Martin Knight, Wilkinson Eyre
- Published: 19 October 2007 11:44
- Last Updated: 19 October 2007 11:44
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Martin Knight
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Martin Knight was born in Brussels and grew up mainly in Buckinghamshire. He left school with ‘not quite three A-levels’ and spent a year working on construction sites before studying architecture at Manchester Polytechnic and the Polytechnic of Central London.
He worked for Michael Hopkins and Partners before joining Wilkinson Eyre Architects in 1997 as project architect on the Stirling Prize-winning Gateshead Millennium Bridge. He was subsequently responsible for two other extraordinary bridges, the Bridge of Aspiration for the Royal Ballet School and the 197m-long, 35m-tall Pier 6 Airbridge for BAA. In addition to bridge design, Knight is responsible for building projects including the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, due to open later this year, and the Paragon Transport Interchange in Hull.
Currently, he is the associate director leading teams designing the new museum for the Mary Rose in Portsmouth and a 170-unit residential development within the listed gas-holder structures at King’s Cross.
The Bridge of Aspiration
The Bridge of Aspiration, executed by Martin Knight of Wilkinson Eyre, links the Royal Opera House to the Royal Ballet School. The structure slopes and is skewed laterally
to compensate for the openings in the two buildings not coinciding. The timber, aluminium and glass concertina cladding takes a quarter turn over its length and is supported on an aluminium spine beam.
