Selgas Cano completes a colourful plant-filled west London co-working space
Expanding its London operations to a second building, in Holland Park, co-working space provider Second Home has turned again to architect Selgas Cano. The Madrid-based practice designed – and recently extended – Second Home’s original premises in Spitalfields, east London, and went on to complete an adjacent bookshop (Libreria) for the company, as well as Second Home workspace in Lisbon. The latest project represents “a continued exploration into the fields of environmentally sustainable and biophilic design”, says Second Home.
The new workspace has been created within an agglomeration of five small existing buildings, of various ages. The complex has a notable history. In the 1960s, fashion photographer John Cowan made his studio there, and it was also used as a location in Michelangelo Antonioni’s ‘Blow Up’ (1966). Later, Richard Rogers’ architectural studio occupied the space, installing a staircase designed by then-employee David Chipperfield, which was preserved during the subsequent occupation of the studio by John McAslan & Partners, and has been retained and restored in the building’s most recent transformation.
In a nod to that history, Second Home Holland Park maintains a photographic studio on the top floor of the building. A second Libreria bookshop also forms part of the mix, and the building’s courtyard cafe will host poetry events presented in partnership with Faber & Faber and others. ‘Studios’ within the 600-square-metre building are designed to house small teams of up to eight people, in contrast to the first London Second Home, which contains studios for teams of up to 150 people.
“Everything is this building is about scale”, says architect Jose Selgas. “It is small but with a strong personality, like in a circus; every act is as important as the other, no hierarchies, and only working all together do they create something unique. Stairs, skylights, a bridge and a vine that Richard Rogers himself planted in the courtyard are bits of his design added to the history of the buildings that we kept as a treasure of modern archaeology”.
The existing mezzanine was expanded, additional skylights installed to give more natural light both to occupants and to the 35 trees that now grow within the space. To cover part of the courtyard, while preserving the existing vine, “we used a clear double layer roof, and to insulate it we worked with environmental engineer Adam Ritchie, filling the gap between the layers with soap bubbles”, says Selgas. “It takes 20 minutes to fill and the effect can last a whole day. And Richard Rogers’ vine is still very much alive.”
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