Situated in one of London’s most culturally-rich neighbourhoods, this former social security office site was transformed to create a new build mixed-use hotel, rooted in culture and community. Standing out as you cross the Thames on Blackfriars Bridge, this distinctive building forms part of Ennismore’s growing hospitality portfolio.
Ennismore / The Hoxton
Architect
Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands
Contractor
Kier
Quantity Surveyor
Aecom
Working alongside award winning architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandlands, we had detailed involvement in developing and assessing various design options to make the vision a reality as the design stages progressed.
The design was inspired by the local area, incorporating high specification glass and brick finishes.
The initial façade approach for the project was for a traditionally built masonry skin with punch hole windows. However, when approaching the best delivery approach, a route was pursued that would take that process off site but still deliver the intent. Resultingly, we worked closely with a pre-cast concrete specialist to design and create the brick faced pre-fabricated panels with a bespoke designed window system installed into the panels off-site. All this work was successfully completed in advance of the frame construction enabling the installation to commence seamlessly and quickly, closing the building up to give an instant watertight façade for the fit-out to commence.
To the ground level, bespoke glazing systems give a shop-front appearance which open up the restaurant spaces to the public. A mixture of sliding systems, automated doors and architectural metalwork is a fitting design to the pre-cast areas above.
At the top levels, a unitised system was installed with integral sliding doors and a plant screen clad in zinc. Architectural metalwork finishes off the top elements to give an enclosed system to achieve the sky garden experience which ties back to the public realm it’s situated in.
This unique building is a testament to the hard work undertaken in the early stages of design, giving certainty to the client, design team and main contractor, enabling another on time completion.