BFF 30th Anniversary - Academy of Medical Sciences

Burrell Foley Fischer’s refurbishment and remodelling of 41 Portland Place created new headquarters for the Academy of Medical Sciences.  The building is a significant example of a townhouse designed by John Adams and forms part of a Nash’s proposal to create a processional route linking Regent’s Park to former Carlton House, now Carlton House Terrace. 

The building provides a platform for Academy activities.  This includes Academy workspace, meeting rooms, a dedicated room for Fellows, space for small public exhibitions and function rooms with the capacity to host outreach events, receptions, dinners and public engagement activities, and a room suitable for holding press conferences.

In addition to housing the activities of the Academy, the building is used to provide a forum for scientific exchange and networking for medical scientists, clinicians and health professionals from across the world, a centre for lively interaction with press and media, and a welcoming space for members of the public. 

BFF 30th Anniversary - Mary Rose, The Final Voyage

Competition entry for a world-leading museum on the Tudor Navy, based upon the re-uniting of the hull of Henry VIII's flagship, which sunk in the Solent in 1545, with the thousands of conserved objects salvaged from the wreck when it was raised in 1982.

Burrell Foley Fischer’s scheme was designed to protect the Mary Rose in an iconic new home, with a new enclosure to see it, and HMS Victory, all year round.  The site would be restored to a harbourside, with the heritage enhanced and providing a stunning new setting for historic ships.

The structure minimised the final volume requiring critical environmental control and allowed for progressive enclosure, using off site prefabrication.

Broadway Nottingham featured in Guardian Cine-files

Broadway, Nottingham's Media Centre, is the latest of Burrell Foley Fischer's cinema projects to receive the Guardian Cine-files stamp of approval.  The cinema is described as having "an environment that is unique yet comfortable without trying too hard".

"I'm biased, having spent my entire life in Nottingham, but Broadway is probably the best cinema in the UK".

Read the full Guardian feature here

BFF 30th Anniversary - The Menuhin Hall

The Yehudi Menuhin School provides highly specialised tuition in piano and stringed instruments for about sixty boys and girls aged between 8 and 18 years.  The Menuhin Hall is a new purpose-built, 316 seat concert hall designed with a "supportive acoustic" for the highly gifted, young musicians of the School as well as professional performances and recordings.  It was completed on time and budget and received many awards.

"If I were asked what has been the school's greatest moment over the last twenty one years, I would have to answer - the opening of The Menuhin Hall with Slava Rostropovich conducting the school orchestra.  At last the school has a performing space worthy of an institution with an international reputation, and what a change this has brought to levels of performance."  Nicolas Chisholm Headmaster

BFF 30th Anniversary - New Pym House, Angell Town

Burrell Foley Fischer LLP was appointed in 1999 to design the first new housing at Angell Town, based on our new Masterplan for the Estate.  The 127 new dwellings establish an urban-block layout which integrates the new streets, mews, open spaces, squares and already existing mature landscaping and outdoor sports area, with the existing street pattern and offer routes across the site to connect areas that were formally isolated.

"Could easily be taken for a smart, modern upmarket private development... the generous, intelligent planning of the dwellings themselves should ensure that these do indeed become 'lifetime homes', in every sense of the word".  Housing Design Awards 2000

"The architecture of this community housing for London Borough of Lambeth is exemplary in many ways, but especially in the delightful quality of environment that is created for the users".  RIBA Award for Architecture 2002  

10,000 sq ft Office fit out for Charitable Trust completed

We have completed the fit out of new offices for a major Charitable Trust.  They have moved to the Peak building, close to Victoria Station in Central London.  Our Clients have leased an entire floor of 1,000 sq m (10,800 sq ft).

We carried out space planning, design of the reception and partitioning to form meeting rooms and private offices.  We also advised on the selection of new furniture and the re-use of their existing furniture where appropriate.  The project was completed to programme and within budget.

BFF 30th Anniversary - The Almeida Theatre, Islington

Burrell Foley Fischer LLP have been the Almeida’s architects from 1982, shortly after its inception as a theatre in 1980, working with successive generations of Directors.  The Theatre has been developed into a venue of exceptional quality for the performance of drama, opera and music, and for other related arts activities.

Despite its modest size, the space works equally well for performances on an epic scale as for intimate productions.  The audience occupies the same space as the performers and neither is further than twelve metres from the other.

Development works have included extending the backstage accommodation, the building of completely new foyer, bar and technical areas, new services installations and seating, and improved disabled access and acoustics.  The new foyer continues the theme of the former open-air yard where, because of limited site access, the single entrance is used as the foyer for the theatre-goers and as the space for the technical get-ins.

The extensive overhaul of the auditorium, seating capacity 321, has preserved the special ‘found’ quality of the Theatre.  It was awarded a Civic Trust Award 2004.

Robin Fischer the lighting technician at the Almeida has created this short film showing the development of the theatre.

BFF shortlisted for AJ Retrofit Award

We are pleased to announce that our refurbishment and remodeling of 3-4 Carlton House Terrace, London to form the New Forum for the Royal Academy of Engineering has been shortlisted for an AJ Retrofit Award in the Listed Building / Structures category.  The awards, run by the Architects Journal, are now in their third year and champion the best in the creative re-use of buildings and construction.  Paul Finch, editorial director of The Architects' Journal, said: "It was encouraging to see more entries again this year.  This huge market is one where architects should be taking a strong design and technical lead.'

The Academy set high sustainability standards for the refurbishment.  These are not always easy to achieve when working with a Listed building, although opting for refurbishment, rather than new build, has a much lower carbon impact.  Energy efficient features include: rooms designed to allow for natural ventilation when external conditions are appropriate, with heat recovery provided on the mechanical ventilation system, sash window beads brush sealed to reduce heat loss where possible, the use of a mix of LED and CFL low energy lighting, and a BMS which allows flexible room control to match daily building usage and minimise energy demand.  In order to minimise cooling loads the Academy accepted a wider range of internal temperatures than standard, which reduces reliance on terminal cooling units.  Each of the principle rooms is controlled based on occupancy, temperature and CO2 levels, which balances the drive for reduced energy consumption with the importance of indoor air quality and occupant wellbeing.  In addition provision has been made to allow for future improvements, including planning permission for a roof mounted solar thermal system to be implemented when existing boilers are replaced.

Philip Greenish, Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering commented: "Our severely damaged and poorly configured Grade 1 listed building has been brought back to life in a spectacularly effective refurbishment.  Its modern but sympathetic style is perfect for us as a forward-looking national academy and the configuration of light, airy and flexible spaces is stunningly effective.  A brilliant stainless steel bridge provides an elegant, step free, new entry through a small garden for visitors. With a finish of high quality in a project delivered on time and within budget, this client is truly delighted!"

BFF 30th Anniversary - The Royal Society

Since 1999 BFF have worked with the Royal Society on the refurbishment and remodeling of its headquarters at 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London.

In 1999 to 2003, we undertook a major refurbishment of this Listed Grade 1 Nash Building to provide a coherent, high profile, architectural setting for the society’s activities. The completed development provided additional facilities for exhibitions, scientific meetings, seminars, media events and video conferencing.

A key intervention was the creation of a new atrium in a former light well on the upper levels as a focus to the new offices and providing space to display an engineering model of the Ariel 1 Satellite.

In 2008 the Practice was responsible for the refurbishment of the Welcome Trust Lecture Theatre which now provides modern lecture facilities, with accommodation for an audience of 300 and of the Dining Room which has a seating capacity of 100 but is also a flexible space that can itself be used for smaller lectures or as an overflow space for the main lecture theatre.

Most recently, in 2009, we were architects for the Royal Society Centre for the History of Science which was created following the refurbishment of the space previously occupied by its library in Carlton House Terrace.  The refurbishment provides study, exhibition and meeting facilities, in an atmosphere that reflects the Society’s commitment to excellence and inspiration whilst equally providing for the safe-keeping of the collections.

View The Royal Society Notes and Records for the redevelopment

Harbour Lights, Southampton - The Art of the Process

John will this afternoon be conducting a tour of the Harbour Lights cinema in Southampton.  A landmark building, constructed in 1995, located in the former P&O docks.  The building was featured in 'The Art of the Process' exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1993.  Colin Davies wrote the following commentary for the accompanying publication.

"On the face of it, a quayside in Southampton Docks is not the obvious place to put a cinema. Seaside buildings are traditionally outward-looking, with big windows from which to scan the distant horizon. But a cinema is essentially a windowless box. Cinema auditoriums are often embedded in the densly packed buildings of a city centre. Only the main entrance and foyer are visible to the passers-by in the street. Burrell Foley Fischer therefore faced two main problems right from the start: how to relate the spaces within the building to the surroundings, and how to give an isolated, windowless box a suitably elegant and eye-catching image.

The key to the solution of the first problem was the foyer. It might be impossible to relate the internal spaces of the auditoriums to their surroundings, but at least the foyer could benefit from the view of the sea, sky and boats. The practice therefore decided to place it on the side of the buildings facing the water. But is went further than that. In the absence of a well-defined public space such as a high street, the architect provided its own public space in the form of a raised platform sloping down from the foyer to the dockside. This could be used for street theatre performances and outside film screenings on summer evenings. In this way, the building would make the most of the positive qualities of the site and give something back for the public's benefit. Site and building would combine to make a new, special place.

The second problem - how to make a windowless box into a public building of public character - demanded a different kind of solution. What were the options? The budget for the building was too small to allow for any great complexity in the form of the building, and in any case the unusual ground conditions, which would require expensive piled foundations, suggested a simple, compact form with a small footprint. Perhaps this was just as well. Ocean Village, despite its romantic name, was a rather disappointingly low-key environment - a scattering of rather nondescript buildings surrounded by car parks. What is needed was a landmark. The regional film theatre might provide it, but it would have to be more than simply a plain box. The answer lay close at hand, in the boats moored in the adjacent marina, and in the memory of the big ships that once loomed massively over this quayside.

'If we have to accommodate the whole foyer under the rake of the auditoriums,' said a design team member, 'the ceiling could reflect the sensuous lines of a boat hull.' Immediately it became apparent that this was not only possible, but was doubly appropriate. The auditoriums were already boat-like in form. It was necessary only to emphasize this quality by exposing their undersides and allowing their forms to 'read' on the exterior. The result would look something like a boat that had been lifted out of the water on to the dockside. It would not be a literal copy of a boat, like an exhibit in a theme park; the boat image was merely a starting-point and an inspiration. But it solved the problem in a satisfying way. It felt right, and the details of the design team began to fall into place."