Cadence: “A Welcome Sense of Adventure.”

Our residential courtyard-tower, Cadence, at King’s Cross for Related Argent was given special mention in this Sunday’s Guardian/Observer Newspapers. Rowan Moore highlighted Cadence via a thoughtful retrospective, as a key feature in the King’s Cross masterplan.

We applaud Camden Council, Related Argent and the countless talented individuals from various fields who have contributed to the overall project’s success. With over two decades of evolution, King’s Cross has been rightfully submitted for this year’s RIBA awards program.

“Alison Brooks’s building, standing at the end of a long vista, offers some of the vivacity that other buildings lack. It consists of a conjoined pair of red brick towers, one tall and central, the other off-centre and angled away from the prevailing right angles, with jiggered rhythms of windows and recessed balconies. Irregular arrays of arches appear at top and bottom, and at one or two places halfway up, that follow not purely circular Bézier curves, which have an ancient-futuristic, Saharan-Star Wars feel. They have a mannered bounciness, palpably not carrying much weight. In the foyers and on some of the upper floors, arches extrude into vaults, which with the twists in the plan and a small courtyard create intriguing layers of inside and outside space. It’s not that every building need be as complicated as this, but it brings a welcome sense of adventure.” – Rowan Moore

Photographs captured by Edmund Sumner