Crown jewel: One Crown Place hosts a distilled collection of Wallpaper* Handmade projects
Joining the ranks of Mayfair, Shibuya and Tribeca, Shoreditch is fast becoming one of the world’s most sought-after addresses. Rubber-stamping the east London district’s cultural journey from Victorian slum land to 21st-century luxury destination is One Crown Place, an ambitious £500m development. Fittingly for the culturally minded concept, it currently hosts a distilled collection of Wallpaper* Handmade projects.
Intent on creating a London landmark, the project’s Malaysian developer, AlloyMtd, commissioned international firm Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), whose portfolio features some of the world’s most spectacular modern buildings, including the Heron Tower in London, the Shanghai World Financial Centre, and One Vanderbilt, the second tallest skyscraper in New York. KPF’s task was to design two residential towers comprising 246 private apartments (with interiors designed by Bowler James Brindley and Studio Ashby) located above a podium office space to meet the requirements of modern day occupiers who want to live and work in the same area.
A shared kitchen in the residents' amenity space
Alongside the twin skyscrapers, a sensitively restored 22,000 sq ft row of Georgian houses will be home to a residents’ clubhouse and a boutique hotel. Reflecting the tones of the Georgian buildings’ brickwork, One Crown Place’s towers will be clad in terracotta. ‘This project means a very great deal to me,’ says John Bushell, principal at KPF. ‘We are a modernist firm and embrace modern architecture, but we feel buildings should have soul, character, humanity and a rich spatial experience. Our vision for One Crown Place was to respect its context, using the buildings and materials of the past, and evolve this into an innovative design that will transform the area.’
Living room and kitchen view in a dual aspect apartment.
Reflecting the project’s cultural commitment, the development’s marketing suite is currently playing host to a boutique edition of Wallpaper* Handmade. Featuring a specially curated, distilled collection of items selected from our annual salute to creativity, craftsmanship and collaboration at Salone del Mobile in Milan, Wallpaper* Handmade at One Crown Place will include contributions from the likes of Christophe Delcourt, Agresti, Kristina Dam and Gaia & Gino.
The collection of pieces, exhibited in pairs and showcased over 12 months during 2017, is now open for viewing. Investors, entrepreneurs, high-minded homemakers, international hipsters and local cutesters, you’re all welcome. This is Shoreditch, after all…
As originally featured in the March 2017 issue of Wallpaper* (W*216)
The Wallpaper* Handmade exhibitio includes past projects, such as the ’Jolie Jolly’ chair, by Thierry Dreyfus and Yota Design.
‘Rock Garden’ soap, by Pelle and ER Butler & Co.
’Host’ luggage rack, by Apparatus and Alma.
’Table Jewel’ candy bowls, by Cora Sheibani and Hamilton & Inches.
INFORMATION
One Crown Place is a development by AlloyMtd Group, with CBRE acting as development manager and sales broker for the residential and commercial units. For more information, visit the One Crown Place website, or call CBRE on 44.20 7205 2697
ADDRESS
54 Wilson Street
London EC2A 2ER
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
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).
-
Nela is London's new stage for open-fire gastronomyA beloved Amsterdam import brings live-fire elegance to The Whiteley’s grand revival
-
How we host: with Our Place founder, Shiza ShahidWelcome, come on in, and take a seat at Wallpaper*s new series 'How we host' where we dissect the art of entertaining. Here, we speak to Our Place founder Shiza Shahid on what makes the perfect dinner party, from sourcing food in to perfecting the guest list, and yes, Michelle Obama is invited
-
Matteo Thun carves a masterful thermal retreat into the Canadian RockiesBasin Glacial Waters, a project two decades in the making, finally surfaces at Lake Louise, blurring the boundaries between architecture and terrain
-
The Architecture Edit: Wallpaper’s houses of the monthFrom Malibu beach pads to cosy cabins blanketed in snow, Wallpaper* has featured some incredible homes this month. We profile our favourites below
-
Meet Forefront, a cultural platform redefining the relationship between art and architectureForefront co-founder Dicle Guntas, managing director of developer HGG, tells us about the exciting new initiative and its debut exhibition, a show of lumino-kinetic sculptures in London
-
Corten curves and contemporary flair transform this terraced house in LondonCagni Williams Associates’ sensitive refurbishment of a south London Edwardian house features a striking and sustainable Corten steel extension
-
You may know it as ‘Dirty House’ – now, The Rogue Room brings 21st-century wellness to ShoreditchThe Rogue Room – set in the building formerly known as Dirty House by Sir David Adjaye, now reinvented by Studioshaw – bridges wellness and culture in London's Shoreditch
-
The architectural innovation hidden in plain sight at Frieze London 2025The 2025 Frieze entrance pavilions launch this week alongside the art fair, showcasing a brand-new, modular building system set to shake up the architecture of large-scale events
-
RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 winner is ‘a radical reimagining of later living’Appleby Blue Almshouse wins the RIBA Stirling Prize 2025, crowning the social housing complex for over-65s by Witherford Watson Mann Architects, the best building of the year
-
‘Belonging’ – the LFA 2026 theme is revealed, exploring how places can become personalThe idea of belonging and what it means in today’s world will be central at the London Festival of Architecture’s explorations, as the event’s 2026 theme has been announced today
-
Join us on a first look inside Regent’s View, the revamped canalside gasholder project in LondonRegent's View, the RSHP-designed development for St William, situated on a former gasholder site on a canal in east London, has just completed its first phase