A pair of affordable studio buildings as part of a new creative district on the Greenwich peninsula. David Kohn Architects worked with developer Knight Dragon on two new build creative studio buildings as part of the Design District. They are part of a masterplan of sixteen buildings that together create a new quarter for small creative businesses. David Kohn Architects’ buildings A4 and B4 are a pair of miniature glowing palazzi. They share heavy red masonry bases, green gridded glazed facades and are adorned by figurative sculpture and an illuminated rooftop sign that announces your arrival at the ‘DESIGN DISTRICT.’ The architecture is classically-inspired but makes playful reference to other periods and ideas, from the heavily adorned palazzi of the Venetian guild houses, to the American mid-west roadside architecture beloved of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown, to the late works of British architect, James Stirling. The buildings speak of making rules and breaking them and hope to similarly inspire their creative occupants.