The London studio of Scandinavian practice White Arkitekter has secured planning permission to transform a tired, underused office building into a new, low impact, six-storey workplace through a combination of smart retrofit and elegant new build.

Employee wellbeing and environmentally sustainable practices are at the core of White Arkitekter’s design for Tabernacle Street.

The architects have retained the building’s concrete frame and core, a cost-effective way to lower environmental impact, while additional floor space has been gained by adding two-storeys and extending the building to fill the site boundary. This also allows for a uniform grey brick façade treatment, in-keeping with the local character and completing the street frontage.

In addition to re-using the concrete structure, the architects have made the addition of a light weight sedum roof to help filter city air, and bat boxes to enhance biodiversity. Solar PV panels on the roof contribute a renewable source of energy. The building also provides shower rooms and bicycle storage to give employees the option of choosing a healthy, less stressful and more environmentally friendly commute.

The development has generous 2.8 – 3.14 metre floor-to-ceiling heights, creating a warehouse aesthetic by exposing the natural beauty of the concrete soffits.

“The challenge was to create a contemporary building that could work within the historic warehouse context, and re-use the existing concrete frame to ensure a lower carbon footprint and cost for the client” – Jay Williams, Project Architect, White Arkitekter

Work will start on site in 2019 and completion is expected 2020.

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Notes to editors

For more press information on White Arkitekter please contact:

Gloria Roberts and Elise Bell at Caro Communications
T: +44 (0) 20 7713 9388
E: Gloria@carocommunications.com / Elise@carocommunications.com

About White Arkitekter:

White Arkitekter was founded by Sidney White in 1951 and is Scandinavia’s leading architectural firm with over 900 employees working in 13 offices in Sweden, Norway and the UK. White’s work is research focused and their expertise encompasses architecture, urban design, landscape architecture and interior design.

For nearly two decades, White has invested in establishing a unique research-based organisation of highly qualified experts in the field of sustainable design. Our founder’s aim was to improve society through architecture and his legacy lives on in our ambition to contribute towards the building of a sustainable world.

https://whitearkitekter.com/