Built for the residents of Soho and the users of Soho Green the ‘ArtShed’ is an important part of the City of Westminster’s ‘Open Spaces Strategy’. A collaborative project between artists, engineers and architects for St Anne’s Gardens, an ancient plague burial ground in central London’s Soho, providing a small public toilet aimed for use by children and the disabled. Described as a ‘jewel of a building’ the ArtShed will allow younger children to enjoy the garden for longer and involve the whole community in an art project to decorate the interior.
The ArtShed was entirely handbuilt at our London joinery workshops over a 6 week period. The entire building (weighing over 2 tonnes) was lifted out of our workshops at 5am so that it could be safely transported to London’s busy Soho.
The Larchwood parabolic frame is clad in chestnut and uses high tech breather membranes and insulation materials over 3 layers of 6mm plywood. The plan is split into two areas, the toilet and the porch. The internal skin is clad with polycarbonate panels protecting collected objects to be mounted by the artists within the wall thickness.
