‘Infrastructure could do with a bit of love’: dRMM’s Jonas Lencer on the Silvertown Tunnel portal buildings

By Tom Lowe2025-04-22T06:00:00

Tom Lowe speaks to the practice’s director about why the overlooked parts of public infrastructure deserve a fresh perspective

“This is the most difficult bit for an architect,” says Jonas Lencer. “Was this the right decision? Should we have made the steel yellow?”

The dRMM director is standing in the north portal building of east London’s newly opened Silvertown Tunnel, studying some acid-yellow steel beams on the ceiling. Having spent the past five years designing the building, he is now seeing it in its finished state for the first time as part of a press tour of the tunnel.

Twenty minutes later he is ushered out the door. Does he think he’ll ever see it again? “No. You never do. But that’s fine.”

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