An office and climbing gym are housed within a new-build, timber-clad composition of pavilions. The two functions are separated by a top-lit shower room, and a change of floor level. The double-height gym space accommodates an adjustable climbing wall, and incorporates extensive roof-glazing to provide views of the sky, recalling the experience of climbing outdoors.
The building volume steps in and out to accommodate the roots of existing trees, and the resulting splits are glazed to provideframed views into and through the building, and from the building to the exterior. Planned landscaping will bring calming viewsof lush vegetation into these views. Full-height glazed doors to one wall of the office furthers this visual connection to thegarden. Desks and storage are integrated into the solid walls of the office space, which appear as planes and volumescontinuous to the exterior due to their timber cladding inside and out.
The building nestles under and between trees and neighbouring buildings, and can still only be partially seen from above when the trees are defoliated in the winter. From ground level one first encounters the office space, and a view straight through the climbing space to the garden beyond.As one approaches the side entrance of the building, the climbing wall comes into view in the interior, but appears almost to be outside due to the transparency of the glazed rear wall, and the quality of the natural light from the large rooflight still out of view.
With a significantly lower floor level than the adjacent office, the climbing space has a dramatic verticality, which is enhanced by the experience of climbing.Inspired by the work of Loos and Hertzberger, the spaces are complex in three dimensions, and the views across, through, into and out of the ‘raumplanned’ building promote social interaction.
Like other William Tozer Associates’ projects, Split Space is informed by an interest in the work of Gordon Matta-Clark, Donald Judd, and James Turrell—particularly the Conical Intersect and Splitting, Specific Object, and Skyspace works respectively.
This is especially evident here in the use of mirror and glass, frameless rooflights, cladding building elements as plastic solids.The building is a composition of rectilinear planes and volumes, and the glazing is articulated as gaps between these separate elements rather than as openings in a single building envelope.
Some building elements, such as the cladding and floor materials, operate to support conceptual and sculptural moves at various scales, while others are intended to appear as utilitarian furnishings that do not distract from the perception of this, like the light fittings and switches.
Team:
Architect: WILLIAM TOZER Associates
Project team:William Tozer, Tom Shelswell, Adoracion Marco, Harpreet Marway, Mia Rezek, Grace Losasso, Rebecca Palmer, Shravan George
Consultants: Eng17 Limited (engineer), The Building Inspectors (Building Control)
Contractor: ASK Renovations Limited
Photographer: Lucasz Wielkoszynski
