'John Warr is an easy man to please. He just wants the best building to
display a whole bunch of motorbikes. Richard Nightingale of architects Cullum & Nightingale
is equally relaxed about how to proceed, only taking on buildings that clients
really want, not projects that will be sold off for a fast buck.
'Men of principle then.
'And the principle, when it came to the new Warr's Harley Davidson
showroom just off King's Road, was to provide the flagship store for Harley
Davidson in Europe.
'"The brief was to make the most of the site, which as you can see it's
a bit of a promontory. It is quite visible from the King's Road, so we wanted
to make something prominent which is partly where the egg-shape comes from.
All that was here before the workshop," says Nightingale.
'"This is the first stage of a larger building, the intention being
that it should be a complete egg-shape with a workshop attached with two
further floors on top (for flats), but that's subject to planning permission."
'The main thing was to get the showroom up and running and worry about
the expansion plans at a later date. The previous showroom was very small
and Warr's needed space badly.
'"Warr's is a well known company in the motorbike business and needed
something more prominent," says Nightingale. "I'm sure the intention
was to go beyond the traditional motorbike purchaser."
'John Warr bought the site adjacent to the original workshop three
years ago, but left the plot empty while formulating a plan.
'The result is a palace for motorbikes, unlike any showroom in the
UK or the rest of Europe. Harley Davidson's have always had a premium image
and Warr felt he needed a showroom that reflected that status. And like the
bikes it is displaying, there are no unnecessary frills to clutter up the
space.
'"Structurally it's a relatively unadorned and muscular building." says
Nightingale. "The concrete is not varnished, plastered or finished in
any way but it is treated in quite a sophisticated way. The fan vaulted ceiling,
for instance, has a structural function, holding up the floors above, but
it is modelled quite finely.
'"It was a bit like building a boat in a way. And although it's not
mimicking the motorbikes in any way in terms of materials, there is a sort
of honest muscularity about it that is akin to the sort of ethos of these
bikes.
'"The whole process was very much a two-way thing: we'd suggest something
and John would react. There was collaboration all the way through. He didn't
insist on any particular style of design and as it went on we got into details."
'Apart from the glittering rows of hot Harleys the one thing that catches
you eye almost immediately on entering the showroom is the extravagant sales
desk, flying out over the sleek polished wood floors.
'"The desk is very functional and acts as a counter and display case,
has all the technical gismos for tills and computers and the air conditioning
system functions through its base," says Nightingale. "It's a fairly
ambitious piece of engineering, quite an adventurous structure. It's beautifully
made in solid American Walnut on a steel structure an like the rest of the
building it's hard-wearing and solid and it will last for years."
'So why no plastered finishes, no metalwork, the traditional elements
of vehicle showroom design?
'"One reason for not having any fancy finishes here is because these
natural finishes will last forever and will grow old gracefully rather than
having to be constantly renovated. In 10-20 years time the building won't
appear tatty and outdated or tired because it's just not that kind of building."
'It's also not the kind of building Cullum & Nightingale could honestly
say they took on. "The practice has a really broad client base," says
Nightingale. "We usually work for people who want buildings rather than
clients who want to make money from buildings. We don't do any work for developers,
for instance.
'"The other thing that's important is collaboration with the client.
It's hugely beneficial. It's never take it or leave it. We don't come up
with a design that has to be accepted. And it nearly always improves as a
result of the two-way process."
'The practice does a lot of work for schools, individuals and the foreign
office, and is curently on site with a loft development in New York and a
chalet in Chamonix. "We have done retail in the past," says Nightingale, "but
all the most prominent was for a diamond company, all marble and columns
and gold leaf.
'"Harley Davidson is miles away from that kind of job, but is the same
in essence," he says. "We never quite know where the boundary is
between architecture and interior design. Whether it's neo-classical interior
for a diamond dealer, Harley Davidson or a theatre for a drama school, it's
the same basic tenet. The use, the users, the relationship to the site are
all important. The relationship with nature, with the elements - light and
orientation matter."
'At the King's Road site, light could have become a major stumbling
block as they had to juggle with the problems of having an extremely visible
showroom with having a space that could be comfortably worked in.
'"At Harley, light and orientation are hugely important. This is obviously
a much bigger space than you would really need for motorbike retailing. And
it's also to do with materials being appropriate themselves rather than being
wrapped up. Buildings are permanent things whereas interiors, especially
retail interiors, tend to be off the moment. I've no idea whether this is
stylistically Ôof the moment' or not because it doesn't matter - what's
important is that is should be equally satisfactory in decades. Obviously
commercially it should work, but it should work over a long period."
'To overcome the problems of heat gain with such a big expanse of glass
frontage, special glass was used. "There was a bit of a potential conflict
because the better the glass is at reducing UV transmission, the darker it
becomes and that wouldn't do for a showroom. It was important for John Warr
that it should be completely clear. In the end it was a matter of spending
more to get clearer glass."
'Because of the expanse of glass it was also important to get the lighting
right.
'"The lighting was very difficult," says Nightingale, who has very
firm views of how lighting should be approached.
'"Lighting should always be done in the most basic and straighforward
way," he says. "The more designed a light is the less satisfactory
it will be. I don't mean technically designed, I mean sort of ÔItalianised'.
We found ourselves taking lights to bits and just using the innards to make
a fitting that really just does the business without all the sort of fins
and finery that tend to get applied."
'The main lights are giant industrial lamps which also throw light
upwards to highlight the shape of the ceiling. At the opposite end of the
space, the whole floor acts as a plenum for the ventilation system. "The
floor is a plenum, and the low-velocity air that that filters out of the
two columns either side of the entrance and at the base of the till is channelled
below it."
'Another important element of the whole project was the importance
of the workshop in relation to the retail space. "It was always the
plan that you would be able to see through to the servicing area," Nightingale
explains, "because that's the real business end of things. It was important
that it was seen to be visible because it's very much as much a workshop
as a sales showroom. The shelves are more akin to an art gallery, although
what is on display are motobike parts. So the fanciest bit of display is
the workshop."
'So Warr's baby has been born, but there is a long way to go before
it will be the finished article.
'"The building is unfinished and we hope to be able to build flats on
top. However, because it's an employment zone they wouldn't allow any residential
use. Now, however, there is real pressure with the moves on building on brownfield
sites increased density and so on."
'Nightingale says that the lure of the motorbike has been working its
magic on him, but for now he's resisting. "I like beautifully engineered
machines and I would love a Harley." he says, "but at the moment
I drive around town on a 50cc Vespa."'
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