Richard Rogers’s Wimbledon House renovations by Gumuchdjian Architects

Wimbledon House
Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan

The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) premieres Richard Rogers’s Wimbledon House in London, also known as 22 Parkside, for the first time since restorations by British architect Philip Gumuchdjian and landscape architect Todd Longstaffe-Gowan began in 2015.

Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan

The House, designed by Lord Rogers for his parents in the late 1960s, was gifted to Harvard GSD in 2015 by Lord Rogers and Ruth Rogers to ensure the Heritage-listed property’s continued use as a residence, and to provide a unique research opportunity for future generations of architecture professionals and scholars —from across fields and disciplines—whose work is focused on the built environment.

Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan

As such, the Wimbledon House will serve as the residence for the Richard Rogers Fellowship, as well as a new GSD venue for lectures, symposia, and other events bringing together scholars and practitioners from London, across Europe, and around the world.

Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan

The first class of fellows has taken residence at the House and commenced research; they hail from Austria, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United States, and were chosen from more than 200 applicants. Public programming at the House will begin this fall with a conversation themed around the topic of food and the city.

Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan

Commenting on the renovations to the House Philip Gumuchdjian, Founding Director of Gumuchdjian Architects, said, “Parkside is not just an iconic, flexible machine for living, nor simply a historic experimental building that foretold the architect’s future work; it was also a home with a unique memory, patina, and aura.”

Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan

The Richard Rogers Fellowship, launched in October 2016, is inspired by Lord Rogers’s commitment to cross-disciplinary investigation and social engagement, evident across his prolific output as an architect, urbanist, author, and activist.

Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan

Each year, six fellows will be awarded a three-month residency, travel expenses to London, and a $10,000 USD cash prize, affording them access to London’s extraordinary institutions, libraries, practices, professionals, and other resources.

Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan

The goal of the residency program is to support research that addresses alternative and sustainable urban futures. The Richard Rogers Fellowship is an open international competition that encourages in-depth, original forms of investigation as a way to expand both practice and scholarship.

Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan

Projects that the six inaugural fellows will bring to the House in 2017 include examinations of public and affordable housing; how food and cooking transform cities; and citizen-driven urban regeneration initiatives, particularly in London and Berlin. Source by The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD).

Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan

Location: London, UK
Architect: Gumuchdjian Architects
Landscape: Todd Longstaffe Gowan
Services engineering: Atelier 10/Patrick Bellew (competition); Aecom, Northern Ireland (implementation)
Structural engineering: Techniker (Matthew Wells)
Gross Floor Area: 257 m2
Year: 2017
Photographs: Iwan Baan, Courtesy of Sutton PR for Harvard Graduate School of Design

Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan
Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan
Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan
Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan
Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan
Wimbledon House
Photo © Iwan Baan

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