Architectural

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240 Blackfriars

2014

Marble benches in the reception of 240 Blackfriars, London.

Timeline

A new building in Blackfriars, London, designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Architects for which a competition was organised by SCP, Sheridan Coakley’s furniture store, to design seating for the ground-floor lobby of the building. Our proposal was to place some Carrara marble benches in a random way to give the impression of the fallen columns you find at archaeological sites in Greece, Italy, and elsewhere.

It was a long shot because I have never been good at winning competitions and because the owner, Great Portland Estates, is a major property group, and fallen columns are not usually popular in their line of business. Fortunately they overlooked this aspect and we went ahead with getting the benches made. There was a problem with the weight of them which was resolved by drilling out material from the underside and covering the holes with rubberised cork. They were beautifully made and installed by Anthony Kleinberg.
Extracted from A Book of Things by Jasper Morrison (Lars Müller Publishers, 2015)