40 PROJECT REPORT: MIXED USE SCHEMES


Passers-by move from north to south and south to north through the garden


entrances, bronze cladding runs down the building’s internal facade from top to bottom until it meets two rounded full arch passageways faced in jade green ceramic tiles – the building’s most striking visual elements. Longman explains this design works as “a device signalling that it’s a place that you can enter.”


People flows and passageways “When we looked at historical maps from the 1800s, we noticed that there had never been a public route through the area,” explains Longman. The architects saw the scheme as having an important function of “a pressure valve for Oxford Street,” with Rathbone Square located between Fitzrovia ‘proper’ and Tottenham Court Road Station, soon to see the opening of an additional Crossrail station. It was paramount for Make that the finished project cater not only to the client’s requirements of adding value, but also created “an asset for the people who work in Fitzrovia, live in Fitzrovia and visit Fitzrovia.” So, Rathbone Square is itself a shortcut between Newman Street and Rathbone Place.


Make worked in partnership with spatial and urban designers Space Syntax to implement a “unique modelling approach,” taking into account the socioeconomic dynamics of the area to deduce the best positions and proportions for the square’s entrances and exits.


The south-west entrance to the square is the broadest of the three entrances at 7 metres wide and, unlike the other two, it is open to the sky. This is because it was likely to be the busiest route into the square – being in closest proximity to the Crossrail station and Oxford Street.


The east entrance from Rathbone Place is slightly narrower, while the north-west entrance is the most tapered. These entrances at the northern corners of the square, are enclosed by the jade green ceramic passageways, referencing the passageways common across the wider Fitzrovia area. Green was chosen, according to Longman, “because it really picks up on the freshness and vitality of the garden.” They frame visitors’ first view of the gardens within, their colour helping establishing a visual connection with the


WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK ADF AUGUST 2018


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