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PROJECT REPORT: MIXED USE SCHEMES
of the site has been carefully considered, providing shelter and lightening the volumes’ impact, as well as maximising office tenants’ floor space. Eliot Postma comments: “The most complex piece of the site is where the new office sits; that’s where the bulk of the massing is, and we worked really hard to massage that so it steps back from Hammersmith Road.”
PROJECT FACTFILE
Workspace floor area: 550,000 ft² F&B floor area: 135,000 ft² AEG music venue: 4,400 capacity New public realm: 2.5 acres G-Gate Theatre: 1,575 capacity Exhibition halls capacity: 26,000
PROJECT FACTFILE
Developer: Yoo Capital/Deutsche Finance International Architects: Heatherwick Studio/ SPPARC Contractor: Laing O’Rourke Project manager: Gardiner & Theobald Structural engineer: Robert Bird Group M&E consultant: Desco
The result of the varying heights means that a series of landscaped terraces have been created, off generous social spaces and generally bright and airy floors with exposed services. This further assisted the design with its array of wellness and efficiency accolades already garnered, from BREEAM Excellent to NABERS (5-5.5*), and WELL Precertification. Internally, the spectacular undulating facades terminate in giant ‘bays’ overlooking the city. The two hotels sit on the ‘bottom’ corners of the site on Olympia Way, with the more budget-friendly CitizenM squeezing ingeniously into a triangular plot on the curve of Hammersmith Road. The Hyatt Regency being created in the former car park to the south east corner offers more generous rooms, but had to contend with an existing concrete structure with its own design quirks, such as different sized glazing apertures on the exterior.
Public realm The new public realm which sits at ‘second
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storey’ level – in terms of how it connects with the buildings around it – ties the new district together, and links to the surroundings in a brand new way. It unites a varied mix of functions and facades, despite the abundance of curves and pleated motifs in the glazing and aluminium across the site. Eliot Postma explains how the design cues have been taken across the masterplan to help unite old and new: “The office building’s facade is pleated, and there’s a nod to it on the G-Gate Theatre, the aluminium cladding are almost like curtains that are pulled apart at the front.” In addition, the Olympia Arena’s cladding also echoes the pleated feel. In addition the curved form of the new CitizenM Hotel, which sits above the National Hall to the south west, has stepped roof profiles, giving an “almost sawtooth profile.” Postma continues that “while the architectures are very different in each element, they give a nod to the history of the site.” He adds: “We wanted to celebrate the diversity of the site, so that all of the additions have their own take on an architectural language that relates to the building they’re sitting on, their function or their adjacencies.”
The public realm will be adorned with green landscaping, including a tree which is being installed in the new square sitting between the canopy and point where the north-south public route continues beneath the stepped office buildings (Central). It will
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