PROJECT REPORT: COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS 17
YY BUILDING LONDON
Canary F
orget low embodied energy materials. Forget designing to minimise energy consumption. Actually, don’t forget
either of these, as they are really important. But they are outweighed by the biggest way to reduce carbon emissions when designing a new building: not demolishing the building that you already have. This kind of preservation and reuse is
a fi eld in which architect Buckley Gray Yeoman has specialised, but when the practice fi rst started looking – before the pandemic – at one of the earliest and most dominant buildings in Canary Wharf, this conservation approach was not common. Nevertheless, says Adam Wood, associate director, “there was nothing wrong with the original structure; we always planned to re-use it.” In the process of doing a “due diligence” for the client he says that while they “knew there was a climate emergency,” the approach of reuse seemed unorthodox, and “people were surprised.” Buckley Gray Yeoman’s determination, however, won out, and has been more than vindicated. The building was originally called 30 South Colonnade. Designed by architect KPF and completed in 1991, it was best known for the ‘ticker-tape’ LED display of stock prices that appeared on the facade. Although structurally sound,
conservation
Ruth Slavid reports on how Buckley Gray Yeoman successfully pursued the most sustainable option for a real estate client in Canary Wharf – reusing one of the site’s original offi ces with a BREEAM Outstanding refurb, enhanced by some striking cladding.
the building was very much of its time – inward facing, with a tired stone facade and an environmental performance that was not suited to the second quarter of the 21st century. Buckley Gray Yeoman has transformed the building for clients Quadrant Estates and Oaktree, creating extra fl oors, and a far more open feeling. It has achieved BREEAM Outstanding, as well as meeting other important standards. The new, distinctive cladding, forming interlocking ‘Y’-shaped ogees at top and bottom, has even gifted the building its new name – the YY building.
Unlocking the fortress Arranged around a central atrium, the original building was, says Wood, “very fortress like – it did not connect with Canary Wharf, with the wider estate, or with London as a whole.” Indeed, it was built at a time when the main public transport into the area was via the Docklands Light Railway. Getting to and from Canary Wharf Station on the Jubilee Line extension, which was built subsequently, and to the even later Elizabeth Line, was clunky and inconvenient. And it didn’t satisfy today’s workplace needs. The contemporary workplace now created is far more collaborative than what the
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