The London-based designer, with over 20 years’ experience in international fashion, chose the building after watching BAM working on it from his neighbouring home during the pandemic.
The extensive and complex refurbishment works include upgrading the building’s existing six-storey concrete frame, and adding a six-storey steel-structured extension. The building’s existing 1960s façade is being retained, formerly belonging to London Metropolitan University’s Sir John Cass Faculty of Art (‘The Cass’) and in itself, something of an icon.
Jens Laugesen comments: “I was fascinated by watching first-hand the demolition and subsequent reconstruction of the new high-rise building, with a remodelled inside and additional floors added to the existing graded brutalist building. I love this metamodern concept of adding further structure to existing and saw similarities in my design practice where I take existing tailored garments to reconstruct new forms and identities.
“Because of these similarities, I thought it could be cool to do an image film inside the building in reconstruction, which was also the working title for the film project I developed with my long-time collaborators photographer Jean-Francois Carly and film editor Maxim Young.”