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North Kensington Library & Youth Centre

Royal Borough Kensington & Chelsea

The new North Kensington Library and Youth Centre combines library, youth centre, multi-use games area and third-party use.

North Kensington Library & Youth Centre
Royal Borough Kensington & Chelsea

The new North Kensington Library and Youth Centre will combine library, youth centre, multi-use games area and third-party use. The library is zoned around three spaces: a grand double height space for reading and study; an informal reading area; and a children’s library.

Piercy&Company have distilled an architectural language that is well-crafted and contemporary, yet also sensitive to the local area and neighbouring Ladbroke Conservation Area. The external brick skin has a noble civic quality that responds to the local context and will age gracefully. A regular facade grid adds articulation and richness to the massing. A ground floor ‘plinth’, distinct from the regular grid, gives a human scale to the entrance. The public facing massing has been ‘crumbled’ into three blocks, breaking the scale down and echoing the massing of the neighbouring buildings.

Details

Client:
Royal Borough Kensington & Chelsea
Location:
Ladbroke Grove
Type:
Cultural
Gross Floor Area:
42,450 sqft
Stage:
RIBA Stage 3

Project Team

  • Mace, Contractor Client
  • Taylor Whalley Spryra, Structural Engineer
  • Hurley Palmer Flatt, Services Engineer
  • The Fire Surgery, Fire Engineer
  • Clarke Saunders Associates, Acoustician
  • RPS Group plc, Ecologist
  • TTP Consulting, Transport Consultant
  • Pegasus Group, Planning Consultant

Credits

  • Studio Archetype, Digital Imagery
  • Jack Hobhouse, Model Photography