🟩 GreenBricks Building of the Week 🟩 The Kensington Building

Timeless green

Once a bleak 4-storey 1970s block, today remodelled into a timeless 6-storey mixed-used destination. Seamlessly blending into Kensington’s historic street charm.

📍Location

W8, London

🏢Building Details

• Completed March 2022

• 94,630 sq ft workspace + 34,000 sq ft ground floor retail

• Winner BCO 2023 Best Refurbished / Recycled Workplace

👷🏾‍♀️Developer & Contractor

• Tom Smithers – Property Director @ AshbyCapital

• Geoffrey Shaw – Founder & CEO @ Janson Urban

• ISG

✍️Architects & Engineers

• Fred Pilbrow – Founder Partner @ Pilbrow & Partners

• Tal Ben-Amar – Founder Partner @ Pilbrow & Partners

• Gareth Wilkins – Partner @ Pilbrow & Partners

• Darren Connolly – Director, Building Services @ WSP in the UK

• Guy Wellings – Head of London Structures @ WSP in the UK

• Etienne Sharp – Associate Director @ MoreySmith

🌱Sustainability

• BREEAM Excellent + EPC B + WiredScore Platinum

• Re-purposing existing frame reduced embodied carbon by 31% – while overall gross area was increased by 45%

• 100% of total excavation waste diverted from landfill

• 100% of energy from renewable sources: rooftop PV system + highly efficient heat recovery units

• Restores the historic street line with handmade Petersen bricks and Portland stone façades, sensitive to the neighbourhood

🥦 Wellbeing

• WELL Standard Gold

• 3 large outdoor terraces totalling 12,329 sq ft – variety of spaces landscaped for meetings, socials + fitness classes

• 165 cycle spaces, bicycle repair station, luxury changing rooms with towel service + hair straighteners

• Ceiling height up to 5m fill spaces with natural light + sense of openness

• Remodelling of the building provides improved connectivity with Kensington High Street tube station, via lively new Wrights retail arcade

🎈Bonus feature

Suspended from the reception ceiling, Sphere 14 by Lesley Hilling – an intriguing “memory box” of salvaged trinkets. Piano keys, wood from skips, a tube of Habana cigars, her father’s saw – jigsawed and layered with obsessive joinery. Lesley is an artist who hoards, while showing the endless possibilities of reuse in art as in architecture.

🔗 Check it out https://www.pilbrowandpartners.com/Project-item/the-kensington-building/