(for Piercy & Company)

Chikako was the site architect for a refurbishment and extension of an Art Deco building of the 1930s, built on the site of a book-binding business in Hatton Garden. Classical building features are combined with level of comfort, attention to detail and credentials of sustainability and wellness.

A reception area as gallery space, leads seamlessly onto a landscaped terrace. The multi-use inside/outside event space is a introduction to the flexibility of the building.

The rectangular floor plate is an unbroken expanse of space with sustainably sourced European Oak floors, high and uncluttered ceilings and huge windows flooding the place with light and views. Heating and cooling is discretely provided from oor mounted VRF units with bespoke metal casings.

There are 5 outdoor spaces with the range of seating and communal meeting rooms, which enhance the enjoyable working experience.

Project Data : https://thebinderyec1.com

(for Piercy & Company)

Chikako was the project architect for a development in the heart of Clerkenwell combines a 146 room hotel and new affordable housing block, supported by the sensitive refurbishment and extension of a Victorian Ragged School building to create 25,000 sq. ft. of flexible workspace.   

The eight-story hotel features a contemporary, but heavily textured, deep façade of folding cast masonry piers. This play of shadows, angles, glass and pigmented concrete is set against a view of the Ragged School’s historic and distinctive crenelated tower, which itself acts as a pivot for a series of new publicly accessible, external courtyards inspired by Clerkenwell’s many tightly knit streets and alleys. 

Completing the new tripartite composition of buildings is a tall, thin block of affordable housing which benefits from dual and triple aspect apartments with views over Clerkenwell. The building’s 3-bay brickwork façade and articulated gable end is redolent of the Georgian terraced housing that used to line Eyre Street Hill on the eastern edge of the site.  

Project Data : https://www.piercyandco.com/projects/view/vine-hill

Leiths School of Food and Wine is the most prestigious and respected cookery school in the country, offering world class professional diplomas and a wide range of enthusiast cooking classes. Due to its popularity, the school has been refurbished to increase its capacity since first occupying the premises at 16-20 Wendell Road, London, W12 9RT. However with its ever increasing demand for domestic cooking classes and the recent shifts in home cooking, more radical reconfigurations were sought to cater for flexible use of the spaces, accommodating various needs.

In order to avoid an interruption to the term's courses, the work was planned in phases with the main construction to be carried out during the summer closure. The Phase 1 work focused on the replanning of the Second Floor: the standard teaching kitchen was upgraded to a demonstration kitchen accommodating high quality workstations and a show counter, allowing students to fully engage in a dialogue with a teaching chef. The staff office was reconfigured to introduce a new dining room.Being connected to the demonstration kitchen, it enables spontaneous use of both rooms for students to learn and socialise. The dining room houses a built in kitchen unit and wine fridge as its feature, and the materials and furniture were carefully chosen to create a homely atmosphere. The dining table, catering 12 seats, was a bespoke design to cater for various numbers in accordance with a class held.

The library was fully refurbished, and new built-in bookshelves and desks were installed for a more equipped study environment for the students.

For the next stages of work, a feasibility study of an extension to the Ground Floor and Second Floor is ongoing, and the Second Floor extension has recently received full planning permission.

https://www.leiths.com

(for Allford Hall Monaghan Morris)

While at Allford Monaghan Morris, Chikako was a senior member of the team for this redevelopment of the former WC1 mail sorting office in central London. Prominently located between the districts of Bloomsbury and Covent Garden, the sorting office was built in the 1960s and had been derelict for the last 20 years. Drawing on the industrial scale and character of the building, the proposals for its reinvention included office and retail spaces, the required affordable housing, a new GP surgery and a range of public open spaces including a new publicly accessible roof terrace.  

The scheme takes the unique existing structural frame as the starting point and proposes a lightweight cladding system composed of a series of frames that hold either a solid panel or a window. A language of frame, window and solid panel is used at different depths and scales across the building to give a varied and adaptable facade that unites the existing structure while responding to the surrounding context. 

The material expression of the proposals has been developed to give a clear identity to the building that develops inherited industrial qualities and expresses the language of assembly in relation to the sites former use.  

Project Data : https://www.ahmm.co.uk/projectDetails/171/The-Post-Building

(for Wilkinson Eyre Architects)

Chikako was the project architect for the multi award-winning Mary Rose Museum from the inception to the completion. This new build is to provide a permanent home for the hull of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s favourite warship, and the display of many thousands of the ship’s original artefacts. Housed within a dry dock, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, the hull could not be moved and would continue to undergo conservation treatment throughout construction. Located within Portsmouth Historic Dockyard next to HMS Victory, the project called for an extraordinarily sensitive and considered design approach.  

The architectural design took an inside-out approach, cradling the hull at the centre of the new museum.  Only half of the original ship was salvaged from the seabed of the Solent near Portsmouth in 1982 and a virtual hull has been created alongside this to represent the missing section. The retrieved artefacts are displayed in the context galleries, which run the full length and levels corresponding to the original ship. Through the atmospheric lighting and sound effects in the ship hall, the immersive experience of life onboard the ship was re-created. 

The exterior of the building is elegant in its form, derived from vernacular maritime architecture. The traditional construction method of ship building was implemented to the dark stained timber cladding creating the double curved building envelope. The discreet enclosure protects and hides the sparkle of its contents like a jewellery box. 

Project Data : https://www.wilkinsoneyre.com/projects/mary-rose-museum

(for Toyo Ito Associates & Architects)

Chikako was a key member of the team for a new station interior for the extension of the major subway line between Tokyo and Yokohama, which had the interior concept of ‘station for a book’. Yokohama was one of the first ports opened in 1856, after over 200 years of Japan being closed from any foreign relations and trades during the Edo Period. Yokohama eventually became one of the largest trade cities in Japan and had a significant Western cultural influence, developing its own identity. This rich history of townscape, culture and entertainments are represented in printed graphics on 1m x 1m ceramic tiles on the station platform and concourse walls. The station itself acts as a guidebook of a Yokohama’s history. 

The walls of the long platform are filled with postcards of old townscapes in the local area. Each postcard was enlarged to 5 x 6m, and by combining them over the full length of the platform, dynamic perspectives were created. Square white pixels were embedded in the original pictures, making the pictures appear as an ambient pattern in close-up but the entire picture becoming legible from a distance. 

The façade of the street entrance shows a smaller version of the platform graphic, which resembles a stripe pattern from when viewed from a distance. The concourse shows 1:1 scale people and common items from the late 19th century, some of which show a sense of humour, providing a fun learning experience of the area’s history to visitors. 

Architecturally, the space was designed in super-grid and in pure white.  All the graphics are printed in monochrome with subtle grey tone, creating an appropriate contrast with its simple background, drawing a likeness to a real book.  

Project Data : http://www.toyo-ito.co.jp/WWW/Project_Descript/2000-/2000-p_10/2000-p_10_en.html

Drakefell Road is a 3-bedroom, private, Victorian terraced house, which retains many of the original period features throughout the property.  

The client had the anticipation of joining the sitting and dining rooms at the front to create one generous living space for their extended family. The reconfigured space also benefited from the increased light and views out to both front and back gardens. The original features of the house are enhanced by flamboyant yet sophisticated contrast with the restored timber floorboards and the wall in rich teal colour. 

Our proposal also included the remodelling of the main bathroom. The bathroom is fitted with hand crafted tiles in turquoise and ivory colour. 

Following the completion of Phase 1 work, which focused on the Ground Floor renovation, the client wished to upgrade sleeping accommodation on the First Floor for Phase 2.

As part of the Phase 2 work, the chimney and ceilings have been reworked to introduce more light into the back room and hallway. The ceiling rose was reinstated in the bedrooms, and the original stairs were restored to revive the period character.

The colour palette was carefully chosen to provide a vibrant mood together with characteristic furniture.

The project covered the refurbishment of a Victorian terraced house, that contained a kitchen and a bathroom in the single storey extension at the back, facing the garden.  

The kitchen and bathroom windows are west and south facing respectively, which allow light to flood into both rooms. The interior has a simple, contemporary and elegant aesthetic with a functional layout, allowing for the maximum use of the available space. 

The paper blind made of triangle shape hats is inspired by Japanese Origami. Each hat is a rotated pleat around the central point of a square. The hats are connected by transparent wire and clips, which allows for easy replacement and adjustment. The combination of elements creates an intriguing three-dimensional pattern with a dynamic shadow effect.     

World Space Creaters Awards 2006

The brief was to create a shop interior proposal for a clothing retailer. The concept was to integrate three elements: shop displays, furniture and space design. 

The flat and partial mannequins, in various poses, create the patterned monogram walls. These were not just used for a display purpose, but also acted as storage shelves. The walls play an important role as a decorative element in the shop interior even when the items are not on display.  

The shop is not only a showcase for the clothes but interacts with the outside environment and audience. The longitudinal façade is covered with an opaque screen, allowing the shadow of the displays and customers to be visible from the street, like the traditional Japanese theatrical display ‘Kagee’. The front façade consisted of stripes of concrete and glass, with glass slits to provide a sneak view into the shop’s interior. 

Muji Award International Design Competition 02

A touch sensor dimming wall light. 

Simple square shapes with a vivid gloss red panel accent a contemporary bedroom interior. The storage case for a remote control is integrated within the light box, keeping them neatly in place without creating clutter.