A hotel in London’s developing Shoreditch area has won the Best Refurbishment and Renovation Category at the recent Brick Awards organised by the Brick Development Association.
Immediately facing a conservation area, the hotel site has a rich architectural history, composed of a tightly knit grain of shops, residential and industrial buildings. The idea for the façade was to knit the building back into the urban fabric and relate the building back to this area.
Previously the Crowne Plaza Hotel, the Ace Hotel has been renovated to reflect the surrounding brick dominated buildings. Focusing on the street level, architecture and interior design company, Universal Design Studio, has created an active street frontage and a very welcoming, lively hotel lobby. The approach was to tune in to the authentic voice of Shoreditch, to engage local artists, craftspersons and builders to foster a sense of place at home with its surroundings.
A rich mixture of textural changes were used; brick bonds and receded bricks alongside glazed and unglazed, create a series of distinct identities across the span of the façade. A simple logic was used to determine brick in each location; horizontal courses on structural elements, vertical on header claddings and decorative coursings on infill panels. The previous ground floor distanced the building from the street but the renovated facade steps back in areas to create an outdoor terrace and a compressed entrance portal, creating a fully lined series of brick rooms.
Ketley Brick’s dark, rich “Ketley Blue” was selected for the exterior to create a sleek and modern look. Approximately 20,000 full facing bricks and 11,000 specially formed bricks slips and pistols were used on soffits and upstands with a mix of bonds, as well as on the edge as paving in the entrance. Brick slips were bonded into prefabricated panels for the ceiling of the entrance and these were extruded eliminating the need for cutting making them an efficient and environmental solution. Ribbed tactile pavers were used at the top of the stairs for the visually impaired.
Winchmore Brickwork was the brickwork contractor for the project and the judges thought it was a very high quality refurbishment with great craftsmanship. The new Ace Hotel has been transformed and has proved a real success with the owners as well as the daily visitors to the hotel lobby who simply just want to stay there!
The Brick Awards is one of Britain’s most respected design competitions. The annual contest provides the definitive showcase for what brick can achieve with projects being entered from right across the globe.
You can see pictures and find full details of the project teams on the BDA’s website. www.brick.org.uk/brick-awards.