minecraft Blogger

The interior of the construction site at the Midland Goods Shed, in King’s Cross. Photograph: John Sturrock

Our design takes advantage of the grand, cavernous spaces provided by the original architecture of the Midland Goods Shed and the lofty height of the East Handyside Canopy. The nature and mix of uses, together with the design solutions to accommodate them, allows the public to experience the dramatic spaces within for the very first time and creates an innovative new focal point for King’s Cross.

Built by the Great Northern Railway in 1850, the Midland Goods Shed originally served as part of a temporary passenger terminal while the current King’s Cross station was being built. It was converted to a goods shed for the Midland Railway in 1857 and used for the handling and storage of goods that were brought into King’s Cross from across the country. The East and West Handyside Canopies were added in 1888, to provide a covered space for the transfer of potatoes and other perishable goods from rail to horse and cart.

Our design reconnects with the area’s industrial past. The mainline railways radically changed King’s Cross, with their extensive goods yards, built close to the canal for interchange purposes. Many of the industrial buildings and structures are fine examples of industrial brickwork that demonstrate styles of engineering and construction characteristic of the 19th and early 20th centuries, with the use of various types of brick, along with cast and wrought iron.

The design of the new space preserves the shed’s varied and idiosyncratic Victorian character of robust brickwork, thundering cast iron structures, cavernous spaces, delicate roof trusses and the majestic sweep of the 130m-long East Handyside Canopy.

A dominant feature of the structure is the 1878 ballast tank in the accumulator tower, which has been retained and lifted up, freeing up the ground floor area to serve as a lift lobby.

To maintain the character of the building, more recent additions to the structure, such as the steel trusses which date from 1957, have been replaced (in this case with new splayed steel scissor trusses designed in the spirit of the originals, with an intricate play of geometries).

This imaginative and flexible events space will link with the presence of neighbouring and pan-London arts and media organisations, and will hopefully become an extraordinary focus point for curiosity, conviviality and learning.

Pro-democracy activist Nacha Kong-udom is detained by plain clothed police officers at a cinema in Bangkok on 20 November. Photograph: Rungroj Yongrit/EPA

A cinema chain in Bangkok has cancelled screenings of the new Hunger Games film after protestors adopted the movie’s defiant three-fingered saluteagainst totalitarian rule.

The protest, organised by the League of Liberal Thammasat for Democracy, was due to take place at Bangkok’s Scala cinema. The league purchased 200 tickets on Sunday and had planned to distribute many of them for free via Facebook, according to the Bangkok Post. Anyone interested in tickets had to answer the question “How does the Capitol resemble Bangkok?”, a reference to the authoritarian rulers of the future dystopian state of Panem in The Hunger Games series of books and films.

Reports suggest screenings have now been cancelled at cinemasrun by the Apex group, which owns the Scala and Lido chains. Other cinemas are not yet believed to be affected.

Thailand’s military rulers warned in Junethat they would arrest large groups of protesters using the three-fingered salute, which has become a popular form of protest following the junta’s seizure of power on 22 May. The sign is used by citizens of fictional Panem to silently protest against their authoritarian overlords in The Hunger Games series.

Several Bangkok newspapers today also published front-page photographsof five university students who yesterday used The Hunger Games’ salute during a public appearance by junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha, who has named himself Thailand’s prime minister. The students, wearing T-shirts bearing anti-coup slogans, were arrested by military police following the protest in Khon Kaen province, 450km north-east of Bangkok and taken away for “attitude adjustment”, reports the BBC.

The junta says its coup was vital to restore peace following violent clashes earlier in the year between rival red and yellow-shirted factions supporting former PM Thaksin Shinawatra and the monarchist opposition. It says it will restore democracy via a general election late next year, but Amnesty International has criticised the military rulers for widespread human rights violations which include a clampdown on free speech and arbitrary arrests to quell dissent.