The Manser Practice was commissioned by CLS Holdings to reimagine an existing 15 storey office building built in the early 1980s on the bank of the River Thames. Our design transforms the tower into a mixed used development containing modern office space and 34 apartments with a mixture of private residences and shared ownership.
Its prominent location next to Lambeth Bridge, not far from the Palace of Westminster, prompted us to explore a complex façade treatment using high quality materials. Ceramics are used as a reference to the historic use of the site and Portland Stone used to link the building contextually with buildings downstream.
To streamline the redevelopment of this tight site, our proposed design retains the concrete structure of the existing tower and modifies it where necessary, providing a more cost efficient and sustainable solution than to demolish and re-build.
The Manser Practice coordinated the architectural design with building services by Atelier Ten and structural engineering by AKT II to allow for the relocation of roof plant equipment into the basement, creating three new habitable floors with penthouses in its place. Additional usable floor space was achieved by the proposed removal of an existing unnecessary stair core.
The proposed redeveloped tower won the approval of Lambeth’s planning committee in September 2014.
