Swinton Street Apartments London
1999-2001
The New Library of Stockholm, Sweden
2006-2008
The project has reached the last ten in a major international competition which has attracted 1,170 entries from all over the world.
The project is to extend the famous 1930's library (in orange) by Eric Gunnar Asplund, from 7,500m2 to 29,500 m2. The new building is composed of a long low linking plinth (below a new garden) containing the "forum", a civic scaled meeting and 24hr news space that can be either open plan or separated into rooms . Above this a high building contains a series of 'salons' which introduce people to the library according to it's thematically arranged distribution. These "salons' offer views into and finally out of the city. The building, which evokes the atmosphere of a 19th century Chigago office building (in that it has urban substance and presence), acts as a counterpoint and backdrop to the dramatic circular room making of Asplund's original.
2007
Giant's Causeway Visitor Centre Northern Ireland
2005 Competition entry
The building is experienced by the visitor as a big and level surface allowing inclusive access for all ages and physical abilities. The internal layout forms a clear span space for the interpretation, retail and cafe with separately defined spaces for classrooms and servicing facilities. This is achieved through a single continuous and pitching roof whose steel truss structure offers 25 metre clear spans forming a ceiling profile inspired by the Causeway column shapes. The open plan arrangement and controlled introduction of natural light into the interpretation space provide a framework for either open plan or cellular room installation.
Approaching the site by car, the building serves as a landmark whose presence is strong and silent, like a castle ruin. The quietly monumental external presence will temper the exhibits of the building that are changing and virtual. The building is walled externally by in-situ poured black concrete, with a reflective aggregate to sparkle in the light, matching a new floor surface. The wall has a profiled parapet which allows a controlled amount of rainwater to run down its surface at the re-entrant corners of the building. The roof of the building is grassed.The floor of the building is formed from pale insitu concrete with a power floated and later sand blasted finish. Thus the external walls and internal floor forms a container of substance equating with the solidity of the Causeway columns
The Monkey Puzzle Pavilion Aberdeen
2007 Six Cities Design Festival, Scotland
Made entirely from wood this demountable prefabricated public building is positioned in the main square of the city as the centrepiece of the festival. The shape of the building creates a ranges of spaces both internally and externally around a central gathering space ( for talks, films and childrens events). The building has 4 metre high ceilings and is 70m2 in area.
The pavilion was commissioned from the Scottish Executive in collaboration with the Lighthouse Gallery Glasgow, The Robert Gordon University and Aberdeen City Council,
Following the end of the festival the building will be moved and re-erected in the Aberdeenshire landscape as the studio of a local artist.
Brick Leaf House Hampstead London
1999-2003
"As one of an older generation that used to think Corbu had the final answer, I am constantly having to revise my ideas since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Nowadays we have had to get accustomed to a new kind of expressionism, a kind of no-holds-barred radicalism, affected to a large extent by the conceptualism of contemporary art.
What matters with Libeskind is his narrative, with Hadid is her unbridled dynamism, with Koolhaas is his surrealism. With Woolf we have a clear originality that eschews any over-riding ideology, but for all its understatement projects a hidden strength. It's a quality that I feel grateful for."
Robert Maxwell, Professor Emeritus
Princeton University USA October 2003
The Lion London
2002-2003
"Woolf Architects' work to the building...reveals an intelligent stance towards its original architecture and the state of affairs in the world that surrounds it.
By managing contact with the surrounding world they give the interior calm and security. Gated courts are made at the entrances that operate in a similar way to the original windows with their solid panels below tall glazed lights, and strike a note of exoticism in their pebble floors. The courts also provide outlook for original windows that extend down to the floor.
Complementing them is a number of skilfully and unusually managed light wells around the ground floor and basement.
There is a strong sense that for Woolf the fabric of the original building is artistically alive and open to change.
Every alteration, from the placing of an up-light on a wall or radiator before a window to the design of substantial stone topped kitchen furniture in relation to an original giant pilaster participates in the dignity of the original interior. Particularly, Woolf Architects daylight objects and spaces very well to create a calm habitability absolutely of this time."
Tony Fretton
Building Design Magazine October 2003
Pocket House London
1998-2000
Located behind a narrow street facade in a corner between two large regency villas the house has an upper and lower ground floor each with its own distinct atmosphere, which became the idea for the way the rooms could be. The tall upper room is like a formal pavilion in shape, rich in natural light and warm wood. Below ground the cavern like qualities are intensified by the mirroring effect of polished hard floors and gloss finishes, looking at the walled garden.
commissioned for private client
photographs by Helene Binet
This substantial brick warehouse building dating from the 1850's is converted into work/live studios. Timber frame walls define the new domestic spaces on each floor. The timber frame roof addition is a scaled down repeat of the trapezium building below.
commissioned by Heights UK Ltd
Graphic Design Studio< London
1997
The economics of the project dictated that the existing speculative office shell was retained. The architects focussed their task on building two lightweight walls, which appear suspended between the carpet and ceiling tiles. Set at an oblique these walls contradict the orthogonal logic of the building, adhering themselves to the edges of the room. This creates a dynamic spatial quality. The new lighting is a reference to the existing fluorescent ceiling lights, but in the walls.
commissioned by Design Bridge Ltd
Photographer's Studio London
1997
In the transformation of a Victorian school, the powerful presence of the stepping brick walls are represented by a wood model 'casting' which reveals the form of the two big room interiors.
Lighting and power services, darkroom, office and changing room for the photographer's models are integrated on two levels in the narrow space between. In this way the character of the big rooms is preserved. Each room will provide the photographer with south and north light respectively.
commissioned by Rober Fairer Photography
Hurst Road Housing East Molesey Surrey
1998
Woolf architects have been looking at the typology of terraced houses and detached suburban houses. This hybrid proposal forms a terrace of building on the ground floor becoming detached pavilions at 1st floor.
The buildings have a taller formal side to the south and west and a lower modest side to the north, to take account of the prevailing winds off the river Thames. The form would be ambiguous in appearance, part-terrace, part-detached house.
competition commissioned by housing developer
Devereux House-Hotel Channel Islands
1998
The house-hotel would contain 8 large suites, which can be inhabited as self-contained apartments. The original 18th century house with its wartime extension and the new additions combine to form a close ensemble of objects in the tradition of rural farm and domestic architecture.
commissioned by private client
Sackville Street London
2004-2006
Office Refurbishment for Great Portland Estates completing this April in Sackville St, Mayfair. The former Austin Reed headquarters has been substantially refurbished by Woolf Architects at a cost of circa £2.5million. The completed building will provide 18,000 ft2 of speculative Grade A office space.
2007
Addition of two luxury penthouses to the the 5th floor of 21 Sackville Street.
commissioned by Great Portland Estates plc.
Car Museum Merks Hall
1998
The new museum will house 50 of the most prestigious cars since 1940. The building will be located partially below ground under the formal rear lawns of existing neo -Palladian villa. The glazed facade of the car museum is revealed by the change in levels as steps down lead out into the landscape.
commissioned by private client
Smithfield Urban Regeneration Dublin
1991
The architects were awarded first prize in the international design competition for reinvigorating a run down area of Dublin through the re-discovery of an 18th century Georgian Square now languishing as a car park and intermittent horse market. These ideas formed the basis for what is now a flourishing part of the city.
commissioned by Irish Distillers Ltd .