Award-winning architects, Pilbrow & Partners, are dramatising the London skyline with Aspen.
Pilbrow & Partners is one of London’s most progressive and sought-after architectural and urban design studios, whose work is renowned throughout the UK and internationally.
Their awards include the American Architectural Prize and Planning Award for the UCLH Hospital and Architect’s Journal’s Architecture Tomorrow Award for their recent work in Canary Wharf.
Principal Fred Pilbrow saw multiple opportunities to optimise their solution for Aspen and its surrounding Consort Place, ‘We believe people love great light and great views in the homes in which they live. We focused on maximising the connection to the exterior; the building’s three petals create six corners, consequently the majority of the apartments benefit from fabulous dual aspect views. It also gives a wonderful connection to the water and to the distinctive loop of The Thames that curls around the panoramas.’
Pilbrow has always seen Aspen as the apex of a tall building cluster that complements the famous silhouette of Canary Wharf itself. Equally significant was to create a sense of difference between the building and its neighbours.
‘The slim form of the building and its three petals creates distinction, delivering a constant contrast of light and shade with a sculptural grace and subtlety that more traditional orthogonal buildings often lack’.
The opportunity was also to design a compelling and vibrant destination that weaved residential with hotels, cafés, landscaping and community spaces. ‘The building has very much been informed by its environment and through Consort Place the ability to connect the wider community across the traditional barrier of the elevated Marsh Wall.’ The public space and the variations of levels leading down from Marsh Wall will articulate and introduce the new communal area of Consort Place.
‘Residential buildings are critically about community – the architecture of Aspen does talk about the social spaces and the relationship with the adjoining hotel and its roof terrace are all part of this commitment’, states Pilbrow.
