Coal Drops Yard A Pair of Victorian London Warehouses Find New Life as a Retail Destination

2019-03-14 14:23

London’s Coal Drops Yard has come a long way since the 1850s when, as its name suggests, it was purpose-built for receiving and storing coal delivered by rail from northern England. Having since been used for light industry, warehousing and a nightclub, the pair of Victorian viaducts had become derelict before they were abandonment in the 1990s. Fast-forward to October 2018 and Coal Drops Yard is one of the most exciting revitalization projects in the city courtesy of King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership and local architects Heatherwick Studio who have transformed the two dilapidated buildings into a contemporary retail quarter that celebrates the site’s industrial heritage through a bold architectural gesture while offering a brand new shopping and dining experience.

自19世纪50年代以来，伦敦的煤炭滴落场已经走了很长一段路，当时，顾名思义，它是为从英格兰北部通过铁路运输的煤炭而建造的。这两座维多利亚高架桥后来被用于轻工业、仓储和夜总会，在上世纪90年代被遗弃之前，它们就被遗弃了。快速推进到2018年10月和煤炭滴落场是这个城市最令人兴奋的振兴项目之一，这是由国王十字中心有限公司(King‘s Cross Central Limited Partnership)和当地建筑师希瑟威克工作室(Heatherwick Studio)提供的，他们将这两座破旧的建筑改造成一个当代零售小区，通过大胆的建筑姿态来庆祝该遗址的工业遗产，同时提供全新的购物和餐饮体验。

Photo by Luke Hayes.

卢克·海斯的照片。

Photo by Luke Hayes.

卢克·海斯的照片。

Photo by Luke Hayes.

卢克·海斯的照片。

Photo by Luke Hayes.

卢克·海斯的照片。

Despite their original humble function as storage facilities for coal, the two ornate cast-iron and brick elongated structures showcase the sombre grandeur of Victorian railway architecture so it therefore vital for the architects to preserve the site’s historic character. At the same time, the brief demanded an intervention that would connect the two buildings and draw people to the site. After trying several ideas involving adding something new, it became apparent that for any new element to work it could not be separate from the existing building fabric. As Lisa Finlay, group leader at Heatherwick Studio, explains, it was only when we started to merge the language of the old with the new, and that's when we started to have multiple ideas of things emerging from the existing forms”. And emerge they do, as the existing gabled roofs swell towards each other, gently touching above the yard in between. By stretching out the gabled roofs of the two existing buildings, the architects have ingenuously created a new upper storey that offers panoramic views of King’s Cross to the south and Cubitt Square to the north, courtesy of the full-height structural glass panels that wrap around the space in a staggered configuration. Although it looks as if the roofs effortlessly billow towards each other, the new cantilevered structure required a complex structural solution. Concealed behind aged brick and iron, 52 new steel columns were inserted into the existing buildings, shored up by concrete walls and cores in order to invisibly support the floating new storey.

尽管这两座华丽的铸铁和砖块建筑作为煤炭储存设施的功能最初很简陋，但它们展示了维多利亚时期铁路建筑的阴郁壮丽，因此建筑师们必须保留该遗址的历史特征。同时，简报要求进行干预，将这两座建筑连接起来，并吸引人们前往现场。在尝试了一些涉及添加新东西的想法之后，很明显，任何新元素的工作都不能脱离现有的建筑结构。正如Heatherwick Studio的组长莉萨·芬利(Lisa Finlay)所解释的那样，“只有当我们开始把旧的语言和新的语言融合起来时，我们才开始对现有形式的事物产生多种想法”。他们出现了，因为现有的山墙屋顶向另一边膨胀，在中间的院子上方轻轻地接触。通过伸展这两座现存建筑的门廊屋顶，建筑师们巧妙地创造了一层新的上层建筑，可以俯瞰南边的国王十字广场和北边的立体式广场，这得益于环绕空间的全高度结构玻璃面板，这些玻璃面板以交错的形式环绕着整个空间。虽然看起来屋顶似乎彼此之间毫不费力地翻滚，但新的悬臂结构需要一个复杂的结构解决方案。在已老化的砖铁后面，有52根新的钢柱插入到现有的建筑物中，由混凝土墙和核心支撑起来，以便无形地支撑浮动的新楼层。

Photo by Luke Hayes.

卢克·海斯的照片。

Photo by Hufton   Crow.

HubftonCrow的照片。

Photo by Hufton   Crow.

HubftonCrow的照片。

Photo by Hufton   Crow.

HubftonCrow的照片。

Photo by Luke Hayes.

卢克·海斯的照片。

In order to seamlessly integrate the new with the old, the roof tiles for the new roof were sourced from the same Welsh quarry as the original Victorian building for a consistent blue-grey hue. Similar attention has been given to all the materials, drawing on a palette of aged ironwork, soot-stained brick, slate, timber boards and stone setts for the cobbled yard, which reflect the rich textures of the historic site. Heatherwick Studio’s bold intervention not only increases the venue’s floor space and gives the project a central focus, it also creates a sheltered, 20 metres high public plaza where concerts or performances can be hosted. The plaza is part of a meticulously laid out circulation plan featuring entrances at both ends of the viaducts and a series of streets linked horizontally and vertically to each other by numerous bridges and stairs and. With 55 shopping units of varying sizes accommodating an eclectic range of retailers, from fledgling pop-up stores to large-scale units for established brands, and a selection of new restaurants, bars and cafes, Coal Drops Yard offers visitors an experience as distinctive as it looks.

为了将新的和旧的无缝地结合起来，新屋顶的屋顶瓷砖是从同样的威尔士采石场获得的，与维多利亚时代的建筑一样，有着一致的蓝灰色调。人们对所有材料也给予了类似的关注，这些材料都是由陈旧的铁制品、灰染砖、板岩、木板和石材组成的，这些材料反映了这座历史遗址的丰富结构。Heatherwick Studio的大胆干预不仅增加了场馆的楼面空间，并使项目成为一个中心，而且还创建了一个20米高的有遮蔽的公共广场，可以在那里举办音乐会或表演。广场是精心布置的流通计划的一部分，其特点是高架桥两端的入口和由无数桥梁和楼梯垂直连接的一系列街道。拥有55个大小不一的购物单元，为各种各样的零售商提供便利，从羽翼未丰的弹出式商店到为老牌品牌开设的大型门店，以及一些新的餐厅、酒吧和咖啡馆，“煤炭滴落场”为游客提供了一种与看上去一样独特的体验。