the world, that its architecture tries so desperately to escape the reality of its monotonous operations but ends up only looking less unique and more and more like each other. However,  like so much of Croydon that is now dedicated to commercial operations this slice of the urban landscape used to be a bustling residential are, so if you happen to turn down Walpole Rd you will encounter The Old House, a relic from times past.

Although the Old House is now used as office space, the story goes that an elderly woman lived at this address during the period when big business was moving in and setting up shop in this area of Croydon and having bought or bullied out all the other residents in the area the only person left was this elderly woman who successfully avoided relocating and lived in this house till her time was up. As can be seen today the new development of the area still went right ahead and the people at the top decided simply to construct their concrete children and tarmac carpets around this stubborn property, creating a remarkable contrast between the familiar human-scaled brick of the Old House and the oppressive and unimaginative human-cog architecture of the surrounding commercial development. It could be argued that right now the Old House stands predominantly as a monument to the anti-capitalist and the down-right necessity to stand up to power-hungry developers, an ideal that this humble piece of architecture achieves far more effectively than the 2011 Croydon riot ever did.

tW

Croydon and the Postmodern 3

Almost as if life-long brothers, one can argue that Iconography and Architecture have walked hand-in-hand for as long as the art of building a roof over ones head has existed, or ever since we left our hunter-gatherer characteristics and learnt to manage the growth of crops. It appears our human desire to indicate certain aspects of culture through the use of architecture is deeply and richly embedded within all corners of human history, effortlessly continuing into the twenty-first century.

London's everyday architectural icons such as the Gherkin (30 St. Mary Axe, Swiss RE Building) or the Shard (32 London Bridge) are well recognised not only in London but internationally, and due to this the design of such architecture can shy away somewhat from the pure function of the building and concentrate on the form and final presence that the architecture gives to the city as an icon. So considering Croydon's significance as the business and transport hub of South London it is unsurprising that like modern London Croydon too has its very own architectural icon, the Fifty-Pence-Piece Building ( No.1 Croydon / Threepenny Bit Building).

The fractured pod-like architecture of the Fifty-Pence-Piece Building sits on its urban throne at the top of East Croydon, but with its moat of transport infrastructure for added defence it can seem rather unwelcoming and difficult to access at first but is well worth the additional adventure. Once underneath you can gaze up at the seemingly countless concrete cantilevers that seem to defy gravity, yet at the same time be absorbed by how ultimately light-weight the structure somehow appears to be, undoubtedly an amazing aesthetic achievement. Unbelievably the heavy concrete floor slabs are wonderfully defied by the apparent external gap between the corner columns, which in such a simple and imperceptible way allow the structure to appear increasingly lighter than it truly is. Without question a talent that most corporate architecture in Croydon could certainly learn from.

I fortunately had the great privilege around two years ago to visit the upper-most floor of No.1 Croydon during an Open House tour that I had attended, operating within the room at the time was the display and marketing for the master-plan of East Croydon depicting colourful and festive futures filled with farmers markets and apartment balconies hoping to generate a better Croydon. However, as I looked out of the window over the vast urban field, looking at the Warehouse theatre and pondering what might happen to this piece of history in the planned Utopian future, I could not help but feel I was already standing in the best space in Croydon.

tW