Monthly news updates on live projects, ongoing research and what others are saying.
Nov 2023Manser Medal 2023
We are delighted to be the recipient of the 2023 Manser Medal, the Architects' Journal's House of the Year Award. The practice worked with the clients Suzanne and Peter Redstone over 12 years to convert five buildings on their farm in Devon into residential use. The last, Cowshed, repurposed a 50 year old agricultural barn as a home, artist's studio and office. The award judges reflected, ‘an exemplar of the best of retrofit,’ ‘brilliant not just as a reuse project but as a regeneration of a site. It’s so interwoven and integrated with the context,’ ‘sustainability at a whole different level.' Read more on the Architects' Journal's website here.
Oct 2023Stephen Friedman Gallery
We have completed a new gallery on Cork Street for Stephen Friedman. The 10,000sqft project includes exhibition spaces, offices for 40 staff, a library, archive, meeting rooms and project spaces. A publicly accessible courtyard garden designed by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan includes a kiosk we designed in collaborating with artist David Shrigley. The gallery opened on 6th October with an exhibition by Yinka Shonibare CBE RA. Read Aran Kakar's review in Artsy. Image: Yinka Shonibare, ‘Feeling Free Like a Bird’, 2023.
Sep 2023Hollein Calling
David Kohn Architects is participating in the exhibition, 'Hollein Calling: Architectural Dialogues' at the Architekturzentrum Wien. The exhibition 'explores the Hollein phenomenon from a contemporary perspective, re-evaluating his work and its relevance to the current discourse through a dialogue with a younger generation of architects.'
The exhibition runs from 21.09.23 to 12.02.24. For more details visit the AzW website. The catalogue, which includes an interview with David Kohn is available from Park Books website. Image: Model of Retti Candle Shop, Vienna, 1996 courtesy of AzW.
Aug 2023Modern Art Oxford
We are thrilled to have won an invited competition to redesign the ground and lower floors of Modern Art Oxford (MAO). One of the UK’s leading contemporary art spaces, MAO has an international reputation for innovative and ambitious programming. It is housed in the former City Brewery and many of the building’s historic features survive within the gallery’s characterful spaces. We will be sharing our initial ideas at an evening workshop on 14th September. Visit MAO's website for more details.
Jul 2023Cowshed nominated for AR New into Old Awards
We are delighted that the Cowshed has been shortlisted for The Architecture Review New into Old Awards 2023.
The Cowshed is a new home and studio for artist Suzanne Blank Redstone and her husband Peter Redstone. The Redstone's originally built the cowshed in the 70s to house their herd of Jersey cattle. Fifteen years ago they began converting their farm, with David Kohn Architects masterplanning the site to create a co-housing community with five new homes converted from former agricultural buildings. The Cowshed is the last house to complete, creating a future-proof home for the couple with Suzanne’s studio at the centre.
Jun 2023RA Summer Exhibition
We are delighted that a grotesque carved by stonemason Fergus Wessel, and conceived in collaboration with artist Monster Chetwynd and David Kohn, has been selected for the 2023 RA Summer Exhibition. The pangolin is one of 24 gargoyles and grotesques that are to be installed on the Gradel Quadrangles project for New College, Oxford. Animals that are threatened by the climate crisis have been chosen by the Professor of Evolutionary Biology at New College, Dr Ashleigh Griffin and author and academic, Katherine Rundell. The Summer Exhibition opens to the public on 13th June. For more information visit the RA website.
May 2023Cowshed RIBA Award
We are delighted that the Cowshed, a conversion of an agricultural building into a house and studio for the artist Suzanne Blank Redstone and her partner Peter, has won an RIBA South West Award 2023. Suzanne and Peter moved to the Devon farm in the early 1970's and raised their family, farmed a dairy herd, created the UK's first organic ice cream and ran a community arts programme. In recent years they have gradually transformed the farm into a residential community with the Cowshed being their last and most ambitious project. Read about the award at the RIBA Journal's website.
Apr 2023New College Gargoyles
The first of 25 gargoyles and grotesques has been installed at New College Oxford. Carved by mason Fergus Wessel, and designed in collaboration with artist Monster Chetwynd and David Kohn, the bear is one of the animals chosen by the Professor of Evolutionary Biology at New College, Ashleigh Griffin, that is presently threatened by the climate crisis. Read David Kohn's article on collaborating with Fergus Wessel in the RIBA Journal here.
Photograph by Mark Boyland.
Mar 2023Lucie Rie exhibition opens at Kettle's Yard
'Lucie Rie: The Adventure of Pottery' has now officially opened at Kettle's Yard Cambridge. David Kohn Architects led the design of the exhibition creating a series of bespoke mild steel plinths that could be easily demounted and transported from MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art) to Kettle’s Yard. Rie is among the most celebrated potters of the C20th and this exhibition brings together 100 of her works, offering a rare opportunity to experience her ground-breaking practice.
The exhibition runs until 25th June and entry is free – more details here.
Feb 2023Birmingham Smithfield submitted for Planning
David Kohn Architects' Birmingham Smithfield Market scheme has been submitted for planning. The £85M project will provide a home for the city’s historic Bull Ring markets and include a rooftop garden, dining hall and new market square designed in collaboration with local artist-run multiverse, Eastside Projects.
Read more about the project on our website here and the news story in the Architect's Journal here.