SSDA 2018 A W A R D
14 NSC
October 18
Bloomberg
London
Bloomberg’s new European headquarters
achieved a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating, which
is the highest design-stage score ever achieved
by any major office development in the UK.
Featuring a design that was dictated
by the site being surrounded by
roads, Bloomberg London consists
of two adjacent 10-storey buildings
with a pedestrian access path cutting
diagonally through the middle.
Steel frames with composite concrete
floors are clad with sandstone and metal fins
to produce a solid, understated elegance.
Compared to a typical office building, the
new Bloomberg building’s environmental
strategies deliver a 73% saving in water
consumption and a 35% saving in energy
consumption.
Norman Foster, Founder and Executive
Chairman of architect Foster + Partners,
says: “In some of our first discussions on
the project, Mike Bloomberg and I arrived
at a ‘meeting of minds’ on how the design
of the new Bloomberg headquarters
should incorporate the highest standards
of sustainability. The project evolved from
thereon into a building that is one of the
most sustainable in the world.”
There were many challenges to
overcome, particularly concerning the site.
Constructing close to an existing sewer, the
adjacent Waterloo & City line tunnel and
the new direct link to Bank Underground
station all required third party agreement
and considerably affected programming.
Foundation designs were complex and
bridged over delicate areas where necessary.
The project’s plot was previously
occupied by Bucklersbury House, a disused
1950s structure demolished prior to work
starting on site. The slab and pile foundations
were retained following a radar survey,
which confirmed that the vast majority could
remain, with additional piles introduced only
in the south-west corner of the site.
On plan, the form and setting out of
the north and south buildings respond
to the angular nature of the site and the
alignment of the new arcade with Watling
Street. To achieve this, both buildings use a
unique structural grid set out on a 13.85m
equilateral triangle that maximises open
floorplates.
All of the cores are formed from insitu
reinforced concrete but, in contrast to
traditional building forms, they have been
pushed to the perimeter to increase the
extent of uninterrupted floor space and
improve visual connectivity.
The building’s structural grid is
interrupted in a number of locations with
/Braced_frames
/Floor_systems#Composite_slabs
/Multi-storey_office_buildings
/Design
/Sustainability
/Concept_design#Floor_grids