From the first branch of the famous ACE Café, who is famous in London as an R&B themed restaurant, the architect chose to engage in a heavy metal theme hoping to use this as an opportunity to revitalize the cold building through digital technology and mechanic engineering techniques, to fill the atmosphere with breathing space and digital charm. This also helps architect to achieve the dream of designing a deformable architecture.
To maintain the major structure of this train station, as well as the present industrial style, the architect reconstructed he north facade of the building with operable windows of glass, using the same segmentation as the one in ACE London.
Courtesy of dEEP
For the west façade, the design is a deformable metal facade controlled by the bar that allows cars to enter. When the metal wall is completely open, it turns a flat wall into a complex metal structure like a blooming metal flower, in memory of the punk and R&B culture.
Similar techniques were applied to the interior wall behind the bar. It rises from a flat metal wall, bloom, and then returns to its initial stage like a breathing creature. This system is achieved by the gears behind and is inspired by the old steam locomotive right by the site, it also illustrates our understanding of the punk culture.
To match, respect and protect the existing building, the architect used containers on the west side of the train station to assemble to whole structure, and form a composite composed of cafe and car repair zone on the first floor, platform and office on the second floor.
Courtesy of dEEP
By:Delia Chang
