Cobham Mews Studios

Cobham Mews Studios

A pair of studio offices built between 1987 and 1989, designed by David Chipperfield Architects with David Chipperfield as partner in charge and Michael Cullinan as project architect.

The building is constructed of rendered and painted concrete blockwork with a steel frame and glass brick infill, complemented by in-situ concrete. Windows are steel-framed, with the principal entrance doors in timber. The exposed structural steelwork comprises rolled, open web beams.

The building is tightly fitted into an irregular, roughly triangular plot, following the site boundary except to the south-east, where it steps back to create a forecourt in front of the only public-facing elevation. This forecourt is accessed from the east via a cobbled drive or mews, which connects to Agar Grove to the south.

The plan is organised around a mirrored pair of two-storey studios at the centre, each with a stair running front to back against the dividing spine wall. To the south-west is a single-storey wedge-shaped range filling the acute angle of the site, and to the north-east is a small two-storey block that projects forward and fills the stepped outline of the north-east boundary. The roof is flat, punctuated by circular skylights and strips of glazed roof.

The architectural language unmistakably references the pre-war Modern Movement. The south-east elevation reads in three distinct parts with a strong rectilinear character. At the centre, the pair of studios presents a symmetrical composition comprising a recessed entrance bay flanked by bays with steel-framed elevations. The framework is infilled with glass bricks, interrupted by a band of clear glazing on the ground floor, a reference to Pierre Chareau's Maison de Verre in Paris (1928-1932). The flanges of the open web steels form a grid motif at the intersections, a detail influentially used by Craig Ellwood at the Rosen House, California (1961). At the eaves, a steel member runs the full width, supporting a lighting gantry with bell-shaped spotlights over the entrance bay. The entrance bay is split vertically by a slender concrete pier marking the building's spine wall, which bisects the concrete lintel over the wide, storey-height timber plank doors below. The first floor is blank apart from a small pierced square window to each studio. In front of the studios is a triangular gravel forecourt.

Set back to the left is the single-storey range tucked into the site corner. Its visible elevation comprises principally a deep band of steel-framed glazing overlooking a small, raised courtyard.

Projecting forward to the right, addressing the cobbled mews surface, is the two-storey block. It reads as a discrete unit with its left-hand flank wall overshooting its front elevation and screening it from the studios. The ground floor is fully glazed with a door to the left. The first-floor elevation steps in at the corner to form a small balcony. A window and glazed balcony door wrap the corner, and the screen is pierced with a window-like opening.

The interiors are largely open plan, characterised by a simple material palette, precise understated detailing, and natural daylight. External walls are of painted concrete block, in-situ concrete, or glass brick.

Each studio is entered into a double-height space running front to back, enclosed on one side by the dividing spine wall and open on the other to the studio floors. The spine wall is of exposed in-situ concrete, with the marks of large rectangular shuttering panels and their fixings expressed in the surface finish. Against the wall is an open-string concrete stair, beneath which a shadow gap separates the zigzag stair edge from the plastered, white-painted finish below. The handrail and balusters are of flat steel bar, the latter tied with a steel rod mid-rail. The space is lit from above by glazed roof, and the flooring is terrazzo tile.

The first floor is treated as a mezzanine, reached via a short steel bridge across the double-height void at the top of the stair. The floor plate is cut back from the front elevation, allowing diffuse light from the glass bricks to transmit between floors.

The ground floor is laid in dark, oiled hardwood. To the rear, a strip of glazed roof lights the space from above.

The left-hand studio expands into the single-storey range through a wide opening, with flooring continuing uninterrupted. Light is brought in by the glazed south-east elevation, the continuation of the glazed strip roof along the back wall, and two large circular skylights in the centre of the plan. Artificial lighting is suspended from a track sunk flush with the ceiling and used throughout the building's interiors. The flat roof is supported by four round steel columns. At the far end, the floor is slightly raised, covered in terrazzo tile, and looks out through full-height glazing onto a very small, raised courtyard at the site's tip.

The right-hand studio opens into the small two-storey block, which provides a single room on each floor and a stair serving as the fire escape from this side of the site.