Interior Dialogues

The responsibility for navigating these potentially treacherous waters has fallen largely on Jane Lawrence, Head of Interiors at Knight Dragon. A veteran of Conran and Partners, Lawrence worked under Sir Terence Conran delivering a range of projects from residential properties to public museums around the world. Following a stint at the Manser Practice – the London firm behind the interiors for the likes of Sketch and Smiths of Smithfield – she joined Knight Dragon, originally attracted by an intriguing brief from a headhunter. ‘They said there was a developer who was looking to employ a designer to sort of work with them but also to find other designers to work on their projects.’ Eventually, Lawrence was recruited to oversee the interiors, while her colleague Matt Dearlove was recruited to work in tandem with her on the architecture side of the projects. ‘He gets heavily involved in the commissioning of the architecture and I get heavily involved in the finding of and working with the designers to design the residential part of the Peninsula,’ she explains.

Crucial to the unique look and feel of the developments across the Peninsula has been the dual-facing nature of Lawrence’s role, which sees her unusually positioned between external design agencies and her own company. ‘My role is now distinctly two-fold,’ she explains. ‘Firstly, finding, commissioning and taking a significant overview on the work of other designers. So, if we have a building and we want a particular design style or we’re looking for a named designer, it would be me that researches the design world, sorts out the commissioning of the designers, and then I oversee their work throughout the project. I’m both reviewing their work but also act as an ambassador for them. But secondly, it may equally be that we decide we’ll design one of the buildings ourselves. I have a small team, so we come up with a concept, we choose the materials, we work alongside the development team to get it costed and the contractor gets appointed. So, I’m client for half of my time, and designer the other half of my time.’

Lawrence details how this collaborative process has worked through several of the new residential developments. For example, at No. 4, they worked with Emulsion. ‘We’d come up with the concept which was about geometry, so it was interesting to see their interpretation of that brief and our interpretation of that brief. It’s a strange hybrid role but we’re very mindful of designers having a voice. It isn’t our design, it’s their design.’

While other parts of Upper Riverside have been created in collaboration with the esteemed likes of Tom Dixon, State & Craft, Studio Ashby and Emulsion (‘lovely architects who have quite a modernist approach to things’), Lawrence also places a strong emphasis on sourcing and developing new talent and is constantly on the lookout for new work. ‘We’re looking for edgy designers, but ones whose feet are firmly rooted on the ground, that they know what they’re doing and they have a strong modern approach to design. But their aesthetic may be quite different from each other.’

Lawrence feels that each project benefits from this injection of new perspectives, differing views and fresh ideas. ‘You look at the breadth of amazing talent out there and sometimes you just want something which is very different to that which you might do. And it was quite intentional in Upper Riverside that we’d have unique styles for each of the buildings.’ To avoid a common problem of new developments, where people end up living an atomised life in siloed blocks, the shared amenities – from the swimming pool and gym to cinema and karaoke room – have been spread between the five developments to encourage a crossflow of the population.

Another consideration for Lawrence and her team is the need to create spaces that work as part of a district that has been built around art and creativity. ‘I wasn’t prepared for how design-led Knight Dragon are as a developer. Not only in the design of their buildings but the amazing attitude towards art and activities on the Peninsula. The public art, NOW Gallery, the Urban Village Fete , hosted annually every summer – there’s a real richness and intent about the art and design programme. To see and hear and know that design was important to them when it comes to residential design, it had me feeling it wouldn’t just be me churning out boxes. It was really making a difference.’

Lawrence is now positioned at an interesting stage in her process where the ideas and concepts have become a physical reality, but are shifting and adapting as real people use and modify them through living and socialising. The sense of a community coalescing and developing is palpable. ‘The Peninsula is way more crowded than it used to be. You can see a mass of people wanting to be there. NOW gallery events are always really well attended, and I think as the buildings start to develop, the idea of neighborhood and community is beginning to evolve.’

The Urban Village Fete is hosted on Greenwich Peninsula every year. Events like this free one-day festival sees the community come together and welcomes visitors from across the capital.

For the immediate future, Lawrence is involved in two other new buildings at the Peninsula. ‘The one I’m heavily involved in is a series of four buildings in the middle part of the Peninsula. They are about doing really good design at a really affordable price. One of the buildings is for young first-time buyers– it’s early days, at the concept stage but it’s beyond feasibility testing.’

The addition of these new buildings is in keeping with Lawrence’s holistic thinking about urban spaces and how we move beyond developments being a concept and actually turning into a lived environment. ‘The intent was to keep young families in London, as what normally happens is they up sticks once they’ve had kids. We started looking at the residents of Copenhagen and how they lived – to think about how we can do this radically, really look at how we approach living. I’m quite an analytical person,’ she says by way of conclusion. ‘I enjoyed the potential challenge – of looking at how people live as well as just the colors and materials and that sort of thing .’