Local Landmarks in London

The first of a family of nine kiosks designed by Maltese architecture practice, Mizzi Studio, opens in London’s Royal Parks, leaving a sustainable, sinuous and serpentine mark on the Grade I listed landscape.

PHOTOS: LUKE HAYES

THE FIRST of a family of nine kiosks, designed by award-winning Maltese architecture and design practice Mizzi Studio on behalf of artisan brand Colicci for prominent locations in The Royal Parks in London, has opened at Ritz Corner, Green Park.

Eight more kiosks will open through the winter, culminating with a new landmark café, the Serpentine Café, in spring 2019.

The organic-inspired designs for the family of kiosks and new Serpentine Café respond sympathetically to the Grade I listed landscape and embody the ethos of The Royal Parks as a sustainability leader.

Mizzi Studio has, in fact, used sustainable materials and traditional craft techniques, together with state-of-the-art manufacturing methods, to create simple, functional forms that are both striking and elegant.

The design for the kiosks merges the latest digital manufacturing techniques with traditional craftsmanship. Entrusted with bringing Mizzi Studio’s design to life through his signature pioneering steam bending technique, Tom Raffield is the creator of the curvaceous oak cladding for eight of the kiosks.

Together with Colicci, Mizzi Studio explored the parks’ heritage and has tailored the design of each kiosk and the Serpentine Café to the history and nuances of their respective site to create new visitor experiences and make a refreshment stop an integral part of a journey through the parks.

The nine kiosks will mark the entrances to Hyde Park and St James’s Park, as well as Green Park. They are conceived as a family of individual forms that are united in their design language, with a 360-degree sculptural canopy that swells out like a tree’s crown, creating a recognisable silhouette.

The organic-inspired volumes follow a continuous shape, with varying degrees of curvature and differing cladding profiles that provide contrasting textures to the surface. Each design variation is informed by the architectural and organic elements that the kiosk shares its space with.

The flagship Horse Shoe Bend kiosk in St James’s Park, in view of Buckingham Palace, will be clad in tubular brass and will mirror the ornate precious metals that adorn Sir Thomas Brock’s Queen Victoria Memorial, while the choice of timber cladding for the rest of the family of kiosks rests on the relationship with the park environment.

Mizzi Studio has used high-quality materials throughout the design, from sustainable British oak to oxidised copper, new copper, stainless steel and brass.

Its holistic approach to the design also takes into careful consideration the use of space, energy efficiency and practicalities such as waste disposal. A rear entrance leaves the sides of the kiosk available for subtle and efficient service features, including integrated bins and condiment holders.

“We are absolutely delighted to see the first kiosk open in Green Park. It is an honour to have been entrusted with such a highprofile project of this size and scale,” says Jonathan Mizzi, director of Mizzi Studio.

“The kiosks form an important part of The Royal Parks’ heritage by serving the public with refreshments and acting as local information points. The design challenge was to create a family of functional sculptures with a goal to continuously surprise and delight while further enhancing the visitor’s experience.

“This is an important milestone for Mizzi Studio and is central to our commitment to innovative sustainable design for the public realm,” he continues.

The Serpentine Café, opening in Hyde Park in spring 2019, is a new landmark café with views towards the Serpentine Lake and the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. Mizzi Studio has designed it to create an engaging experience, reflective of the neighbouring Serpentine Sackler Gallery by Zaha Hadid Architects and the legacy of the Serpentine Pavilions.

The building’s form is defined by a sculptural brass roof. Its dramatic, undulating shape takes the curve of the Serpentine Lake as a point of departure and is evocative of the sweeping motion of a stingray’s flight, while the tactile quality of the underbelly of the canopy echoes the reptilian texture of a snake.

Reaching its climactic point while hovering above the entrance, the canopy is suggestive of a stingray’s smile as it welcomes park visitors into the pavilion below.

Mizzi Studio has also drawn inspiration from Japanese architecture for the design of the Serpentine Café. For the roof, the characteristics of a pagoda have been translated into a more fluid form, while the windows traditionally seen in Japanese tea houses have influenced the series of horizontal mullions that divide the glazing in the pavilion. The mullions create a semitransparent open space where the boundary between indoors and outdoors is blurred, enabling the building to coexist harmoniously with its environment.

The architecture and design practice, with studios in London and Malta, has worked across a diverse range of disciplines, scales and sectors, seeking out projects that have a positive social and cultural impact. Through better design, it strives to add tangible value and enhance the physical world.

“We apply creative thinking and ingenuity to the needs of each project. Our approach fuses traditional craft with the latest digital manufacturing techniques, and parametric design with a careful consideration of human factors,” Mizzi highlights.

“Drawing inspiration from the natural world and science fiction, our work is distinguished by colour, texture and warmth, accentuated by kinetic and sensory technology, creating transformative and experiential results.”