When the architects
of a distinctive, spiral-shaped restaurant – a new landmark for a fashionable
area of London – wanted an expert to provide a complex ceiling, it chose Hunter Douglas Architectural.
The Vardo
Restaurant, at Duke of York Square, designed by Nex—, occupies a prominent
position on the King’s Road and has been designed thoughtfully to complement
the architecture of the adjacent grade II listed Duke of York Headquarters.
The new restaurant
is a fitting addition to the Duke of York Square, which is owned by Cadogan
Estates. The property investment and management company acquired the Duke of
York Headquarters and redeveloped the site, with public square, housing and
retail outlets, while Saatchi Gallery relocated to part of the building in
2008.
Winner of a New
London award 2017 (unbuilt, hotels and hospitality), it is a visually
distinctive building, defined by a spiral wall that echoes the nearby curved
wall of the historic premises. Also a nod to the front façade of the Duke of
York Headquarters is the series of cut outs in the wall that form a colonnade
for sheltered external seating.
Hunter Douglas
Architectural was specified to supply solid wood grill in ash for the
restaurant ceiling after impressing Nex— with the design consultation support
before construction began.
Alan Dempsey,
director of Nex—, said: “We also appreciated the quality of the final product.
The completed restaurant interior sounds and feels comfortable even when it’s
at full capacity.”
The
global architectural products company supplied 189m2 of
FSC-certified and fire-rated panels, 20mm x 80mm slats, with a 100mm gap. It
was a complex design to execute, with a radialised ceiling layout with
secondary cuts of 80mm width x 40mm high into the slats.
Alan said a solid
wood grill ceiling was chosen because a warm material was needed to counter the
stone and concrete surfaces used in the walls and floor. Ash has a warm
attractive colour and a strong grain visible from a distance.
“We wanted a warm,
inviting finish on the ceiling that could also beautifully conceal all the
usual services required overhead,” he said. “It was vital to our vision that
the ceiling battens were arranged in a radial pattern to convey the spiralling
form of the building. We designed more intricate notches into the many of the
battens to lead the eye around the interior space. These were demanding design
features and Hunter Douglas helped to achieve this during the design stage.”
Juliette Halliday,
national sales manager at Hunter Douglas Architectural, said the beauty of
using a solid wood grill system is that it is environmentally friendly,
recyclable – it is certified as a Cradle to Cradle product – and durable. The
system is easy to install as they are delivered as fully assembled panels and
allows the ceiling to be demountable, thus providing easy access to the plenum.
“We have supplied
architects of some incredibly complex and technically challenging buildings
across the world and our expertise meant that we were able to provide essential
advice for the spiral ceiling at Vardo,” she said. “It was undoubtedly a
difficult design, but because we can create bespoke solutions, if necessary, we
can help a designer to realise their vision.”
Photographs:
Issy
Crocker
