16 NEWS LONDON AHMM’s ‘transformational new quarter’
Images © Tim Soar
AHMM has completed work at The Bower, a 450,000 ft2
office and public-realm
project next to Old Street roundabout in east London. Developer Helical acquired the site in 2012, and approached AHMM with a brief to “re-invent” the site, “a collection of tired office buildings in a sea of car parking,” according to the architects, as a new mixed-use quarter. Two large buildings, constructed originally in the 1960s for British Telecom, were retained and extended, with a two-storey high hole cut in the front slab block to link the site to busy Old Street. Within the site, a new mews street was created, framed by a collection of new studio buildings. “Retail space, restaurants and bars line the new pedestrian way, and together the mini-masterplan carefully remakes a piece of city next to the Silicon Roundabout, where Old Street meets City Road,” said the architects.
The existing buildings, originally designed by architect Cecil Elsom, comprised a 14-storey slab block of offices, and a more robust eight-storey warehouse. Although they had different functions, both buildings “shared a similar architectural language of exposed concrete frame, brick spandrels and decorative pre-cast concrete panels.” In the 1980s, the ‘Tower’ was re-clad, removing the original features and losing the similarity to the ‘Warehouse.’ AHMM has reunified the site by making a single new public courtyard and shared entrance pavilion for both buildings, and a
“common material palette for buildings new and old.” Original pre-cast concrete panels on the Warehouse have been retained, cleaned and displayed within the entrance pavilion, and a new exposed steel frame for the tower supplements the existing concrete, achieving a contemporary industrial aesthetic. In order to improve the Tower’s narrow floorplates and create comfortable spaces fit for today’s workplace demands, this building has been extended upwards and outwards, providing floors with dedicated five-metre tall double-height spaces, “arranged in a clever interlocking section,” said AHMM. “These spaces offer internal generosity, allow more daylight in, and give the opportunity to connect floors and provide flexibility to tenants. Both the Warehouse and Studio buildings benefit from external roof terraces as an added amenity.
The original concrete columns remain, forming a central tenet to the design aesthetic. In contrast to the acoustic mesh rafts, which conceal the services in the Tower, the Warehouse has fully exposed services. The main entrance, located at the heart of the development, comprises an entrance pavilion, which connects the two buildings, and acts as a common point of arrival providing breakout space for the occupiers to hold informal meetings. A generous lounge area supplements the main reception space, providing a contemporary open plan space to meet, sit and eat. By cutting through the base of the Tower
building on the ground floor, AHMM created a visual connection to the new landscaped street and courtyard, which connects Old Street with the backstreets of Moorfields, providing an alternative route to walking along the congested pavements of City Road. The pathway also encourages visitors into The Bower’s range of shops, bars and restaurants. With a BREEAM Excellent rating for Offices and a BREEAM Very Good for Retail, the collection of buildings that make up The Bower add value “both economi- cally and experientially,” said the architects, “re-engaging the site with the city and creating a new destination for businesses, the local community and the wider public.” AHMM associate director Philip
Turner commented, “This project shows a commitment to architecture of economy and elegance. The urban scene is re-defined with the introduction of the courtyard and the street, which create a new location and connect to the wider public network of routes and places.” AHMM founder Simon Allford
commented, “The Bower builds on our experience of re-using and recycling buildings, and re-making pieces of city to reflect contemporary requirements and anticipate the future. As a by-product of the new mews, the new buildings form as thin and irregular wedges – the polar opposite to Elsom’s Cartesian grid approach. But interestingly, the spatial character and unusual volumes they generate means that they have let extremely well.”
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ADF MARCH 2019
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