COCKPIT ARTS & LIBRARY
Full remodelling of the library and provision brand new employment studio spaces, 105 new homes, and new public spaces.
FOR CAMDEN COUNCIL WITH U+I
Forward-thinking developer U+I has formed a private-public partnership with Camden City Council to unlock the full economic, social and cultural potential of this tired site in Holborn.
Our design is anchored around Little Cockpit Yard – a conical event and performance space that plays on the original hexagonal motif in the library and brings daylight to all floors of the community space. It will regenerate the library as an attractive destination in Holborn, connecting to the wider Holborn hinterland beyond, significantly boosting the area’s public realm offering.
THE CONE
The conical Cockpit form is at the heart of the scheme. It is a meeting point, a gathering place, a place to study, read and relax. It draws people in from the street and forms a focus of the library and the public spaces. Conceptually, the cone brings together many of the themes in the proposals. The conical form comes from the conical roof of the historic cockfighting arena that gives Cockpit Yard its name, and once again forms a place for people to gather. The location is in the reinstated Little Cockpit Yard which forms a new civic space in the library. The form inside the cone picks up on the hexagonal geometry of the proposals that spring from the decorative motif in the original library building.
OPENING UP
The proposals for the Theobald’s Road facade respect the existing library building and its positive contribution to the conservation area, while opening up new views into the library. The life and activity of the library can be seen and views through Little Cockpit Yard to Cockpit Lane behind draw people into the site and give a sense of the varied activity in the site and of the wider Bloomsbury hinterland beyond.
LITTLE COCKPIT YARD & COCKPIT LANE
The historic route into the site restored as a public route into and through the library. Anchored around the conical “cockpit” event space, this open, welcoming space attracts people into the library and connects the activity of the site to Theobald’s Road. Cockpit Lane runs from the south end of John’s Mews. Th is new public space links all the uses on the site. It opens to Little Cockpit Yard to the south, and provides a view to Cockpit Arts’ space at its end, with residential accommodation accessed from each side of the lane.
FORUM FOR CREATIVITY
The southern portion of Cockpit Yard is glazed over to form a light-filled atrium, bringing daylight to the studio spaces accessed from balconies spanning the space. Below is a generous area where activities can spill out, where events can take place and where the designer-makers can gather. This strategy creates a forum for collaboration and a social space at the heart of the Cockpit Arts scheme and a place where the designer-makers can come together.
LOCATION
London
SIZE
58,500 sqft
STATUS
Pre-app
CLIENT
Camden Council with U+I