Year in review: Top projects of 2022.
Ekho Studio
This year, we've been inundated with projects across the hospitality, workplace, residential, healthcare, retail, public and education sectors.
These span restaurants, cafes, co-working spaces, luxury apartments, university campuses, and everything in between.
As we bid farewell to 2022, we take a last look at the builds and interior fit-outs you were most enamoured with this past 12-months.
New Century: Atul Bansal & Jon Humphreys on transforming an iconic venue into a unique community destination.
New Century burst into our consciousness with a bang. When scrolling through LinkedIn or Instagram, you've more than likely spotted the iconic 1960s' colour-changing ceiling. Perhaps you've seen the geometric mirrors on the walls. Or maybe the intricate, perfectly intact murals. Whichever element of this eye-wateringly-beautiful project you've clapped eyes on, you've been yet to know the full story so far. Until now.
New Century
TP Bennett’s BREEAM Outstanding 11 & 12 Wellington Place first outside of London to be accredited NABERS five-star design stage rating.
Global design practice TP Bennett is one of the frontrunners in flying the flag for sustainability.
The latest project by its northern team for MEPC, 11 & 12 Wellington Place, has received BREEAM Outstanding design stage certification and is the first development outside of London to be accredited a NABERS design stage five-star rating.
Here, architect, Jason Turner, and director, Andrew Leaver, talk us through how they developed and delivered such a trailblazing project.
tp bennett
Pollen Bakery, Kampus x NoChintz: Patisserie processes, heritage features & celebrating new beginnings.
Inspired by the passion, quality and integrity which Pollen puts into each and every product, NoChintz designed an interior scheme for the popular bakery's second site with a focus on materiality, refinement and process.
Expanding to a second location in Manchester, Pollen’s Kampus site is home to the patisserie and large cafe area which flows out into the Kampus public gardens. Raw unrefined materials, repetition, layered materials, grained texture, clean industrial lines, linens, wholemeal tones and darker ‘caramelised crust’ accents pay homage to the baking process.
Here, Katie Lea, Design Director at NoChintz gives us an insight into how this sweet scheme was cooked up.
NoChintz
Jasper Sanders + Partners x Manchester International Office Centre: Restoring a hidden gem.
When approached to renovate the interiors of Manchester International Office Centre - a RIBA award-winning project built by Cruikshank & Seward in 1954 - the advice from Dr Richard Brook, Professor of Architecture & Urbanism at MMU (and world authority on Cruikshank & Seward) to Jasper Sanders + Partners was: don't mess it up.
Spurred on by the challenge ahead, Jasper and the team got stuck into researching the origins of the "epic building", starting with an article featured in a 1950s' black and white copy of The Architectural Review. "Interestingly, although the magazine was printed in black and white, the photograph captions gave us some fantastic insight into the colours and materials used in the original build", begins Jasper. "Exposed concrete, marmoleum, cork, leather, walnut, moulded panels and sky blue accents were all mentioned in the piece, and this gave us a great starting point for our design. We were very keen not to make it a 1950's pastiche, but to elevate the space into a destination equal to the workspaces in the city centre."
Jasper Sanders / Credit: Gunner Gu
Ekho Studio brings its vision of the future of workplace to life for AstraZeneca UK.
AstraZeneca UK’s commercial head office has a new workspace designed by Ekho Studio.
Spread across two floors and over 21,000 sq ft of number 2 Pancras Square, King’s Cross, it is located between the two great railway stations of King’s Cross and St Pancras International.
The lively Pancras Square development also houses Google’s new HQ and offices for tech and music giants YouTube and Universal Music, whilst the retail and hospitality developments of Granary Square and Coal Drops Yard lie directly to the north, just beyond the Regent’s Canal.
Ekho Studio
