100 Union Street London

100 Union Street, London, England. Client: Southwark and Southbank Ltd. Project Manager: Buro Four, London. Architect: AHMM.

Background

The Union Street development in Southwark was a passion, as well as a business endeavour, for the client. The project was driven by quality, sustainability and unique modern design, with a view to a creating a special and memorable place together with a stimulating working environment in this lively and ever-improving area of London.

100 Union Street is a new-build office for a small, hands-on development company. This Design and build development has an area of 25,000 sq ft GIA. There is a significant emphasis on design and quality. The design is an honest, raw, industrial feel, with bare concrete, crittall-style glazing and exposed services.

Details

Located on a brownfield site adjacent to a Network Rail viaduct, the 4-storey building consists of piled foundations, a concrete frame and brickwork, along with aluminium industrial-style glazing. The commercial office space displays exposed services, raised timber access floors and acoustic-slatted timber internal cladding. The third floor has a spectacular board-marked concrete soffit and a roof terrace with views of The Shard, for communal use on the top of the building.

Community

The client made the site available for community benefit throughout the pre-construction stages of the project This included a pop-up lido, urban orchard, community educational garden and a boating lake.

Sustainability

The project achieved a BREEAM excellent rating. Sustainable materials were used as much as possible, including the recycling of the board-marking planks for the third floor soffit for use as the final decking for the roof terrace. The project used photo-voltaics and an Uponor heating and cooling system within the concrete frame. The main staircase is designed to encourage the use of the stairs rather than the lift, to promote health and wellbeing.

Collaboration

Collaboration drove the process. The whole team maintained an excellent working relationship throughout the project and genuinely enjoyed the build. Openness and transparency ensured that problem-solving occurred early throughout the process and solutions were implemented quickly. Any disagreements were discussed and worked through in face-to-face conversations.

Fairness and morality were upheld as key principles throughout the project and decisions and resolutions were concluded with this in mind. This meant that an outstanding building was delivered to the expected budget.

In summary, the project was a success in both quality and process and surpassed all client expectations. Much of this was due to the hands on approach of the Buro Four project management team whose philosophy from the outset was driven by a desire to work together in a spirit of alliance.

100 Union Street won the ICPMA Full Award for Alliance in 2018. For further information contact [email protected] or visit http://www.icpma.net.

--ICPMA 10:45, 28 Dec 2018 (BST)

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