THE SURGE PAVILION & THE STUDENT HALLS OF RESIDENCE @ MARYLEBONE

by Hugo Santos

Two distinct interventions, one in public space the other private, were addressed in the Marylebone borough of London. The first reimagined the consecrated Paddington Street Gardens public space (former burial grounds), as a rewilded Nature haven, with raised walk paths, resting/introspection/socialising “pods”, and a temporary, environmentally respectful pavilion (The Surge) educating children about water systems and climate change. The second, proposed interventions at two distinct levels to the existing nearby Marylebone Halls of Residence for students: at the façade level, creating a secondary skin, offering a socially valuable interspace and environmentally improved outcomes to the indoor spaces (e.g. solving glare and overheating issues); and, then, at the structural/organisational level, completely rethinking the whole building while keeping its reinforced concrete main structure, but adding modular, highly insulated, cross-laminated timber elements which offer much improved social life and living conditions to the students as well as excellent environmental performance.