20
project report – the charter building and thames tower
The Charter House North Entrance
First, repurpose them in such a way as to increase the net
rental space and ensure that the workspace is more flexible and conducive to the modern working practices of the more forward-thinking and demanding tenants. Next, create contemporary interior designs to attract
high-calibre companies by offering them a modern workspace ambience that will in turn help them recruit the best staff. A further target common to both buildings was to introduce technologies and materials to improve the green credentials of the buildings through BREEAM and EPC rating. Finally, a key goal linking the new design ethos of the two
projects is, as McLarty puts it, to produce office buildings that are “trying to reach out to the community and offering something to the surrounding urban environment”. This last objective is a real contrast to his description of the
way The Charter Building used to feel: “Heavy metal railings and brick piers around the perimeter made the building appear fortified and divorced from the rest of the public realm, even though it’s northern entrance is just metres from Uxbridge town centre and its tube station. It was a bit like a castle with a moat around it.” Architect d-na’s new design scheme replaces the old narrow
northern entrance – guarded by forbidding ‘brick sentinels’ – with an open courtyard approach. There are changes at the building’s southern entrance too (which faces the Uxbridge ring road). McLarty says: “What we started with was a mea- gre, unfriendly entrance. To address that we’ve added a new five-storey block that brings the building back onto the street with a proper, defined second entrance.”
BUILDING PROJECTS
www.architectsdatafile.co.uk Although generous glazing to the south exploits impressive
views, the overall aim has to been to significantly reduce the amount of glass in the building’s new facade, replacing it with a champagne-coloured terracotta cladding system. McLarty says: “The previous mirrored glass box was more at home in a green field business park, not an urban setting like this. The new facade gives the building both gravitas and warmth.” Inside, dn-a is making an even grander design statement by
creating an internal ‘street’ that runs at ground floor level for more than 100 m, from the north to south entrance. The changing height of this street – sometimes single-storey, sometimes three-storey and soaring to five storeys at the central atrium – is inspired by the architectural concept of ‘serial vision’. Jai Sanghera explains further: “Serial vision is synonymous
with Italian piazzas – the idea of going through a tall narrow street and then suddenly the space opening up into a piazza. That’s how we see this animated street working at The Charter Building.” McLarty adds: “You move from intimate spaces to dramatic
daylit lightshafts. It’s a rollercoaster journey which is terrific in adding interest and making the building out of the ordinary.” According to Sanghera, the designers wanted this multi-let
building to be a “collaborative environment, because that’s the way modern companies operate. The street is very important in creating a community feel as opposed to dead, echo-filled, empty spaces. The ambience will be more hotel lobby than corporate office and the idea is to spread that the full length of the building.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36