PROJECT REPORT: CULTURAL, CIVIC & FAITH BUILDINGS 51
complicated,” says Benedetti, and not phasing the project meant staff had to be relocated during construction. A former Jamie Oliver restaurant in the basement became the construction workers’ canteen. The blocked-off rooflights were “packed full of stuff,” and their plasterwork was deteriorating rapidly, says Benedetti, with no atmospheric or temperature control. The structural challenge for remedying this via lifting the rooflights was complicated by the Crown Estate doing simultaneous work in the basement: “We needed to find a way to hold the building up and make all the changes; adding a floor and strengthening it all without putting significantly more weight on the foundations.” There was a “huge amount of temporary
works.” A ‘birdcage’ of steels around 20 metres high held the facade and the 20 tonne historic rooflights, and also created a temporary scaffolding roof above – one of the largest in London at the time – which also enabled all materials to be lifted in on such a constrained site.
Programme
The architects managed to double the building’s internal capacity without moving the main screening theatre – which was re-built and technologically re-engineered in collaboration with Dolby’s Californian HQ. Other than a new invitingly glazed entrance, the accommodation begins on the first floor, with a foyer, multi-use event space and banqueting kitchen (the building as whole includes four new kitchens and bars). Then on the second floor, adjacent to the main cinema, are the Learning and New Talent spaces crucial to BAFTA’s charitable remit, which extend upwards at the west flank into a triple height space top lit by another rooflight, and which connects visually to the third floor. The second floor had previously been raised and was lowered around 1.5 metres here to avoid level changes, which “gave back some of the history about the relationship with the triple height galleries which attracted BAFTA in the first place,” says Benedetti. The raised floors were on “huge 20 metre beams,” so this wasn’t done “without consternation,” he adds.
On level two a new Clore Learning Centre (funded by the Clore Duffield Foundation, its first in the UK dedicated to moving image arts) replaces the former member’s area, supporting the training of a diverse range of ‘young creatives’ in the film, games and television industries. On level three there’s a new, 41-seat
ADF SEPTEMBER 2022
cinema, and on the top floor alongside the members’ bar, a new boardroom re-uses historic oak flooring and marble found during the removal of the original raked seating in the Princess Anne Theatre. The building is set back with terraces which overlook Piccadilly and St. James’s Church – which is surrounded by mature trees and accessed via 24 metres of full-height glazed sliding doors.
A further reason for offering flexibility in the design of the various meeting areas was that BAFTA does a lot of its award judging in the building, so there’s a need for “privacy and containment.” All spaces are connected so that jury members can call each other wherever they are in the world, and view films together seamlessly. “You don’t see the kit,” says Benedetti. “We were working with world-renowned firms in partnering agreements with BAFTA to ensure it is cutting edge now, and updated in future.”
Clearly in control As mentioned previously, this project was a test bed in UK terms for a highly innovative smart glazing system from Eyrise, a company formed by pharmaceutical giant Merck in Germany to plug a gap in the market for truly ‘clear’ solar control glass. The company had patented a glass liquid crystal technology in 1914, but it’s taken over 100 years for it to come to market.
This is ‘smarter than smart’ insulated glass, virtually clear from the interior
© Jim Stephenson
© Luca Piffaretti
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
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