Profile: David Archer at David Archer Architects
Q. What are some of your notable projects?
The Print Room occupies the former print floor of the Bournemouth Echo on the ground floor of the newspaper’s Grade II listed 1930’s Seal and Hardy building on Richmond Hill.
The principal volume of the industrial printing hall - a 7-m (23-foot)-tall, 11,000-square-foot room - has been retained, offering a unique, voluminous dining room, with clerestory windows. The scheme is respectful of the original 1930s architecture. The original glazing and ironmongery have been restored and a replica of the black-and-white terrazzo flooring has been installed. Complimenting these is a palette of rich oak, reflective surfaces and opulent lighting.
By combining formal dining spaces, a café, patisserie and deli counter in an open plan arrangement in the former print floor, the new dining room restores the lively energy of its original use.
Aaya is a 150-cover Japanese dining room in Soho that represents a new avenue of dining culture in London, where the preparation and consumption of food is both presented and enjoyed as a rare and precious natural commodity in an environment as holistically and carefully conceived as a fine jewellery store.
The interior alludes to traditional temples of Kyoto whilst emulating the design ingenuity of their modern equivalents, the flagship retail stores of modern Tokyo.
The architectural experience concentrates on the use of patterned and diffuse light. The walls are lined with a pattern of dark oak wood frames housing panes of translucent glass, a contemporary interpretation of traditional Japanese sliding partition screens. Warm light refracts endlessly through the walls where concealed LED lights diffuse through panes of bronze and ribbed glass and spill across the highly polished marble composite floors. Downstairs a 10-metre-long (about 33 feet) sushi counter displays raw fish under glass and lit from concealed light points, dramatising the ritual of food preparation.
Penderyn Distillery Visitor Centre, located on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park, offers the public the opportunity to learn about the distilling process in Wales’ only award-winning distillery.
The centre occupies one of the existing pitch roofed distillery buildings. The ambition has been to deliver a scheme in keeping with the simple robustness of the existing rural architecture.
The building has been clad in black-stained, whaney-edged sawn oak panels, which gives it a distinctive presence and significantly improves its thermal performance.
Q: What is your personal design style? How does this influence particular projects?
The quality of materials and attention to detail are both important. It is the ambition of the practice to apply its skill in the refurbishment and remodelling of existing buildings to make beautiful, inviting interiors of lasting quality, which do not fall victim to passing trends but are the outcome of a highly rigorous approach. Bespoke lighting and furniture are designed to create an atmosphere unique to the setting and purpose of each commission and new technologies are harnessed to produce detailing, joinery and ornamentation.
Q: What excites you about designing for a hotel?
What excites me about hotel design is the breadth of activities involved in a single building--
eating, sleeping, drinking, meetings, exercise, bathing, etc. The list is endless.
Q: Who is your favorite hotel designer?
My favorite hotel designer is not a designer but an operator, André Balazs.
Q: What emerging design trend entices you most?
It is difficult to discuss emerging trends at present as the residential/hotel model has just stalled; however, I have always been interested in budget hotels. This is probably a good area to focus on in the future.
Q: How do you get inspired?
I seek inspiration in the particular location of the projects and their background and historical context.
David Archer is director of David Archer Architects, which he established with Julie Ann Humphryes in 2002. He has worked with Antonio Citterio, Jean Nouvel, Philippe Starck and Christian Liaigre on a range of commercial interior design schemes such as the Delano Hotel, Miami (1994). He is also director in David Archer Architects Ltd, a sibling company specializing in the redevelopment of historic and listed buildings for leisure reuse.