London architects Tate Harmer have pulled off an ingenious feat: fitting a 12-tonne staircase through a 1.4m-wide doorway. The freestanding staircase takes visitors down to the Brunel Museum in East London's Rotherhithe and into a 50ft-deep shaft or chamber, which opens this week as an unconventional performance space.
The Grade II* listed shaft was built by engineering father-son partnership Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It opened in 1843 and leads to the world's first underwater tunnel, making it 'the birthplace of the mass urban transport', says museum director Robert Hulse. Now, just 5m below the chamber's floor, London Overground trains regularly rumble by.
The staircase is supported by three columns and has a viewing platform at ground level, as well as two mini landings where it changes direction. Its 1,000 components, including the bright red handrail and the oak treads, were transported by crane through a new doorway at ground level, and assembled in the shaft.
The architects – who created TREExOFFICE, a pop-up workspace wrapped around a tree trunk for last year's London Design Festival – powder-coated the steel structure in black. This was in reference to the steam trains that once used the tunnel, and to help it blend in with the chamber's 1.5m-thick solid brick walls.
After some debate, Harmer and his team decided to leave the walls as they were, rather than smarten them up or try to return them to their earlier condition. 'The power of the space comes from the patina on the walls,' says Tate Harmer partner Jerry Tate. This patina includes the outline of a former staircase snaking up the brick, the soot, the peeling paint and the myriad dangling cobwebs. Industrial chic is an understatement.
The events programme kicks off tomorrow (16 April) with a concert performed on a grand piano with backing from a string quartet.
The museum is located within Brunel’s Thames Tunnel Engine House, which is itself a nationally important ’Scheduled Monument’.
The Tate Harmer project includes the introduction of a new Grand Entrance Hall.
A key feature in the new design is a striking metal staircase leading visitors through the museum’s listed surrounds.
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Tate Harmer Architects website
ADDRESS
Brunel Museum
Railway Avenue
London, SE16 4LF
-
Orlando Museum of Art wants to showcase more Latin American and Hispanic artists. Do you fit the bill?The Florida gallery calls for for Hispanic and Latin American artists to submit their work for an ongoing exhibition
-
This spa in the Riviera Maya stays open until midnight. Here’s what happens after darkRosewood Mayakoba’s Akbal Series proposes a new kind of night out
-
Two new villas extend Christian Louboutin’s exuberant Portuguese hotelA pink, kasbah-inspired residence and a whitewashed boathouse join the French shoe designer’s Vermelho Hotel in Melides, Alentejo
-
Boutique London rental development celebrates European courtyard livingLondon design and development studio Wendover unveils its newest residential project, 20 Newcourt Street, comprising nine apartments; we toured with co-founder Gabriel Chipperfield
-
A refreshed Fulham house balances its history with a series of 21st-century interventionsA Fulham house project by Bureau de Change creates a 21st-century domestic haven through a series of contemporary interventions and a deep connection to the property's historical fabric
-
The Monthly Architecture Edit: Wallpaper’s favourite July housesFrom geometric Japanese cottages to restored modernist masterpieces, these are the best residential projects to have crossed the architecture desk this month
-
Visiting an experimental UK home: welcome to HousesteadThis experimental UK home, Housestead by Sanei + Hopkins, brings together architectural explorations and daily life in these architects’ own home
-
A house in Leamington Spa is a domestic oasis infused with contemporary sensibilitiesThis house in Leamington Spa, by John Pardey Architects, brings together flood risk considerations, a conservation area's historic character, and contemporary sensibilities
-
A garden explaining carbon capture in nature? Head to Kew in LondonKew unveils 'Carbon Garden', a new offering at London's Royal Botanic Gardens that's all about carbon capture within nature; and how plants and soil can be leveraged to help us battle climate change
-
An old war barracks is transformed into a charming Dorset Beach HouseNestled in its coastal setting, a redesigned barracks home in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty becomes a contemporary Dorset beach house by Architecture for London
-
Studio Bark has transformed a Victorian villa into an eco-friendly family homeA Victorian villa in the South of England has been overhauled with new low-energy systems and a self-build addition to create a home fit for the future
