KEN MACKAY AT RIFF 2017 BUCHAREST: MINORIES HOTEL – the 2016 Leaf Awards Best Facade Design and Engineering Finalist

Ken Mackay, the Senior Partner, Architect and Founder of Mackay + Partners in London, is a guest speaker at RIFF 2017 Expo Conference in Bucharest to present the highly acclaimed Minories Hotel, an innovative project in the City of London. The event will take place on 6-7 November at the JW Marriott Grand Hotel. The presentations in the program of the expo conference are focused on innovative façades structures, the design of roofs and insulation works in high-profile buildings, and also presenting new trends, solutions and systems for floors. Large-scale projects are presented from different perspectives, by architects and contractors.

The architect has a particular approach to his profession, combining entrepreneurial knowledge with design and technology in order to develop complex and integrated projects. His team works in a studio-based approach, considering a horizontal structure of equality between his team members. Starting his career by being the design director on London’s Royal Opera House, he activated in Harper Mackay along with David Harper since 1987, in order to set up his own office Mackay + Partners in 2004. His interest in entrepreneurship as a project development issue is visible also in the Minories Hotel that he will be presenting at the SHARE event this year: having the ability to spot the potential of a certain site and to take it to fruition as real investment opportunities for developers. This encompasses a strong relationship with the constellation of actors surrounding the architectural project making way to integrated approaches and informed decisions to design. This way of acquiring and generating knowledge made it possible to design along with Antonio Correia and also to invest in particular projects like the Clerkenwell restaurant or to involve in the furniture industry.

The Minories Hotel is an example of such an architectural approach, the architects being involved even from the stage of choosing the intervention site and facilitating its acquisition. Opting for a dual composition of a seven-storey decorative box and an 18-storey glass tower behind it. Considering materiality as a key design component, the building is a special occasion to innovate in terms of cladding and lighting. The front box uses a new system in London comprised of white Corian rain screen and LED lighting behind which by being connected to a computer controlled dimming system glows through the cladding material to transform the image of the building throughout the day. The contrasting tower behind has a uniform glazed façade that is also punctuated by a LED lighting strips.

The ensemble achieves high sustainability standards with different intelligent building systems delivering the BREEAM excellent energy rating, such as highly thermally efficient facades with just 35% glazing, heat recovery systems, and green roofs.

The hotel is among the most awarded project of Mackay + Partners, receiving since 2015 an outstanding number of distinctions: it was shortlisted for the 2016 City of London Building of the Year, the 2016 Corporate Live Best in Architect Design Effectiveness, the 2016 Leaf Awards Best Facade Design and Engineering, the 2016 RICS Awards for Tourism & Leisure or the 2015 Surface Design Awards Commercial Exterior & Light and Surface Exterior, while winning the 2016 Build Architecture Awards UK & Recognised Leader in New Facade Technology, the 2015 International Property Awards Best Hotel Architecture in UK and the 2015 UK Property Awards Best Hotel Architecture in London.

The RIFF Expo Conference is part of a series of 14 international architecture expo conferences that ABplus Events has organized starting from 2010 in Poland, Romania and Hungary, alongside with the the thematic LAUD expo conferences (landscape architecture and infrastructure); GIS expo conferences (interior architecture and interior design); CONTRACTOR (entrepreneurs conference – installations and constructions) and INGLASS (glass architecture & engineering expo conference).

For the latest news regarding the program of the international conferences and the guest speakers, we invite you to access the communication platform www.share-architects.com.