The Skyroom

The Skyroom is an imaginative rooftop venue designed by David Kohn Architects, winner of the UK Young Architect of the Year Award 2009, with structural engineering by Form Structural Design. The venue opened with a range of events in September 2010 to coincide with the London Design Festival, and hosted a range of events from the AF's public programme.

Providing a mix of covered and open space, The Skyroom has been designed to provide an unexpected outdoor events venue for The Architecture Foundation, a social space for tenants of the building to gather, and a new London location for visitors to discover. A central courtyard open to the sky frames the rising form of The Shard, the latest addition to London's skyline. A balcony cantilevered over Tooley Street offers breathtaking views through the More London development to the Thames and the Tower of London beyond.

The Skyroom is a bespoke structure, constructed of steel with copper mesh facades, larch flooring and integrated furniture, topped with a Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) roof, which sits on the rooftop of Magdalen House, 136-148 Tooley St – a 5-storey office building occupied by The Architecture Foundation at street level.

The Skyroom offers an alternative space, imaginatively and opportunistically re-using of one of London's neglected roofscapes, to demonstrate the possibilities of adapting the capital's skyline and increasing capacity, even when faced with the planning control and pressures of a conservation area such as London Borough of Southwark.

This project originated in the AF's New Architects: London_Istanbul exchange programme, and benefitted from the creative input of the other practices involved: Studio Weave and 00:/ from London, and Asli K. Ingin, ddrlp and Tuspa NK from Istanbul.

Image: The Skyroom © Will Pryce