Ben van Berkel’s buildings are traffic stoppers; sweeping sci-fi edifices wrapped in kaleidoscopic, dot-matrix exteriors, high-rise moiré exoskeletons and ceramic plate stacks with op-art scoops for windows. Projects such as Five Franklin Place in New York’s Tribeca district, Austria’s Graz Music Theatre, the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, and Taiwan’s Talee Isetan building, all designed by Professor van Berkel’s Amsterdam-based UNStudio, define a new urban aesthetic, reimagining architecture as sculptural form and quickly characterising themselves as contemporary landmarks.
And now London has its own van Berkel landmark; Canaletto, a 31-storey tower adjacent to the City Road Basin, features a unique, curving façade of aluminium and glass that breaks the building’s volume into a series of three-to-five storey clusters.
Canaletto’s recently unveiled three-bedroom apartments, the Beaumont Collection, located on the building’s 25th to 28th floors, are modern sanctuaries with spectacular panoramic views through floor-to-ceiling glazed façades. The state-of-the-art amenities (swimming pool, gym, spa with treatment rooms, restaurant, private cinema and residents’ club) establish the building as a social and creative hub at the creative crossroads of Islington, Shoreditch, Clerkenwell and the City.
The ‘Cosmopolitan Collector’ apartment boldly mixes new and old, incorporating quirky and classic items and acclaimed and naive artworks. The look is both eclectic and contemporary, revealing the Cosmopolitan Collector’s character as you move from room to room. This is high-rise luxe in the heart of east London.
