Buckle Street Studios brings a touch of New York to London
Buckle Street Studios in east London by New York City architecture studio Grzywinski+Pons offers a blend of functions wrapped in an elegant grey brick and glass block

Nicholas Worley - Photography
Emerging New York City architecture studio Grzywinski+Pons has just completed its first ground-up new-build project across the pond – welcome to the glorious Buckle Street Studios in London’s Aldgate East neighbourhood. The practice, led by Matthew Grzywinski and Amador Pons, responded with a rigorous site-specific approach, matched with NYC style, to a brief outlining a mixed-use building that would host private and rental apartments, a co-working space, a coffee shop, meeting rooms and a concept store.
The result is set within a brand new 13-storey building, crafted in warm grey brick, glass blocks and metal exterior cladding (specifically, rusticated, nickel-finished metal panels). Within lies a warm, richly decorated interior, led by a material palette of light-coloured wood, textured plaster and lots of luxurious, tactile fabrics. The young studio designed everything, from the building shell to the interiors and even some of the bespoke furniture and fittings.
Buckle Street Studios by Grzywinski+Pons
In formulating their volumes, context was critical, the two principals explain: ‘The urban infill site is part of a dense and varied assemblage of buildings in both scale and style. Low-rise heritage structures sit directly adjacent to contemporary high-rises.
‘During the planning process, we worked alongside the municipal authorities to ensure our design fulfilled the [intended] role of architectural intermediary, both in mass and articulation. Cognisant of our responsibility to consider the larger urban context of our site, we specified materials and defined our formal language to temper the architectonic jump from the smaller historic buildings to more recent tall developments.’
The distinctive crown of the building – a nod perhaps to historical skyscrapers in the Big Apple – offers not only a visual punchline to the composition, but also crafts a luminous and warm, contemporary residential space inside, which glows and shimmers at night. An honesty in materials – what you see is what you get – continues inside, where a harder, more geometric exterior is softened by the use of timber and fabrics throughout. This environment can be glimpsed from outside, through large openings on the ground level that look through to the communal areas of the building.
‘Equal parts gallery, lounge, coffee shop, retail concept and living room, the space beckons to the street and is as welcoming as it is inscrutable. It is our hope that passers-by will feel compelled to come inside to further discern what, exactly, it is, and then feel free to get comfortable and stay a while,’ say the architects.
A mix of similarly organic materials and neutral and natural colours is found in the apartments, which are mostly located on the upper levels. This bolsters the project’s inviting overall feel; achieving this across both private and public areas is an approach that defines the design.
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
INFORMATION
gp-arch.com
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
Javier's, a new cathedral-inspired restaurant in downtown LA, offers a divine take on Mexican cuisine
At the restaurant's newest location, discovery lies around every corner – and on every plate
-
We'd happily move into this super-stylish New York architecture office
Michael K Chen’s newly expanded Midtown workspace is a calling card for his intuitive style and inclusive approach
-
The Macbeth, an icon of indie sleaze, goes from grotty to gastro
An East End legend meets Portuguese small plates in Jamie Allan’s ambitious revival of a beloved Hackney watering hole
-
15 years of Assemble, the community-driven British architecture collective
Rich in information and visuals, 'Assemble: Building Collective' is a new book celebrating the Turner Prize-winning architecture collective, its community-driven hits and its challenges
-
Meet Studio Knight Stokoe, the landscape architects guided by ‘resilience, regeneration and empathy’
Boutique and agile, Studio Knight Stokoe crafts elegant landscapes from its base in the southwest of England – including a revived brutalist garden
-
Tour this compact Kent coast jewel of a cabin with Studiomama
Jack Mama and Nina Tolstrup take us on a tour of their latest project – a small but perfectly formed Kent coast cabin in Seasalter, UK
-
Boutique London rental development celebrates European courtyard living
London 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 interventions
A 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 houses
From 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 Housestead
This 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 sensibilities
This house in Leamington Spa, by John Pardey Architects, brings together flood risk considerations, a conservation area's historic character, and contemporary sensibilities