There is yet another reason to walk up the seven flights of stairs of a defunct car park in Peckham. The latest architectural commission by its highly-acclaimed resident cultural body is revealed. This time, Bold Tendencies has tasked young practice Cooke Fawcett Architects with creating a big viewing platform and kiosk up one end of the top, open-air floor of the car park.
Called the Peckham Observatory, the 3.5m-wide platform of hardwood timber decking attached to a locally-made steel structure is accessed by steps and a bleacher seating system.
At 3.5m above the car park, visitors have increased views on to sunsets over central London and on to Bold Tendencies’ other al fresco delights: Practice Architecture’s crowd-pleasing Frank’s Café, the Derek Jarman corner garden, and installations by artists including Isaac Olvera and Richard Wentworth.
The rooftop carpark is an attraction for Londoners
As well as adding aesthetically to a quieter end of the site, the platform has a functional role to play. It shelters concert-goers when they collect their tickets from the kiosk, positioned beneath it. The architects Oliver Cooke and Francis Fawcett have painted this simple, timber-framed box dark blue, to complement the green paint of the steelwork. This palette in turn contrasts with artist Simon Whybray’s nearby pink staircases – another Bold Tendencies commission.
Fawcett and Cooke founded their eponymous London firm in 2015, having worked together at Stirling Prize-winning outfit Herzog & de Meuron. This Bold Tendencies commission follows their acoustic Concert Wall for The Multi-Story Orchestra, which has a summer-long residency on a lower level of the car park.
This is the 11th year that Bold Tendencies’ Hannah Barry has amassed site-specific cultural events here. She is now considering commissioning an architecture piece for the car park’s lower levels, to make more of those areas. ‘We are interested in the ways people gather together,’ she says.
The observatory is located on the roof of a multi-storey car park in Peckham, London. Photography: Peter Landers
Cooke Fawcett Architects also designed a concert wall for an orchestra to play in front of. Photography: Peter Landers
The concert wall is located within the multi-storey car park. Photography: Peter Landers
Frank’s Café is designed by Practice Architecture. Photography: Richard Bryant
The red canopy of Frank’s, which opens in London during the summer months. Photography: Richard Bryant
Architectural details of Practice Architecture’s Frank’s pavilion and structure. Photography: Richard Bryant
The warm interiors of Practice Architecture's Straw Auditorium where performances and events take place. Photography: Damian Griffiths
The exterior of the Straw Auditorium, built on the eighth floor of the multi-storey carpark. Photography: Damian Griffiths
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Bold Tendencies website and the Cooke Fawcett Architects website
ADDRESS
Bold Tendencies
95a Rye Lane
London SE15 4TG
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekIt's been a busy start to the year for the Wallpaper* team. Heres their pick of the week across fashion, food and film
-
Rooms with a view: a new book celebrates the Italian approach to interior designLaura May Todd's survey of Italian interiors is the perfect antidote to January gloom, taking a look inside 50 distinctive Italian homes
-
CES 2025: best audio launches from Las VegasThe news from CES was that good things come in small packages, at least when it comes to contemporary audio devices
-
Fire-damaged Walworth Town Hall shows off majestic transformationWalworth Town Hall gets a much-needed reimagining by Feix & Merlin, who transformed the heritage building into a contemporary workspace and a hub of its local community in south London
-
Hanif Kara on building materials, the transition from old to new, and a healthy dose of realismHanif Kara, co-founder of structural engineering practice AKT II, discusses building materials and the future of sustainability
-
Year in review: the top 12 houses of 2024, picked by architecture director Ellie StathakiThe top 12 houses of 2024 comprise our finest and most read residential posts of the year, compiled by Wallpaper* architecture & environment director Ellie Stathaki
-
A brutalist garden revived: the case of the Mountbatten House grounds by Studio Knight StokoeTour a brutalist garden redesign by Studio Knight Stokoe at Mountbatten House, a revived classic in Basingstoke, UK
-
An eco-conscious reconfiguration of space revives a London homeAn eco-conscious reimagining of a Victorian terraced home for a growing London family, THISS Studio’s Hartley House offers sustainable, spacious living
-
Gingerbread City: architects sculpt London out of the season's favourite treatUntil December 29 in Chelsea, see London brought to life in a seasonal-appropriate medium by leading architects and designers
-
This listed house in London is transformed through a contemporary celebration of the archSegmental House, a listed house transformation by Dominic McKenzie Architects, taps into the playful powers of the contemporary arch
-
Ebb and flow: Tidal House is a harmonious retreat on the Solway CoastTidal House by Brown & Brown Architects redefines coastal living with a design that balances privacy, openness, and harmony with nature
