The Poem Pavilion in Dubai

Laurence Grigorov, who is director of a leading residential property development company, keeps track of new projects and developments all around the globe. This allows Laurence Grigorov to constantly incorporate technology and advancements in structural design in developments his company is involved in.

A project which has caught the attention of Laurence Grigorov is the UK Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, which will be conceived by the award-winning artist and designer Es Devlin OBE and will highlight leading British expertise in Artificial Intelligence and Space. The project will be titled The Poem Pavilion.

Devlin is known for creating stunning large-scale performative sculptures that fuse technology, poetry, light and sound, and The Poem Pavilion features a breathtaking illuminated ‘Message to Space’ to which each of the Expo’s anticipated 25 million visitors will be invited to contribute.

Devlin says: “The idea draws directly on one of Stephen Hawking’s final projects, ‘Breakthrough Message’, a global competition that Hawking and his colleagues conceived in 2015 inviting people worldwide to consider what message we would communicate to express ourselves as a planet, should we one day encounter other advanced civilizations in Space.

She said: ‘The U.K. has an unparalleled record in Expo design: from instigating the very first Expo in 1851 to the recent breathtaking pavilions of Thomas Heatherwick, Wolfgang Buttress, Asif Kahn and Brian Eno: it’s a true honour to be invited to take part.’

It will be the first time since its inception in 1851 that the UK Pavilion has been conceived by a female designer and Devlin will be leading a predominantly female team of experts in Artificial Intelligence and Space technology.

Devlin will join forces with London and Dubai based executive architects Veretec, globally renowned Manchester-based structural engineers Atelier One, award-winning sustainability engineers Atelier Ten and international creative agency Avantgarde to deliver the complex sculptural architecture of the Pavilion which will highlight innovative and sustainable building techniques and materials.

Laurence Grigorov, a Wits University graduate, leads Laurence Martin Developments, which is a luxury residential development company based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Photo and words courtesy of www.architectmagazine.com

Poem Pavilion

Residential Development – 69 on Main, Greenpoint

Laurence Grigorov, who is director of a leading residential development company, enjoys keeping track for new developments around the country. Such developments provide an insight to Laurence Grigorov on forthcoming trends and market changes which better allow the company to adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs and requirements.

A new residential project that Laurence Grigorov has recently seen, showcases modern design and a well thought out adaptation to the natural street environment is 69 on Main in Greenpoint, Cape Town. Developed by Abacus Development Company and designed by Bam Architects, the architecture of 69 on Main in Greenpoint is the result of a thorough assessment and analyses of its context. The contextual understanding of the site provided arguments for different positive interface proposals to respond to the differing conditions of the development site.

The site has a very important place along the Main Road Greenpoint streetscape and it was therefore important to ensure continuity with the existing fabric at street level in both scale and interface layering at pedestrian level. The building establishes an active wall edge facing the urban park across the road at the scale of the park. The circulation of people on foot was considered a priority over vehicular movement so that continuity of surfaces and materiality supports the pedestrian first.

69 on Main

The building reflects the transition in grain across the site from the finer grained southern edge towards a more course grain on the northern edge and as such the development had a responsibility to be the mediation between the fine grained residential neighbourhood of Green Point running along the slope of Signal Hill, as well as ensuring continuity with the Urban Wall consisting of higher intensity development along Main Road defining the edge of the urban park of the Green Point Common.

In its response the building therefore rises from a height of three storeys on the southern side, to eleven storeys on the northern boundary. The south side of the building responds to the finer grain of single residential houses whilst the north elevation responds to a carefully established height datum along Main Road with a clearly defined base, shaft and crown. The crown acts as a pulvinar or urban balcony overlooking the Green Point common. Buildings further up Signal Hill look down on the development and the design responded by treating the roofscape as a fifth elevation. Roofs are therefore occupied, textured and landscaped as far as possible.

The design utilises a rich pallet of modern materials and textures doing justice to its up-market location. The interior design concept was developed by BONE Design Studio and is based around creating a bespoke ’luxury living’ experience. Through the use of honest materials such as natural timbers, honed composite stones and a neutral palette of large format Italian tiles, every apartment exudes its own timeless sophistication.

Words and image courtesy of Architect & Builder magazine