11 Belgrave Road Pimlico, Quadrum Global Central London building redevelopment, Victoria offices images
11 Belgrave Road in Central London
31 October 2024
Architecture: Eric Parry Architects
Location: Pimlico, London, UK
Photos © DirkLindner
11 Belgrave Road, England
Eric Parry Architects has completed the renewal of 11 Belgrave Road on behalf of leading investor developer Quadrum Global. Comprising just over 150,000 sq ft of Grade A workspace, the project sets a new standard for high quality offices in Victoria, London. Working with MEP Engineer Max Fordham LLP, Structural and Civil Engineer Heyne Tillett Steel, and Landscape Architects, Gillespies, the project team has achieved the UK’s first NABERS Design For Performance rating of 5.5 stars, as well as achieving BREEAM Outstanding, WELL Platinum, Wiredscore Platinum and Smartscore Platinum.
11 Belgrave places a key focus on wellbeing, sustainability and user-centric design. Located less than a five-minute walk from Victoria train station, the new office space will serve the flourishing business community in the City of Westminster.
The completed project increases the floor area on site by 31% of the previous building and features enhanced community assets, with a publicly accessible café, gymnasium and co-working spaces for both commercial and community hire.
Lewis Benmore, Associate at Eric Parry Architects said:
“11 Belgrave Road exemplifies how modern office buildings can achieve both sustainable and operational excellence while providing spaces and amenity that enhance employee experience and earn the commute by being an asset in peoples working lives.
“The project combines structural re-use, the latest technology and stringent environmental standards. Our work has not just been about meeting today’s expectations but setting new benchmarks for the future of sustainable and healthy workplace design.”
11 Belgrave is the complete renewal of a late 1950s office building that was constructed to replace a bomb-damaged 19th Century Church and Victorian townhouses. After more than 70 years, the office accommodation had fallen far behind market expectations and was in need of significant remodelling. In addition, it was identified as having a negative impact on the character of the Pimlico Conservation Area, disrupting the characteristic terraces of stuccoed townhouses with a 68-metre frontage of horizontally-expressed brick and concrete.
The project to renew 11 Belgrave Road retained and repurposed an ambitious 35% of total built fabric already on site – including a large section of the concrete structure and foundations. This substantially reduces the lifetime embodied carbon emissions of the project, which has been designed to exceed the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge embodied carbon target by 38%. Predicted whole-life embodied carbon emissions for the project are 466 kg CO2e/m², with the upfront embodied carbon achieving a LETI A performance of 324 kg CO2 per m². The base build of 11 Belgrave is designed to achieve Net Zero Carbon in both Construction and Operational energy in line with the UKGBC Framework. The operational energy of the base building is estimated to be 37.4kWh/m2 (NLA), which is below the RIBA 2030 targets for base building energy consumption and achieves a NABERS rating of 5.5 star.
While working sensitively with the existing structure, the new design has radically transformed the building visually, ensuring that it sits harmoniously within the conservation area. Eric Parry Architects’ new self-supporting precast stone façade to Belgrave Road echoes the rhythm of the adjacent terraces and adopts a modern take on the traditional entrance porticos. This is further reinforced by the first floor planters that continue the line of balcony gardens that run along Belgrave Road.
Behind the pre-cast façade, a high-performance curtain wall system constructed using engineered oak wraps around the main structure. This timber is expressed internally, benefitting the office spaces with the tactile, acoustic and aesthetic properties of the oak. The facades have been designed for future disassembly, to accommodate easy refurbishment and recycling, allowing the sustainability and retention strategy to exceed the building’s lifetime.
A new penthouse office floor has been added, constructed in steel and cross laminated timber, increasing the overall floor space by 31%, from 110,800 sq ft to 150,000 sq ft. The additional floor is set back to create generous garden terraces with a spiral stair leading to a new roof level offering expansive views of the city of London.
The renewal optimised the retained existing structure, and the large openable windows throughout frame key landmarks of the city. These provide excellent levels of natural light, a key principle of the wellbeing design. Complementing the flexible floorplates, smart technology and building management systems have been installed throughout the building to guide occupants and control optimal working conditions and a healthy working environment.
Wellbeing is supported throughout the interior spaces through the use of low-environmental impact, bio-based and recycled materials with a deliberately domestic feel to generate a welcoming environment. A section of the first floor slab has been cut away to create a double-height entrance, enhanced by a library that offers space for relaxation and personal thought. Although infused with a sense of homeliness, the open plan layouts and break out spaces stimulate social activity, collaboration and productivity that employees would not find at home.
Landscaping and biophilia are a core focus of the design, promoting biodiversity and enhancing occupant connection to nature for health and wellbeing. Landscape architects Gillespies’ dynamic and sustainable planting seamlessly weaves throughout garden courtyards, terraces and planted facades. A large garden to the rear of the building is visible from the street, providing urban greening to the nearby area. Edible plants and herbs have been introduced, along with a planned gardening programme to encourage users to engage with nature.
The sustainable redevelopment of 11 Belgrave Road delivers new high-quality office and mixed-use space for its users and the public, as well as enhancing the surrounding conservation area with its contextual façades and landscaping.
Dean Irvine, Senior Engineer at Max Fordham
“11 Belgrave Road demonstrates that low operational energy buildings can be delivered while retaining many structural elements of an existing building. With close coordination with Eric Parry and Heyne Tillett Steel, we were able to deliver an exemplar office space that meets the latest sustainability, wellbeing and digital connectivity standards within the constraints of the existing structure.”
Henry Pelly, Principal Sustainability Consultant at Max Fordham
“11 Belgrave Road is an exemplar for how to convert an existing building that is not currently fit for purpose into a high quality, low operational and low embodied carbon office space. We were excited to lead on NABERS – the only office-specific, in use, energy efficiency rating system – and proud that 11 Belgrave Road was the first building in the UK to achieve a pre-certified rating of 5.5*.”
Eugenia Grilli, Partner at Gillespies
“11 Belgrave Road is a testament to the creative synergy between Gillespies and Eric Parry Architects. Together, we’ve successfully crafted a workplace that seamlessly blurs the boundaries between inside and outside, where human wellbeing and nature’s networks are intricately connected. This project embodies our shared vision— serene green courtyards for relaxation and terraces that invite connection, each sculpted by the dramatic interplay of light and shadow. It’s a bold reimagining of the workplace, where every detail, from microclimates to biodiversity, showcases how thoughtful landscape can humanise and invigorate the modern working environment.”
Tom Watson, Director at Heyne Tillett Steel
“11 Belgrave was a flawed, unloved 1950s building that could have easily been demolished without a second thought. That we managed to retain 35% of the structure – whilst keeping none of the internal columns – is a testament to the client and design team’s determination to demolish as little as possible.
“The retained slabs are re-supported off new PT slabs in what we believe to be a unique approach. The temporary works involved were complex; existing defects and an increased fire period created further challenges. The result, however, is a refurbished building that has real integrity, and crucially, a lower embodied carbon than a pure new build. A project I’m immensely proud to have played a part in.”
Ilyas Aslam, Chief Operating Officer at Quadrum
“At our flagship London project at 11 Belgrave Road, we took the opportunity to deliver a ground-breaking, exceptional workplace. Responding to the needs of the modern occupier, it meets the highest ESG and wellbeing standards and creates an exceptional occupier experience, with quality combining with flexibility to deliver an inspiring environment that also offers some of the best views across London.”
Rod Stiles, Director, BAM Construction
“It has been an incredibly exciting journey delivering one of the UK’s most sustainable workplaces. Through the entire build our focus has been to put people and sustainability at the heart of the design of 11 Belgrave by reducing waste and carbon emissions to minimise our environmental impact. It’s an outstanding building aligning perfectly with our own values of building a sustainable tomorrow.”
11 Belgrave Road in Pimlico, London, England – Building Information
Architects: Eric Parry Architects – https://www.ericparryarchitects.co.uk/
11 Belgrave Road is designed to achieve Net Zero Carbon in both Construction and Operational energy in line with the UKGBC Framework:
Type of Net Zero achievement: Construction and Operational Energy
Building type: Office & Retail
Scope: Base Build
Project Team:
Client: Quadrum Global
Architect: Eric Parry Architects
Development Manager: Bankfoot APAM
Planning Consultant: Gerald Eve
Structural Engineer: Heyne Tillett Steel
MEP Engineer, Sustainability Consultant, Vertical Transport and Smart Buildings Consultancy:
Max Fordham
Quantity Surveyor: Abakus
Façade Engineer: FMDC
Landscape Architect: Gillespies
Fire Consultant: The Fire Surgery
Transport Consultant: Pell Frischman
Acoustic Consultant: Sandy Brown Associates
Access and Maintenance Consultant: Reef Associates
WELL Consultant
BREEAM Ekkist
Delta Green Environmental Design
About Eric Parry Architects
Eric Parry Architects designs and creates high-quality, people-focused, sustainable buildings that enhance their surroundings. We listen closely to our clients’ ambitions and needs and collaborate to meet every project’s particular challenges with our most creative and imaginative responses. Architecture should engage with its context and interact with its surroundings to create delight, enjoyment, and well-being for its inhabitants.
The practice is responsible for several highly prestigious commercial projects in London’s City and West End, including Fen Court, 5 Aldermanbury Square, 60 Threadneedle Street, 23 Savile Row, 50 New Bond Street, One Eagle Place and 8 St James’s Square. It has also worked on several cultural projects involving the refurbishment or upgrading of sensitive historic buildings. Examples include a significant new wing for the Holburne Museum of Art in Bath and the restoration and renewal project for St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in Trafalgar Square.
The international work of the practice includes the R&D Headquarters of Wilmar International in Singapore, private residential projects in Kuala Lumpur, the 164,000 sq m Kyobashi 3-Chome mixed-use development in Tokyo, and designs for the British Ambassadors’ Residence in Beijing.
Photography: (C)DirkLindner
11 Belgrave Road, Pimlico, London images / information received 311024
Location: 11 Belgrave Road, Pimlico, London, England, UK
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