Coffey Architects won its biggest commercial job in the UK in 2016, four years after being named Young Architect of the Year. Now complete, its work on that King’s Cross development has more than justified the developer’s decision to put its faith in emerging talent, Elizabeth Hopkirk reports
Source: Tim Soar
The view west along Handyside Street. Coffey’s silver building holds the corner with York Way, with Bennetts Associates’ sports hall just visible to the right. Beyond are Morris + Company’s pair of pink offices, known as R7, and Fumihiko Maki’s white-stone Aga Khan Centre
Argent’s 30-hectare King’s Cross development in central London is a compendium of fashionable architects, a reference book in built form. They have got a Chipperfield, a Heatherwick and a Maki, plus a Brooks in gestation. Into that starry anthology, the fruit of Allies and Morrison’s now 20-year-old masterplan, a few younger practices have been invited to pitch.