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he Wapping Project
Office design for Corbeau Company
The Wapping Project
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The existing building
The existing building was a hydrauilic Power station, built in 1890 and was run by the London Hydrauilic Power Company in Wapping, London. In 1977 the pumping station closed. Then, the building was converted and reopend as an Arts Gallery named “ The Wapping Project” and restaurant. A basic attribute of the space is the Power Station’s original equipment which was kept and became a part of the restaurant’s design, that gives an industrial atmosphere.
The Corbeau Company
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Company’s Identity
Corbeau is a company of road and race seats. As a 100% british manufacturer, Corbeau has a strong position in the UK, while it meets the standarts and the qualities of it’s customers. The particular design of Corbeaus products is very dynamic. The shape of the race seats is quite complex with curved lines and appears to be like the upper part of the human’s body. The use of RGB colours as well as black and grey make the product more british (traditional) and sporty. On the other hand, the retro series appear to be quite minimal and posh and is being given emphasis on to the material they made out of. Materials such as hard wearing cloth and sponge give a feeling of strengh, comfort and durability.
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Interior’s Identity
An environment influenced by this company and its products should have a dynamic design followed by Modern and minimal shapes. Strong materials, such as concrete and steel, can be used to determine the strength and the durability of the company and its products. The lighting may include red and blue colours, which will give a more sporty and british feeling to the space.
Design driver and survey drawings From the begining I would like to create a space within a space by using pods. Then the name of the company (Corbeau) drove me to look into Le Corbusier’s architecture and particularly get inspired by Unite d’habitation and Heidi Weber museum.
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Plans
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Concept
Finally I ended up with the idea of having a big tunnel in the ground floor wich will be devided in two spaces by an interior wall. The first space will be the gallery and the second one will include a cloakroom and the toilets. On the first and the second floor there will be pods that will be situated above the big tunnel which will suport them. The pods will be linked with stairs and a lift. Thus, the open spaces between them will be used as meeting areas. Last but not least, two corridors will begin from the first floor and they will lead to a big meeting area/garden space which will have the shape of the company’s logo, a corbeau. Beneath the “Corbeau� space will be the Coffee area/bar. I imagined the space as a tree with the pods going up like branches and a corbeau (raven) sitting on one of them (corridor) which is obvious in the initial plan drawings which following.
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Visuals