Inside / Out Lecture of the year
RCA Online Lectures : A talk by Tina Norden from Conran + Partners
Reimagining Space


I joined the RCA's Reimagining online lecture and got a chance to listen to Tine Norden from Conran + Partners and asked questions. Enjoy!
Panelist:
· Graeme Brooker
· Tina Norden
Notes:
Concept to reality
Main aim: Transforming abstraction to reality
Multidisciplinary – interior / architecture
Consider detail! - touch, see, smell, interact
Authentic Experiences (creating)
How people use the space (engaging people)
Delight
Immersion/ design/ realisation/ narrative
Researching: people/ businesses/ architecture/ surroundings
Creating a unique identity + programme
Materials palette / approach to details
Connecting inside and outside
Adaptive (re) use: reducing carbon footprint
Regeneration of Butlers Wharf = old/ new building
Old Design Museum
Michelin House, London
Thinking/ creating old buildings. History might be a topic to pick up from when designing.
Retaining/ capturing soul and personality of the buildings are key. – reinvention
Some examples of Conran & Partners Projects
Centre Point (Tottenham Court Road, London)
George Mars – architect
Residential areas/ material: marble strips
Picking up architectural motifs to the inside. (found on the walls/ floors)
Baylis Old School (Lambeth, London)
Henley homes – client
Public/private housing
Expressive concrete/ glazing
‘Brutalist idiom’
Affordable homes/ gardens
Keeping the English heritage
Was a school once
Blending old to new.
Blake Tower (Barbican London)
Redrow London
Solid concrete
Working around the existing building to add apartment spaces
Enhancing architecture at Barbican
(colours/ material palettes)
Motifs/ decoration of memory of heritage (original architecture)
Boundary (Shoreditch London) – hospitality
Victorian industrial building (hotel)
European hotel design award
Sits in context/ neighbourhood/ integrated
Maximilian Hotel, Prague
Entrance / looks straight into the café
Only opens from the café
Colours in Prague is used.
German Gymnasium (Kings Cross, London) - restaurant
Built to be a gym - to host National Olympic games
Barb stairs / airy balustrades
200 Gray’s Inn
Refurbishment for office
2 storey glass window/ glazing
Café/ workspaces/ lobby space
Stories/ capturing imagination
Motifs/ materiality
Clues integrated to history
Questions:
1- How did masters at RCA had effects in your successful achievements in Conran & Partners?
- Out there
- Multi- disciplines working together. / product – fashion – merging relevant with each other
- Two teachers she mentioned: Clive and Davide Adjei
- The course doesn’t have a particular style, it’s all about what design means to you/ turning the camera on for yourself.
- Creative freedom
2- When you design, do you use feedback from the clients or use consistent style as Conran & Partners?
- Sensibility in design
- We do sometimes modernist/ sometimes decorative depending on the project
- Details/ narrative is key
- Working with clients are fundamental. We listen to clients and make sure they are satisfied with the outcome. Give them time of the days to think/ re – connect with us and deliver what they want us to create
- It is better if the client is challenging you, makes the project stronger
QUOTE OF THE LECTURE: ALWAYS COME WITH SOLUTIONS NOT WITH MORE PROBLEMS