Projects / Tolworth Tower, London

Client

Meadow Partners

Project Description

We are delighted that our design for the redevelopment of the Richard Seifert & Partners designed Tolworth Tower in the London Borough of Kingston upon Thames has been granted planning consent.

This prominent modernist landmark is being converted from its original office use to residential rental use. Working sensitively with the grain of the existing building, we have planned 261 units ranging from studios to 3 Bed family units. Lower levels include residents’ amenity areas and a publicly accessible flexible co-working space. The external curtain wall cladding is being fully replaced with a sympathetic interpretation of the original design, specified to current environmental standards, and providing full height windows and coloured glass panels to replicate the existing finishes. The building’s signature aluminium spandrel panels will be reinstated. The floating roof will be rebuilt and will define a set back top apartment floor.

On Tolworth Broadway, a new sculptural stair has been designed to replace the original, which no longer meets Building Regulations requirements. This creates a new podium workspace entrance between the distinctively angled structural transfer elements, originally engineered by Arup.

The building is constructed using a pot and beam concrete structure and has challenging head heights on lower floors, requiring innovative services design and co-ordination. The podium contains an existing Marks and Spencer store which will remain in operation throughout the conversion and refurbishment.

Innovations & Added Value

We achieved an additional 21 units in comparison to earlier designs, by aligning the units with the existing structural grid and creating a fritted glass panel within the façade to hide partition walls. This allowed us to retain the transparent quality of the original.

Status

Achieved Planning

Project team

Structural Engineer: Whitby Wood

CGI

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