all images courtesy of CRAB Studio

Zaha Hadid today officially opened the Arts University Bournemouth drawing studio designed by Sir Peter Cook. The drawing studio is the first purpose-built drawing studio opened in the UK for 100 years and is the well-known architect and founding member of radical collective Archigram’s first building in the country. This commission came through a recognition that the fundamental nature of drawing and the way in which it stimulates thought needed to be recognised and celebrated in a building available to all sections of the Arts University Bournemouth.

Moreover, designed by a prominent alumnus (when it was Bournemouth College of Art): Sir Peter Cook: much of whose architectural work revolves around drawing. The building is an iconic and free-standing pavilion that contains a large room, supported by a small internal service and storage territory. 

The condition of the room celebrates four aspects of light – a central theme in the tradition of looking and drawing. These are featured as follows: The large north-light: in the ‘Studio’ tradition, the rear clerestory that throws a softer light back from the rear wall,  a discrete – even softer - light that filters under the bench on the east side, a graded wash of light that comes in along the curve of the entrance porte-clochere via the glass entrance door.

The structure will be an all-steel prefabricated semi-monocoque construction, imported from the Netherlands and bolted onto the site slab, which will then be internally paneled giving a continuous white surface. The internal surfaces will be white with a grey floor.

The exterior is a simple but deliberately identifiable and curvaceous form in blue, constructed from steel. Through such simplicity, the act of drawing becomes a calm and considered activity within the lively world of a very busy and creative institution.

site plan

Project Facts

Type:  Education
Client:  Arts University Bournemouth
Location:  Poole, Dorset, UK
Primary team:  Prof. Sir Peter Cook, Gavin Robotham, Jenna Al-Ali
Consultant teams: AKT II, P3r engineers, PT projects
Status: Completed 2016

> via crab-studio.com