something to celebrate
Studio MGM have built some rather simple and elegant flats in Bury St Edmunds – published here by BuildingDesign – and for once a building reviewed in an architectural publication moves me to praise.
MGM flats in Bury St Edmunds
On a tight site, on a tight budget, Studio MGM have manged to make a piece of architecture that also works as a building.
The flat plans are simple, sensible and pleasant – they used sprinklers to get away from the dingy hallway that is the enforced arrangement for many flats under fire regulations – offering decent dual-aspect living/dining rooms with discreetly open-plan kitchens. Nothing revolutionary, but unfortunately very rare at the bottom end of the market.
The building is elegantly framed and clad in larch – a timber that is among the most durable of european sustainably produced wood – Western Red Cedar has been so over specified and overused that it has become expensive, and largely comes from imports from the USA.
The exposed frame is intended to become overgrown with wisteria – which will be a lovely counterpoint to the elegant but rather hard edged exposed framing (I do worry about long term maintenance, but I’m sure that this has been thought through in what is obviously a highly considered scheme).
I was pleased to hear from Meredith Bowles at Studio MGM that David Lea was one of their inspirations – an architect I have long admired.
And very interested to learn that another MGM partner, Ralph Carpenter of modece architects has worked with hemp/lime in the past – a material we are working with for two current projects.