Five of our finest.

The Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Exhibition has returned for 2021, with Sir David Adjaye RA curating this year’s Architecture Room, in the theme of ‘climate and geography’. AKT II has helped to design five of the exhibited projects.

‘Block, House, Commons’, which is designed by Studio Sean Canty, is a speculative proposal that responds to the brutality that was faced by the controversial black liberation group MOVE. The model retools the urban elements of ‘block’, ‘house’ and ‘commons’ in a holistic strategy, with integrated climate mitigation, throughout the architecture and landscape.

Belgrove House – a new mixed-use science-research facility – is meanwhile set to become the first UK site for the US-based pharmaceutical enterprise MSD Discovery Research Centre, as an expansion of London’s emerging Knowledge Quarter. The building’s first three floors are interchangeable between office or laboratory space, while the upper levels provide open-plan workspace. AHMM is leading the design, for client Precis Advisory. The project also aims for BREEAM Outstanding.

For 100 Liverpool Street, AKT II has been working with Hopkins Architects. The photos at the RA show the redeveloped buildings’ curving facades. The project dramatically expands the existing 1980s office buildings to deliver a modern, flexible commercial programme. The scheme delivers +40% leasable area while assimilating 50% of the superstructures, and re-using 100% of the foundations without modification.

The new Marshgate building at the upcoming UCL East campus, at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, will accommodate 4,000 students and 260 academic staff. It’s designed by Stanton Williams Architects, and delivers several levels of multi-layered spaces while integrating into the locale of the Olympic legacy park.

And finally, AKT II has been working with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and with the Bangladeshi practice Shatotto Architecture to deliver the new Aga Khan Academy – a residential school campus – in the capital city of Dhaka. The design follows a ‘classical’ masterplan layout that draws inspiration from the region’s traditional Buddhist universities.

All of these projects are on show now, until the 2nd January 2022, as part of the Royal Academy of Arts’ belated 2021 Summer Exhibition.

Five of our finest.

Royal Academy 2021 Summer Exhibition.