The 1980s Brutalist landmark is undergoing a transformation and expansion by 22,000m², creating a total of 53,000m² of modern office space.
2024 WAFX Award – Reuse
2024 WAF Awards, Future Office Project – Shortlisted
The new construction will echo the form and materiality of the existing structure, maintaining its architectural integrity. However, through a series of interventions in the existing facade, the existing floor plates will be improved by additional daylight and greatly improved thermal and solar performance. The existing five storey building, situated on a prominent site on London’s Southbank, features a complex layering of floor plates creating 4,100m² of terraces across different levels. These terraces are clad in precast concrete upstand beams, giving the building its iconic appearance.
Under the plans, which will see additional two floors added and all other floors extended, the building’s famous concrete edge panels will be removed, refurbished and rehung 500mm higher, allowing the window height to be increased and letting additional light flood into the storeys below.
The facade works include replacing all the existing ribbon windows, replacing the ground level defensive facades with new inviting lobby and shop front glazing, two substantial roof lights, a ‘beacon’ plant room enclosure, and new precast panels to the new floors.
For the existing precast beams, we are undertaking the complex task of devising a methodology for removing and replacing the nearly 40-year-old panels, considering their connection to the original slab and new support conditions.
