Rivington Place – David Adjaye

Situated quite modestly within the back streets of Shoreditch art district north of
London City, Rivington Place serves a striking presence alongside its traditional
yellow – brick neighbours. Its contempory façade along with its muted shades of
black and grey and unregulated windows offers something quite refreshing to what
seems an older neglected street. However it is not only the aesthetics which serve to
make a mark, the small public arts center designed by Ghanaian born David Adjaye
holds a strong civic presence. As with much of his work Adjaye has continued his
premise that a civil concord must exist between users and for the exercise of
difference rather than social conformity. Hence Rivington Place promotes work of
artists from all over the world and brings them into the British mainstream which in
this day and age is a central part of the former Empire’s Life.

Being described as what could be the new “Town Hall” in the Dec 08 Deutsche
Bauzeitung its presence is more than an exhibition space, it serves as a platform for
multi-culturalism. It celebrates the current fabric of the city in which it sits.
Shoreditch combines many cultures and activities in a collection of industrial
buildings which have become colonised by a variety of cultural organisations and
small businesses. From railroad overpasses, office blocks and mews to the strong
ethnicity of Brick Lane and Old Street, Rivington Street poetically becomes a
seemingly logical site for such an important building.

The eight million - pound Rivington Place building was designed to accommodate the
requirements of two organisations: Autograph ABP and The Institute for International
Visual Arts founded in 1988 and 1994 respectively. Both had similar objectives which
were to extend the geographical boundaries of visual art and cultural diaspora and
introduce them to new audiences. Adjaye’s design has been conceived by the
Maverick Social critic Stuart Hall who has played a formative role in relation to both
Autograph and inIVA.

David Adjaye first came into the public domain with the design of a number of
remarkable London Houses completed in 2005 of which Elektra House and Dirty
House are among the most famous. Being a Ghanaian, Tanzanian – born, London
based architects his influences range from African art and architecture to
contemporary art and music.1 It is hardly surprising therefore that his buildings offer a
sense of unique inspiration and hold strong cultural ties with his upbringing. Whether
it be textile from Ghana, a neck rest in South Africa, and a straw thread mat in
Rwanda, Adjayes design bring a much needed cultural injection into the mainstream
of British culture today.

Despite his early African upbringing Adjaye’s architectural education was firmly a
British one. He studied at the Architectural Association and Cornell University.
However despite early work with Chipperfield it is clear that he is definitely not in the
British tradition of obsessing over finer detailing and engineering. What is clear
especially of that in Rivington Place is his obsession with striking juxtaposition. With
his expanding portfolio now firmly in the phase of designing public buildings he has

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Making Public Buildings Specifity Customization Imbrication David Ajaye
the ability to shock, surprise and create truly multi-cultural buildings that celebrate
diversity.

Unlike Rivington Place the former housing projects were disconnected to the tough
urban streetscape and Adjaye responded to unpromising sites by building fearsome
barrier walls. A somewhat melodramatic response some may say, but what resulted
were controversial, inventive and occasionally brilliant houses. However following
his earlier innovative domestic projects he has since turned his attention to the
community of the site and has designed a number of key buildings that are thoughtful
and meticulous but most importantly for the people.

His earliest success in the public domain was with the successful competition entry
for two Idea Stores in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 2001. The timing of
the commission was fortunate due to the political renewal that came in the early years
of the New Labour Government. It was a pivotal point that heightened awareness that
cultural diversity required practical support due to its contribution to the economy of
the country and included raising recognition to the people who were concerned.
Following such a radical change a number of organisations had developed at this time
two of which were the ABP and in IVA as mentioned before helped to fund similar
projects of which included Rivington Place

Rivington Place is an arts center that combines a public gallery and café with a library
and offices for two organizations that were the brainchild of Stuart Hall and funded by
two of the organisations he established. It can be seen as part of the second phase of
Adjaye’s career which boasts his portfolio for designing public buildings. Although
relatively modest in size, at five floors it is still taller than its neighbouring
counterparts and sets itself further apart from them by being set back from the
boundary of the street line. Typical of much of Adjaye’s buildings, the concept of
regulation - fundamental to how the building is read is owed to a Sowei mask from
Sierra Leone in which a repeated unit changes size to match the geometry of the
surface.2 As a result of the building indeed is not regular but not in the ways one may
expect. Above all the building surprises at varying angles and perspectives. The whole
thing is designed to mislead. It looks like the eight-storey behemoth he actually
wanted to design - but shrunken down, like a toy office.3

Unlike Adjaye’s earlier Housing projects that kept out the threatening street, for
Rivington Place the opposite is true. The street front has been completely obliterated;
instead the full height glazing allows the street to flow through into the gallery space,
except realistically this is not the case. The actual entrance is to the side of the
building down a narrow alley with its only announcement being a pivoting sign.
Perhaps unintentionally so but it is reminiscent of much of the hip London hangouts
where visitors are enticed down tight alleys heightening the anticipation and suspense
as they approach the entrance. Again the modesty of the entrance further emphasises
Adjaye’s keen interest in the experience as much as the functionalism of architecture.

The building in its entirety is there to stand out with an all empowering message that
may or may not have been intentional by Adjaye. First and foremost it is black. The
black colour of the precast concrete panels alternating with large planes of glass in
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flush steel frames makes its distinction from the surrounding buildings astoundingly
clear. This could be coincidence or perhaps more poetically it stands to make a point
that colour and culture has a firm existence within the existing fabric of many of our
cities. The latter gives rise to Adjaye’s own transnational background and to the
ideology that black is more than just a colour of the render.

What is most surprising is the undenying beauty of the building when up close; even
more surprising is the use of cheap construction site materials contribute to this effect.
Whether with oriented strand board, ply or painted concrete, Adjaye is a master at
creating an impact with his choice of cheap materials, many of Adjaye’s public
buildings confirm his position in this area. At the Whitechapel Idea Store he revelled
in the creation of a basic and robust piece of commercial architecture. He took
inspiration from the cheapest materials available. In the case of Rivington Place,
Adjaye talked of a theatre set, of false perspectives and playing with scale.4 Yet what
has resulted is a small yet perfectly formed object with a number of unique and
innovative features that are synonymous of Adjaye style.

With its saw-tooth roof, varying depths of window reveals and its play with
perspectives, Rivington Place is certainly far more complex than what meets the eye.
From a distance the building appears much taller than its five floors may suggest. The
pattern of windows along the short façade of the building are flush with the concrete
panels, which exaggerates the vertical perspective. In contrast the windows along the
long façade contradict the horizontal façade in that they are deeply inset into the
external concrete panels making the building appear a lot shorter. It is clear that
Adjaye is making a monumental statement with his play with scale, skin and
structure. The illusion is further heightened in that the windows decrease in size as the
eye transcends up towards the saw toothed rooftop. The closer you get to the large
floor to ceiling glazing of the ground floor the more it entices you into observing the
exhibition on display in the main gallery space.

As you turn the corner heading towards the entrance you are greeted to a façade that is
flat against the ground and appears to be uniform however this is not the case with the
windows above. The effect is clearly not a regular one. It takes a while to adjust your
eyes to the varying scale and size from large to small, thick to thin, flush to inset,
Adjaye continues with the play on perception by the placement of the occasional
black painted metal panel flush with the concrete panels. Furthermore to dispel any
cases of certainty the building cantilevers over the external service yard. All these
considered features have one main objection to make the building appear bigger and
heavier towards the back creating the illusion to the untrained eye that the building
transcends further than its modest site allows.

The saw toothed sky lights are reminiscent of the surrounding industrial vernacular
but are viewed only as disassociated fragments. The building as a whole is ambiguous
in the messages it conveys. The external structure, including windows and their
varying positions within it tell us nothing about the true character of the building and
of the internal conditions. The unusual window positions means that the internal
views are even more fragmented and one begin to question how function internally
fits with structure and form. The effect of this hybrid system means the internal
spaces vary in different parts of the building. It becomes quite unpredictable when and
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where you may find windows often some spaces have more than one series of
windows which can be found two different levels. In these instances there are two
offering views; the higher ones to the sky and the lower ones to the neighbouring
buildings. There is no doubt that all these features are a witty attempt at showcasing
the building as an arts center thus creating an artful collage of the surrounding area.

What immediately strikes one on approach to the entrance is the beautifully concrete
rendered foyer and reception area which appears to look somewhat Trans Atlantic
rather than something situated in the heart of the East – End. What further surprises is
the exposure of a concrete beam that support the 1,300 hundred square meters of
building volume behind the flawless façade. Furthermore on entering the space is the
juxtaposition of the traditional wooden bar and café area that sits to one side of the
ground floor with the contrastingly slick and classic white cubness of the main gallery
space to the other. The choice of finishes in the gallery space and foyer spaces seems
perfect in light of the current exhibition being presented at the time of my
visit……..The muted colour pallet a contrasting backdrop for the plethora of rainbow
coloured spider webs that fill the exhibion space, truly a magical display. As one
transcends up the solid concrete stair comparisons begin to be drawn between the
linear circulation reminiscent of The Chrisp Street Idea Store, the stack of floors with
vertical circulation can also be seen in Denver building . However Rivington Place is
unique in the messages it portrays, it is a building full of ambiguity and does not offer
a simplistic reading, the internal spaces too play architectural games although few as
complex as those presented by the façade.

The first is the atrium space which holds the core circulation spanning over 3 floors of
public space. This connects the public to the library, education space and project
space situated on the floors above. As one transcends up the atrium the pattern of the
external windows are continued on in the internal atrium with recessed light boxes
that stretch the full length of the atrium space. This pattern is further extended into the
public library where the concrete panels turn into plywood lined boxes. It is an
unpretentious space, which is clear to see the effect of the external façade. The
varying levels of windows offer external views of contrasting degrees and the study
tables are appropriately placed within the various openings and niches so that the user
can take full advantage of this. It is here that of all the spaces in the center is the
closest to what was intended by Adjaye and has succeeded in its attempts to remove
the building and its spaces from the everyday reality of the street and surrounding site
and thrust them into a reformed and ambiguous one. This subverted reality is anti-
logical and nods to its artistic roots.

All spaces are column free, the southern section of the building has a clear span of
11.4 supported on concrete floors

The rest of the gallery spaces which include the project space is fairly predictable and
simply promotes a good area for displaying art. There is a consistent sense in the
upper floors of the interiors being servile to the façade.5 It does not offer answers as
one may expect or want it to do. It does not change the way we perceive art. As I am
escorted to the upper floors of private offices I am somewhat disappointed with the
internal effect of the interesting roof aspect I viewed from ground level. The saw-
tooth effect turns out to be a purely sculptural profile; the sloping sections are
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punctured with basic Velux-type openings and much of the arrangement of the offices
are far less dramatic or imaginative than what one may expect. Perhaps this is the
fault of the building organiser in arranging the offices in a way that is unsympathetic
to the intended design. For instance some of the lower windows that offer views of the
street are blocked with the uncompromising arrangement of furniture or the odd filing
cabinet and fail to appreciate what Adjaye was trying to achieve. Alternatively one
could also argue that Adjaye was unrealistic in this type of abstraction and should
have put programme and function at the forefront when making such decisions.
However despite this the building proves to be a good gallery overall, Adjaye has
much experience of art to make sure that this has been achieved. It is a beautifully cut
black suit that makes an average black suit look good.6

Despite not having all the answers Rivington Place is undoubtedly a building that
fulfils the brief and gives back so much more. It does not only reinvigorate the site in
which it inhabits, it owns it. It not only creates public space, it is public space and its
clear use of materiality enable the boundaries between building and street to become
blurred leading the visitor into the space without even setting foot into it. A witty play
of varying perspectives juggles with elevations. It is certainly a building that demands
attention and rightly so especially with the civic message it withholds. The building is
transformative and can be read in a number of ways. Its reading alternates with the
rise and fall of the sun from solid block or woven surface. It is a one of a number of
buildings Adjaye has completed around a series of black culture along with the
Stephen Lawrence Center and the Bernie Grant Theatre. The typology of these
buildings hold a strong ethical message. All reflect the changing face of British
culture but with a type of sensitivity that is not forceful or didactic in their approach
but clear enough to be recognised and understood.

In many ways parallels can be drawn between the building and Adjaye himself,
whether this is conscious or not. From the literal colouring of the skin of the building
to the scale and proportions of the interior spaces, it has a likeness to Adjayes modest
position within his field. It is a monumental building but not one of the traditional
sense. Adjaye has taken the reality of what is to be expected from a building of such
scale and stature and has subverted it on its head. Perhaps owed to his own
transnational background, Adjaye has an ability to engage with the varying nature of
our cities and embrace them, designing public spaces that are for the people. Adjaye
does not usually give explanations of his work directly, yet the understanding is
usually in the careful reading of the buildings themselves and through the exhibitions
or interviews for which he is responsible.