The Filling Station

With the cool assurance of a certainty, disused gas stations in London are being transformed into restau-rant-meets-gallery. Carmody Groarke already had an unconventional portfolio when it won the project to convert this filling station, located next to the Kings Place arts center.

The Filling Station is part of a huge £2 billion, 27-acre urban regeneration project in Kings's Cross, begun six years ago.

The concept by Carmody Groarke is ingenious and imaginatively realized. Kevin Carmody says: "Through creative reuse and adaptation to existing structures, this installation of semi-permanent interventions has transformed the site into a new cultural destination."

Since Bistrotheque's restaurant-gallery The Filling Station will be open for three years, it was conceived as a semi-permanent structure. It runs 200m long, 4m high and is made of transparent fiberglass. The curvilinear walls act as a barrier to traffic from York Way, in a sequence of spaces leading towards Regent Canal. The existing structure of the former gas station forms a covered area that extends the possible functions. The fiberglass walls are a translucent screen, lit from within at night. When the sun appears in the London sky, light through the translucent screens forms shadows that partially reveal the activity inside. The neon green sign completes the whole concept.

www.carmodygroarke.com