The Buckley Building.

Derwent London with Buckley Grey Yeoman

The brief was to have a wall of massive slabs of raw steel, Richard Serra like. The solution was more difficult. It took us 6 months to find a supplier who would cut 4m lengths off a roll without damaging the surface. The raw steel is made in rolls and is worked and finished by removing the crust of the scorch marks of the water and oil was its rolled flat, but not in our case, we wanted that surface as the final finish. It is never used as a finished product so every time you touch it , the finger marks remain. Each sheet is 200kg plus. To make the 5mm material look like slabs of 30mm it has to be folded into a very shallow tray, but to get a crisp sharp corner, this has to be routed and mitred then folded. Handling 200kg sheets required very careful handling with protective film and cotton gloves to remove any chance of touching the surface. The handrail was inspired by Carlo Scapa a bar of brass. The handrail set into pockets in the floor prefixed to a second template used in the workshop to have engineering tolerances needed. A hugely successful and satisfying project. As always the simplicity belies the complexity of realising.