They’re starting to feel dissatisfied with what’s on offer to them with traditional construction and they want something different.. That, says Amy Marks, is how she knows things are going to change..
Shaun and Khalifa also live locally in Primrose Hill and Kensal Rise so benefit from short commutes.‘The location is not your typical Farringdon creative space, but for me, that’s a bonus.
It’s a bit more subdued,’ Obinna Ihejetoh says, ’it feels more real, a bit more like London.’ I ask them about their favourite aspect of the building and in addition to the atrium and cafe, it’s actually a detail that’s a real nod from one architect to another…‘I love the view as you walk down the canal and the building is warped into the Westway,’ says Shaun.‘The canal curves one way and the road sweeps dramatically in the other direction.It’s just so beautiful in an urban way.’.
Khalifa adds, ‘We’re really young in our profession and are forever learning, so it’s great to see how Bryden Wood have dealt with the Retrofit sympathetically.It’s great to see how they have attempted to do things we wouldn’t have thought of.’.
THE BRYDEN WOOD PERSPECTIVE: PAUL O'NEILL.
When embarking on the project to reimagine and develop the building into Great Western Studios, we knew ‘the constraints of the build would be its making,’ says Bryden Wood Board Director, Architecture,.Bryden Wood’s Head of XR + Interaction, Director Elite Sher, says her focus lies in ‘combining software engineering and design, in innovative and creative applications, using cutting-edge technologies.’.
Sher is a finalist in the ‘Best Woman Software Engineer’ category of the WICE Awards and has an MSc in Adaptive Architecture and Computation from UCL, The Bartlett.It was there, she says, that she gained ‘theoretical and practical experience dealing with robotics, AI, machine learning, software engineering, and creative computation.’.
A founding member of Bryden Wood’s Creative Technologies team, Elite says she initially worked to develop ‘bespoke tools focusing on data collection and visualisation.’ She subsequently expanded her experience as a lead developer in the R&D department for HOK and perfected her software development skills as a full stack developer for a FinTech start up, developing both front and back end.Asked by Microsoft in 2015 to join their ‘Creative Studios’ R&D team, Sher acted as an innovation engineer and designer for the tech giant, specialising in virtual reality and augmented reality technologies.. Having rejoined Bryden Wood in 2017 with the purpose of establishing a VR and AR development team, Elite says the move was a great opportunity.