55 Baker Street, London
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The original 1950s building, located at 55 Baker Street, London
W1, suffered from a restrictive floor layout that was unattractive
to today's commercial clients. Initially the plan was to demolish
the building. However, an engineering-led redevelopment solution
significantly reduced demolition waste, avoided using tonnes of
construction materials and reduced the construction programme by
many months.
The main element of the solution was retaining the majority of
the existing concrete frame and removing only the most constraining
elements of the original building. This targeted demolition
facilitated the provision of large expanses of new open plan office
floor plates. The sympathetic insertion of new reinforced concrete
frames and stability cores created three seven-storey atria that
allow natural light to flood into the building. The redevelopment
resulted in a 30 per cent increase in the floor area of the
original building to 56,000m2 in total.
Using concrete for the infill structures, such as the new slabs,
beams and columns, allowed the new structural elements to be easily
meshed into the original concrete frame. Furthermore, the use of
modern reinforced concrete materials and techniques allowed
increased floor spans while maintaining the same shallow depth of
floor construction.
With regards to the infill structures, further savings were made
by the use of precast permanent formwork panels for the
construction of walls and infill slabs. The use of the panels
reduced site waste, reduced the number of vehicle movements to site
and contributed greatly to the rapidity of the redevelopment
programme.
In addition to the savings in resources, further sustainability
benefits have resulted from the enhancement of the building's
energy efficiency through the use of modern cladding systems and
the adoption of chilled beams to provide heating and cooling within
the offices.
The 23 new homes built as part of the scheme include affordable
housing units. They are dressed with masonry façade to complement
the existing mews streetscape. Their roofs are planted to offer
improved insulation and to encourage biodiversity to the area.
The development has achieved the highest BREEAM rating of
'Excellent' and it stands as an important benchmark of what can be
achieved when redeveloping an existing site. This is especially
relevant when one considers the UK's increasingly ageing 20th
Century building stock. Adapting and extending the life of existing
structures offers valuable sustainability benefits in terms of
saving resources and energy.
The radical transformation of this dated 1950s concrete-framed
office building into an important new urban location underlines the
long-term sustainability of concrete construction. It demonstrates
that the ability for a building to last and be able to change to
meet new requirements is more important than fitting the latest
environmental gadgets.
Project team
Client: London & Regional
Structural engineer: Expedition Engineering
Architect: Make
Cost consultant: Tweeds
Construction manager: BAM (was HBG)
Building services: Blyth & Blyth
Concrete trade contractor: JDC