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Ian Ritchie Architects

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Crystal Palace Concert Platform

Crystal Palace Concert Platform. Etching by Ian RitchieIn March 1996, Ian Ritchie Architects won the competition for the design of a permanent concert platform in Crystal Palace Park, London.
Our design concept developed from an understanding and recognition of the primary importance of the rich and complex Paxton landscape within which the concert platform would be located. We considered that a simple structure causing minimal disturbance was appropriate – a minimal architectural intervention that would be sculptural without being sculpture, bold yet reinforcing a beautiful landscape. Nevertheless, its simplicity belies the complex acoustic performance required of it.

Our design embodies four principles:

Natural colour, defining modernity’s relationship to landscape;
Gravitas, expressing permanence expressed through the perceived mass of the material;
Levitas, as a statement of the way we can build sensitively in and with landscape, expressed by a composition in equilibrium touching the ground along a fine line;
Simplicity expressed through a single material – self-weathering steel – colour, and a continuous surface.

In practical terms the platform is robust, resistant to vandalism, economic and requires very low maintenance. It is placed in a slightly enlarged lake. Its outer surface is made entirely of deep red oxidised Corten A steel and an oak stage, and internally with silver aluzinc panels and a blue floor.

The first concert performance took place in August 1997.

Books
01/2000 AN ARCHITECTURE NOTEBOOK Routledge
ISBN: ISBN-10: 0415228743, ISBN-13: 978-0415228749
Journal Articles
06/2000 L'ACIER AUTO-PATINABLE CARNET No.1 USINOR
03/2000 RIBA JOURNAL
03/2000 RIBA JOURNAL
09/1999 TIME OUT
09/1999 BUILDING
01/1999 FX
12/1998 ARCHITECTURE INTERIEURE CREE No.285
10/1998 BOUWENmetSTAAL
10/1998 ARCHITECTUUR and BOUWEN
09/1998 L'ARCA
09/1998 BOUWENmetSTAAL
02/1998 ARK
10/1997 BAUWELT
09/1997 BUILDING DESIGN
08/1997 RIBA JOURNAL
06/1997 NEW CIVIL ENGINEER
04/1997 RIBA JOURNAL
08/1996 BUILDING DESIGN

Crystal Palace Concert Platform

London, UK

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