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BUILDING PROJECTS


RATHBONE SQUARE FITZROVIA, LONDON


Down the garden path


On a choice site in fashionable Fitzrovia sits a mixed-use scheme offering high- end flats, office space including the UK home of Facebook, and public green space – in a design carefully bedded into its context. Sébastien Reed reports


stone’s throw from Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Tube Station in the very centre of London stands what developer Great Portland Estates (GPE) calls its “largest and single most important development” to date. GPE’s new “destination” in the fashionable area of Fitzrovia, Rathbone Square provides 142 luxury and 22 affordable flats, together with 2,340 m2 retail space, 22,560 m2 1,800 m2


A of of office space, and a


feature square and garden – one of the first in the centre to have been opened to the public for more than 100 years. The site formerly held a Royal Mail sorting office, and the scheme’s third basement level still houses a disused ‘Mail Rail’ station, previously used to distribute packages around the capital.


The design by architects Make aimed for a sense of permanence, in response to the client’s ambitions of “a high-quality mixed use development, to stitch something into the area that would feel like it had been here for quite some time.”


Project architect Graham Longman led a 23-strong team at the practice plus numerous design collaborations to create a highly context-sensitive new building, adding value to an already premium plot. With tenants including Facebook, the building has already proven to be a popular addition to London’s high-end commercial real estate scene.


Form, light & materials Rathbone Square comprises two roughly L-shaped blocks of seven to nine storeys, interlocking to create an enclosed central


ADF AUGUST 2018 WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK


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