Image: View of the courtyard from South (credit: Hufton + Crow).

Adaptive Reuse Through the Critical Reinterpretation of the Load-Bearing Structure: Heatherwick Studio in King’s Cross, London, UK

Alberto Bologna

2019

Bologna, Alberto. 2019. “Adaptive Reuse Through the Critical Reinterpretation of the Load-Bearing Structure: Heatherwick Studio in King’s Cross, London, UK”. World Architecture/Shijie Jianzhu 353 (11): 120-123.

ISSN 1002-4832

“In the field of contemporaneity, there are few architectural episodes that make it possible to question and link together major theoretical issues while being considered examples of good professional and design practices. The redevelopment of the heritage rail buildings located in the King’s Cross district of London is, therefore, a case study worthy of note if we also analyse it with the aim of refining the focus of critical methodologies and testing them using specific analytical tools in the field of architectural design. […] This intervention raises crucial questions that go beyond the formalisms, specific construction techniques used or decision-making processes that have led to the new redefinition of the entire area within which the buildings are included: what is the role of architectural criticism in relation to design practice in the analysis of an architectural and urban redevelopment project of this kind? But above all: what are the operational tools available to critics to contribute to the dissemination of valid architectural design strategies capable of influencing future professional practice in the field of adaptive reuse all over the world?”