John Rylands Entrance and Shading Screens
Donald Insall Associates
John Rylands Entrance and Shading Screens.
Modern craft in a historic setting For the John Rylands Library’s Next Chapter development, we were commissioned to design and make new entrance metalwork and shading screens for the Research Institute. The task was to introduce contemporary elements that would sit confidently within a highly sensitive historic setting.
Working closely with Donald Insall Associates, we developed a bronze entrance canopy that responds directly to the Grade I listed fabric of the library. The tone of the bronze was carefully developed to reference the colour of the historic stone, with etched panels formed and patinated in our workshop. The result is a material presence that feels considered and grounded, rather than new for its own sake.
Inside, we made nineteen pivoting oak shading screens framed in blackened steel. Set across two glazed elevations of the ground floor event space, the screens balance privacy, daylight and movement. Each was designed as a robust, public-facing system, built to perform over decades while remaining precise and refined in use.
Alignment, finish and durability were treated as fundamentals, not embellishments. The entrance and screens sit as functional architectural features that integrate seamlessly with the building.
