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Canaletto Tower London Building

257 City Road Development in Islington, UK Luxury Apartments design by UNStudio Architects

6 Nov 2017

Canaletto Tower Building

Canaletto Tower at 257 City Road

Design: UNStudio, architects

Designing a Vertical Community – the Canaletto Tower in London has been Completed

Monday 6th Nov 2017 – The 22,000m2 Canaletto residential tower in London employs the concept of clustering several floors together to establish a group of ‘vertical communities’.

Canaletto Tower London Building design by UNStudio

Offering waterside living, the 31-storey tower comprises studios, one and two-bedroom apartments, a variety of three bedrooms and one distinct penthouse with a full rooftop. Canaletto also includes shared amenities such as a swimming pool, health club, media room and resident’s club lounge with a terrace on the 24th floor.

Canaletto Tower London Building design by UNStudio Canaletto Tower London Building design by UNStudio

UNStudio’s design for the tower, which is located in the London borough of Islington, incorporates the remodeling of the facade, a streamlining of the building’s mass and a contrasting of scale and detail untypical of a residential tower. The facade for the Canaletto tower was designed to emphasise its residential character and to define a distinct ‘Islington’ response.

Canaletto Tower London Building design by UNStudio

Ben van Berkel: “The City Road Tower distinguishes itself from buildings in the nearby financial district of the City through variation; through materials, through clusters, through a scale that is appropriate to city streets and through a facade that creates its own residential identity by means of a varied and heterogeneous elevation.”

Canaletto Tower London Building design by UNStudio

Clustering
In the design near and distant townscape views are enhanced through scale, detail, and material variation. The proposed building facade creates a modeled elevation in which clusters of adjacent floors are grouped together.

Canaletto Tower London Building design by UNStudio

Ben van Berkel: ‘In a residential building, we want residents to really feel like they are part of a unique work of architecture, something that is identifiably theirs. This is why the design of Canaletto really emphasises this clustering of different floors – small communities that are visibly unique from other nearby towers.”

Canaletto Tower London Building design by UNStudio

Contrasting materials are employed within each grouping, where the ‘outer’ smooth metallic element is complemented by an ‘inner’ use of textured materials. Throughout the building the cluster concept of the facade is designed to maximise levels of transparency and frame the views towards the sky, thereby lending the tower a softer and more nuanced silhouette.

Canaletto Tower London Building design by UNStudio

Sustainability
The elevation additionally offers sustainability benefits. The surface modelling creates opportunities for shading, balancing good internal daylight and views with reduced heat gains. The articulation of the facade will additionally reduce wind down drafts and, in combination with canopy proposals at the base of the building, provide an improved pedestrian microclimate.

Canaletto Tower London Building design by UNStudio

Balconies
The modelling of the balconies within each grouped cluster lends variability to the facade and the living experience for the residents in the building. As outdoor spaces play a large role in the enjoyment of living environments, the creation of unique, sheltered spaces of high quality was a driver in early design development. The aspect of using both textured and smooth materials contrasts with the expected contemporariness of a typical high-rise metal construction and lends this facade a residential ‘twist.’

Canaletto Tower London Building design by UNStudio

Ben van Berkel: “The detailing and contrasting of the materialisation of the façade and the balconies plays a key role in the identity of the building and is in fact borrowed from furniture design. This is an approach which we more typically apply to designs for smaller private houses, however following extensive research into the potential for extending durability and maintenance we were able to create unexpected material variations on a larger scale.”

Canaletto Tower London Building design by UNStudio

Shared spaces and amenities

Outside of the privacy afforded by the 190 individual living units, the Canaletto tower caters for a variety of collective leisure activities by way of shared amenities where the residents can enjoy healthy leisure pursuits or relax in areas designed for gathering and socialising.

A landscaped garden on Wharf Road provides access to the residential lobby, whilst the ground floor garden frames the entrance lobby and provides a green oasis off the busy City Road. A public restaurant will also be located at the base of the building on City Road.

Photos: © Hufton+Crow, © EvaBloem

Canaletto Tower London Building design by UNStudio

257 City Road London – Canaletto Tower Development images / information from UNStudio

UNStudio Architects

Previously on e-architect:

Canaletto Tower at 257 City Road in London
Design: UNStudio, architects
Canaletto Tower 257 City Road London
photo by David Holt, on Flickr
Canaletto Tower London

Location: 257 City Road, London, England, UK

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Design: Bennetts Associates
259 City Road London
photo © Tim Crocker
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