Commonwealth Institute, Kensington High Street, London

Commonwealth Institute, Kensington High Street, London - An interior view of the exhibition hall at the Commonwealth Institute showing the corner where two outer roof sections meet and the exposed concrete beams_x000D_
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Laing built the Commonwealth Institute between October 1960 and October 1962 to replace the former Imperial Institute that was to be demolished to make way for new facilities at Imperial College. The building consisted of a four-storey administrative block housing a library, restaurant, board room and conference hall and a separate two-storey b lock containing a cinema with an art gallery above, but the focus of the project was the exhibition hall with its hyperbolic paraboloid roof, the first of its kind constructed in Great Britain. The exhibition, designed by James Gardner, provided spaces where each of the Commonwealth nations could showcase their achievements and characteristics, primarily to school children as teaching aids to enliven history and geography lessons

Achievements Administrative Aids Angles Builder Characteristics Concrete Consisted Constructed Containing Curves Demolished Enliven Exposed Facilities Focus Four-storey Hyperbolic Johnson-marshall Laing Lessons Paraboloid Partners Primarily Provided Replace Sections Separate Showcase Spaces Two-storey X000d

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