Bringing people back to London and showing how the city remains an open global place is an exciting ambition for post lock down. Despite the additional burdens created by the pandemic and Brexit, we are happy to assist foreign investment into the UK. Working for example with the great hospitality brand, Touriste, our cross borders experience…
Reflecting on the current small retail surplus in light of designing XXL ones in Asia and other thoughts informing our cyclical proposal for FAIRE. We’ve seen a progressive crisis of space emerge over the last 10 years around retail space in the city; this has very suddenly become a crisis of all types of commercial…
We try to design to exemplify in its richest way the ability to use new technologies to re-think how to better our built environment, how to use less material, build with better materials, prolong the life our buildings and cities and aim always to reduce our footprint right down to the typological decisions we make…
Our society is premised on this need for moving in a direction and for the better part of the 20th and early 21st century this has been based on ‘more’. For the past decade we have been seeking answers on how to grow in a more cyclical way, by building and reinventing what we have, addressing typology,…
Floating, hovering, suspended gardens… How to make a garden fly? At the heart of our Paris Gateway project, our suspended garden aimed to resolve conflicting constraints. The very valuable « ground plane » needed to be used for transport whilst other underground infrastructures occupying the whole site made it impossible to plant. Simultaneously, the elevated…
Spatial sequencing Without theological commentary intended, our answer for a new Russian Orthodox Church was the literal sequencing of its spatial DNA. Simultaneously as an answer to the trapezoidal site and its oddness in regards to contemporary design, we choose to slice and displace an archetypal model to create a new species. The gradient translation…
Born of our investigations into material reuse, the Castle Lane was at his inception a opportunity to study of a special brick aggregate. Giving a second life to the demolished building, we studied the solution composed wit aggregate panels made of the crushed brick from the site itself. One of expectations when working in an…
The Fractal Tree is the manifestation of geometrical play stemming from the growth logic of tree branches. Operating as a city sculpture and a sustainable device, the timber structure transforms itself and its environment over the course of the day. Both metaphor and abstraction of its natural source, DROO’s fractal tree is an active abstraction…
Amrita Mahindroo‘s interview with the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne reflects on her work leading to the creation of DROO which has been been recognised for its innovation and creativity, most recently winning the Architecture Master Prize 2020 in the Residential Multi-Unit category. Full interview here. “The most…
MODERN THEATRES 1950-2020 which includes a contribution by DROO Architects’ director Michel da Costa Gonçalves is a fantastic book edited by David Staples and published by Routledge. Michel explores today’s perception of the Opera Bastille in light of its very political inception and using his past experience designing cultural venues such as the Onassis Opera…
Research through design, our Song Do Library proposal. Designed with both a sense of material frugality and experiential monumentality, our proposal sees the Library as a dynamic movement of ideas within an ecosystem defining by two interacting environments: the central garden and main library’s stepped agora. Symbolic and active, the engineered timber shell closes…
Thank you to FRAME Magazine for inviting DROO’s director Amrita Mahindroo to be a part of FRAME AWARD Jury. Its fantastic to see so many exciting projects coming up from across the world. After so many months of restrictions we are all itching to see an exhibition, go to a restaurant or work in collective…
We are delighted for DROO Architects to be featured in, International Panorama, Vol. 1 a book curated and designed by THE PLAN.“First volume of a journey into international architecture, in order to interrogate the experimentations, the forms of the project that intertwine innovation, compositional, and building technique needs” Publisher Gruppo Maggioli S.p.A. Designed THE PLAN…
For the start of this new year, we are pleased to have become spokespeople for the Diversity Pledge and encourage the Future of London’s Diversity Network which “is a group of individuals and organisations bringing new voices to the urban debate”. Together with our Team, DROO endeavours to support this core ambition in its work and practice. #futureoflondon…
Amrita Mahindroo to speak at The Perspective: Winter program The Perspective Virtual is a think tank on Architecture and Interior Design. https://bit.ly/3fsH9tP https://www.theplan.it/eng/whats_on/perspective-virtual-winter-forum-a-rich-program-of-events This virtual forum, organized by international architecture magazine THE PLAN, will bring together the design supply chain, offering a busy and varied program of panel discussions on highly topical architecture and design issues. The stars…
DROO is a finalist for FAIRE 2020, the Paris accelerator for innovative architectural and urban projects. We are delighted to be selected for the final round for our post-pandemic urban revitalisation project. “FAIRE platform invites multidisciplinary teams to propose innovative research and experimentation in the face of major urban challenges: climate, materials crisis, new technologies,…
DROO featured in AMC Magazine following this year Architecture MasterPrize where DROO Architects is amongst the winners in the Residential Multi-Unit category for our Castle Lane Project. The Architecture MasterPrize celebrates the very best in design excellence and innovation from the worlds of Architectural, Interior, and Landscape Design. The awards program is dedicated to showcasing and…
Thanks to the AA School, Architectural Association, for sharing our Architecture Master Prize news: DROO, Da Costa Mahindroo Architects, co-founded and co-directed by AA alumnus, Emergent Technologies graduate and former tutor Michel da Costa Gonçalves have been awarded an Architecture Master Prize 2020 for their project VI Castle Lane in Westminster, London. The residential building…
We are delighted for DROO Architects to be amongst the winners of this year Architecture MasterPrize Winners in the Residential Multi-Unit category. The Architecture MasterPrize celebrates the very best in design excellence and innovation from the worlds of Architectural, Interior, and Landscape Design. The awards program is dedicated to showcasing and promoting exceptional talent, and…
DROO’s director Amrita Mahindroo will be guest hosting the Parlour (@parlour) instagram this week and will be sharing thoughts, musings and our work on some of the bigger questions we have been asking ourselves as a practice in 2020. Parlour is a fantastic platform giving a voice to women working in the built environment. “PARLOUR:…
