Razzle Dazzle Boogie Woogie

Assael Architects’ masterplan for the Rennaissance mixed use development in Lewisham included a new leisure facility and swimming pool. The cultural strategy set out ideas for creative industry spaces and a commission for Martin Richmann to design a kinetic artwork for the energy centre. Artist Phil Coy was commissioned to develop a playful response to the glass façade, which wrapped around the building. A palette of 1,800 glass ‘pixels’ form a multicoloured grid across the vast curved façade. The grid is backlit, fitted with sensors and through computer programming, responds to the level of external sound – from traffic noise to the human voice – creating a night façade in constant modulation. Glass Mill won the Best Built Project-Community Scale in 2014 for ‘its transformational impact on the wider area, benefits to the local community, design and ingenuity’.