nicolas grimshaw architect presentation

SIR NICHOLAS GRIMSHAW CBE, PRA, RIBA, AIA

The Life and Works of Sir Nicholas Grimshaw

Simon A Lunn BA3


• Who is Nicholas Grimshaw

• UK Projects

• International Projects

• Design Ethos

Today I will talk about


Who Is Nicholas Grimshaw• Nicholas Grimshaw was born in Hove West Sussex on the 9th of

October 1939.

• As a boy he reputedly developed an appreciation of the materialsand construction, enjoying meccano and building tree houses andboats.

• From 1959 to 1962, he studied at the Edinburgh College of Artwhere he graduated with an Honours degree.

• In 1962 having won a scholarship awarded by Arcuk (Architects’Registration of the United Kingdom) he attended the ArchitecturalAssociation School of Architecture in London.


Who Is Nicholas Grimshaw• Whilst studying at the AA he won two further scholarships to travel

to Sweden in 1963 and the United States in 1964.

• In 1965 he graduated with an honours diploma in Architecture andwon a bronze medal awarded by the French Société d’ArchitectesDiplomés par le Gouvernement (Sadg), for one of the three besttheses discussed at the Architectural Association that year.

• He immediately entered into a partnership with Terry Farrell and 2years later joined the RIBA in 1967.

• in the 1960s and 1970s he won many architectural awards for hisbuildings, which were noted for their innovative approach toconstruction materials and detailing.


Who Is Nicholas Grimshaw• He worked with Farrell for 15 years before establishing his own

practice, Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners, in 1980..

• In 1989, he won a RIBA national award for his design of theFinancial Times print works in east London.

• In 1991 Ministry of Education and Science gave permission topractice architecture in Spain.

• After designing Britain’s pavilion for the Seville Expo in 1992, hewas appointed a CBE in 1993.

• In 1994 his Waterloo Eurostar railway terminal was awarded‘Building of the Year’.


Who Is Nicholas Grimshaw• In 1994 he was elected vice-chairman of the Architectural

Association and elected a Royal Academician.

• Made an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

• Elected a member of the Ordre des Architectes, Paris.

• Elected Honorary Member Bund Deutcher Architekten (BDA).

• In 2002 he was Knighted by the Queen.

• In 2004 he was elected president of the Royal Academy of Arts.


Who Is Nicholas Grimshaw• Since its foundation in 1980 Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners Ltd

has won over 100 awards for Architecture and Civic Design all overthe world.

• The practice is now internationally recognised as GRIMSHAW withoffices in London, New York and Melbourne.


Who Is Nicholas Grimshaw• The practice is best known in the UK for the Waterloo International

Station and the Eden Project in Cornwall.

• There are numerous other significant projects in the UK, includingthe:

• RAC Regional Headquarters in Bristol,

• Sainsbury’s urban quarter in Camden,

• the Financial Times Print Works

• and in 2009 the UCL Cancer Institute Paul O’ Gorman Building.


Who Is Nicholas Grimshaw• Ever since the mid 70’s he has worked on the International Stage.

• There are many examples of Grimshaw international work in Europe,the USA and further afield in Russia and Australia, including;

• The British Pavilion at the Expo 92 in Seville, Spain.

• Southern Cross Railway Station in Melbourne, Australia, which wonthe RIBA Lubetkin prize in 2007.


UK Projects

• Financial Times Print Works

• Waterloo Station

• Eden Project

• University College London - Cancer Institute.


Financial Times Print Works• In 1998 the Financial Times moved from Fleet Street to a new home

in London Docklands.

• It moved to two buildings, the editorial centre and the new print works, which were to house two state of the art presses.

• These were larger and heavier than anything the FT had had before.

• The entirely purpose built building would function as the outer skin of the presses.


Financial Times Print Works• The business of printing

papers, and the two huge presses was clearly visible to traffic on the East India Dock Road through the glazed facade.


Financial Times Print Works

• The Financial Times Print Works was designed specifically to house two huge printing presses and had to be flexible to handle major changes to the newspaper printing business.


Waterloo Station• Waterloo Eurostar Terminal is a railway station which functions like

an airport.

• The brief called for a streamlined terminal, through which, 15 million passengers could pass each year with the minimum of fuss at maximum speed.

• The international terminal was completed in May 1993 on budget and with no disruption to the main line rail services from Waterloo.

• It has won numerous awards including the RIBA Presidents Building of the year 1994 and the Miles van der Rohe Pavilion award for European Architecture 1994.


Waterloo Station• A monument to

the new cross channel rail age.

• Connected to Waterloo but with its own identity.


Waterloo Station

• The asymmetric roof must rise steeply on the western side to accommodate the height of the trains.


Waterloo Station• Passengers from the

continent arrive to panoramic views of the River Thames and Westminster.


Waterloo Station• Bowstring arch

roof structure is clearly expressed.


Waterloo Station• The impressive roof belies the fact that most of the project is concerned with

underground works.


Waterloo Station• Arrivals and

departures are organised to move passengers efficiently to their destination.


Waterloo Station• Passengers for Europe

move up one level to the trains.

• Arriving passengers are carried down two levels to the double height arrivals concourse, which opens directly onto the street.


Eden Project• Following the success of his Eurostar Terminal, Grimshaw was

approached in 1996 to design the Eden Project.

• The original design for the biomes, was inspired by the sinuous asymmetrical curves of the Waterloo Terminal.

• This similarity to Gramshaw’s Eurostar Terminal was instrumental in securing Millennium funding for the project.

• This showcase for bio-diversity built on the site of a ‘worked out’ china clay pit in Cornwall, would be the largest plant enclosure in the world and was to become one of the most innovative and high profile of the Millennium projects.


Eden Project• The final design was inspired, by Buckminster Fuller’s Geodesic domes, which gives

the maximum enclosed volume, with the minimum surface area.

• Built in four phases to date, with more planned, the Eden project is a series of interconnecting biomes, which house vast tropical and temperate habitats.

• The biomes are served by a visitor centre, perched on the rim of the quarry, affording views over the

whole 15 acre site.


Eden Project• There are eight interlinked biomes of varying

height from 18 to 65m, depending on the size of plants they house.

• One major design consideration was to minimise, the amount of light blocked by the structure its self.

• As too much shadow would adversely affect they way the plants grow as they follow the light.

• Another was to maximise solar gain in order to passively heat the biomes.


Eden Project• The solution was a

space frame comprising if two interdependent elements.

• A light weight tubular steel sub frame and innovative ETFE hexagonal pillows.


Eden Project• The Eden Project provides employment for

500 mainly local people.

• In its first year there were 491,213 visitors. By the end of the following year 1.9 people had visited the project.

• Under Gramshaw's Masterplan is is anticipated the centre will attract 2 million visitors per year and provide employment for 700 local people.


UCL Cancer Institute• Grimshaw was commissioned to design a new post graduate

medical school and the new UCL Cancer Institute in 2000.


UCL Cancer Institute• The Cancer Institute is built adjacent to the

medical school, in place of a 1930’s extension,which has been demolished.

• The site is on the edge of the Bloomsburyconservation area and medical school is in arefurbished Grade II listed building.


UCL Cancer Institute• Signature building

designed to attract the best minds in Cancer research.


UCL Cancer Institute• Main Entrance between the Listed building and the

new Institute building.

• Gap creates light-well with steel and ETFE cushion roof (As Eden Project).

• Highly engineered staircase is focal point.

• Transparency, emphasises the institute as a live and active building.


UCL Cancer Institute• The staircase is beautifully detailed stainless steel

treads, cantilevered from a pre-cast concrete spine.


UCL Cancer Institute• Internal layout

separates the laboratories from analysis and write up space.

• 5th floor balcony gives views over London.


UCL Cancer Institute• Rhythm of louvres

similar to DNA sequence bar code pattern

• Position of louvres to provide solar shading.


UCL Cancer Institute• The Terracotta in the

adjoining 19th century building is repeated in the louvres.

• The stainless steel suspension system is finely detailed.


UCL Cancer Institute• First to fourth floor full

length write up space.

• Warm American Cherry acoustic panelling and glazed panels and doors.

• Glazed panels sand blasted for privacy.


UCL Cancer Institute• The façade and write up spaces push out past the

structural grid.

• This articulation gains floor space in the write up areas, whilst the ground floor is setback to minimise the massing at street level.


International Projects

• Southern Cross Railway Station, Melbourne.


Southern Cross Station• Space - Structure - Skin

• Grimshaw worked in collaboration with a local practice, Jackson Architecture forming Grimshaw Jackson JV to redevelop the Southern Cross rail Station in Melbourne.

• They designed a scheme, which would accommodate the anticipated increase in demand for future rail services and provide a pedestrian link between the central business district and the developing Docklands area of Melbourne.

• The resulting scheme, won the RIBA Lubetkin prize for the best new building outside the European Union in 2007


Southern Cross Station• Space

• The interior is a vast hall with vistas in every direction so the interconnecting streets surrounding the station can be easily understood.


Southern Cross Station• Pods under

the roof house admin functions with retail space below.


Southern Cross Station• The dune like roof

covers an entire city block and visually links the city to the docklands area.


Southern Cross Station• The roof form is a key

part of the environmental control of the building.

• Passively cooling and extracting fumes.


Southern Cross Station


Southern Cross Station• Space

• Structure

• Skin


Southern Cross Station


• Nicholas Grimshaw developed an interest in structure and in particularhow metal is fastened together when studying in Edinburgh.

• That clearly stayed with him as all of the examples I have looked athave a clear structure, beautifully executed and detailed.

• Whilst doing his diploma at the AA, he became interested in givingpeople the tools to change their lives. He built in the ability to configurethe apartments he built on Park Road in 72 different ways, giving theoccupants the ability to determine their living space how they choose.

• All of his buildings are designed to function. The beauty comes from theexecution. In Sir Nicholas Grimshaw case, form does follow function,and I for one like the results.

Design Ethos


Thank you For Your Attention

Simon A Lunn BA3

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nicolas grimshaw architect presentation

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