Project Details
Year Completed: 2017
Architects: Foster + Partners
Location: London
Cost: $1.3 billion
I visited the Bloomberg London building in September 2018, roughly a year after the project’s completion. The company’s $1.3 billion new European Headquarters had won the prestigious 2018 Stirling Prize and through the Open House program I was able to have a look round the impressive structure.
The site plan of the design had to incorporate two existing features: Watling Road, an ancient Roman road, and the London Mithraeum. To preserve the historically famous Watling Road, the architects chose to construct two buildings connected by bridged walkways that allowed the Roman road to be kept in the form of a covered arcade that sliced the site plan into two parts. The Mithraeum was an ancient Roman temple dedicated to the esoteric God, Mithras, and as part of the Bloomberg project the temple was restored for public viewing. It sits 7 metres under street level, operating as an exhibition space for Bloomberg as well a museum about the Mithraic religion. The building is clad with blade-like bronze plates and Indian granite that doesn’t make the project contextually dissonant in its surroundings. The design is only 10 storeys and unlike many new development projects it doesn’t impose on the London skyline.
When entering the building you immediately get the impression this isn’t just a standard office building. The lobby has three huge curved walls that create a sweeping and twisting space aptly called ‘The Vortex’. The three walls are self-supporting and with the fitted acoustic panelling, the space almost feels like a sleeker, more geometric version of the nearby rotunda in St Paul’s Cathedral. On this floor is an auditorium operating like a corporate amphitheatre that is equipped with voice amplifying microphones to ensure everyone can be heard. To access the higher levels, lift cars entirely constructed from glass are used and some impressive engineering ingenuity from KONE means all the wiring and support mechanisms are under the floor rather than the conventional position on top of the lift car. Using the lifts does feel surprisingly motionless and the transitions between floors are very close to being practically silent. The unobstructed views and the creative technology solutions alongside the striking lobby was a unique experience for me – and for employees a probably very pleasant entrance to work.
The lifts open up onto the 6th floor which is named ‘The Pantry’, though this label seems a little too eager to fit the corporate branding jargon to be taken seriously. This area is used for breaks by employees and the double height space that features a living wall creates a relaxing atmosphere with views of the City and the arcade below. The ceiling LED lighting fixtures are housed in petal like shapes that diffuse the light and act as cooling elements with a form of air-conditioning inside. The patterned lighting cover large swathes ceiling causing it to appear a little extravagant and unnecessary in the context of the sustainable image being presented. The LED lights and cooling elements are an efficient solution, but the sheer quantity used, most-likely for aesthetic purposes, could be argued as diminishing their original purpose.
Usually structures will have a central core, but Foster + Partners chose to remove this feature and instead opted for multiple structural cores that are located on the outer edges of the design. Occupying this central spot is a 210 metre helical ramp made out of bronze which dominates the visual outlook of anyone in the building. The ramp connects the floors and its immensity makes it the visual focus on all floors as it spirals through the building. On each of the floors are flexible workstations, many of which use standing desks – a trend though that has little scientific evidence of actually mitigating heart problems.
The project achieved a 98.5% score on the BREEAM sustainability assessment method making it the highest design-stage score achieved by a major office development worldwide. This title is not without merit as the project hosts a variety of energy efficient processes including rain and wastewater harvesting, ‘breathable’ windows, smart airflow and the integrated ceiling panels. Water collected from the roof and grey water from sources like sinks is captured, treated and re-used in vacuum flush toilets that will save ’25 million litres of water each year’ [1]. The bronze blade-like plates that clad the façade of the building have the ability to open and close to adapt to the outside temperature – allowing the building to operate without the dependency on mechanical cooling systems. By using sensors that detect how many people are occupying a room at a given time, air is distributed proportionately to those areas; this dynamic airflow system is estimated to reduce CO2 emissions by ‘approximately 300 metric tonnes each year’ [2]. I have already spoken about the integrated petal ceiling panels and the 500,000 LED’s in place use ‘40% less energy than typical fluorescent lights’.
Although the project prides itself on environmental sustainability, it has faced criticisms over the accuracy of these statements. The project used 600 tonnes of bronze imported from Japan and 10,000 tonnes of Indian granite [3] for much of the exterior cladding. In my article, the rise of the urban arcadia, I talk about how using locally sourced materials is a vital component of reducing the environmental impact a construction project has. In spite of all its innovative solutions, the Bloomberg project has sourced a large quantity of its materials from Asia, making it’s material carbon miles a considerable amount.
Another construction project of a similar magnitude to the Bloomberg London office will be rare. Taking into consideration the budget at billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s disposal and the creative ambition of world-renown architects Foster + Partners, the results of the project are truly spectacular and irreproducible. The design is incredibly unique and the immense scale of everything makes for a building that has an airiness and modernity not usually found in offices.
Scoring the Bloomberg project on technical solutions and overall design, it would be hard not to award a 10 – however there are some minor factors that detract a little from the aesthetic splendour. An array of innovative solutions are exhibited in the project, but there is a sense of unnecessary extravagance that turns the office into a space more akin to an airport terminal or contemporary art museum. The sustainable processes used are exemplary and will hopefully inspire similar projects, but by sourcing materials from the other side of the world does slightly undermine what is an incredibly energy efficient building. Nevertheless, the Bloomberg London office is an architectural project that is in a class of its own – making it a project I thoroughly enjoyed visiting.
[1] https://www.breeam.com/case-studies/offices/bloomberg-london/
[2] https://www.breeam.com/case-studies/offices/bloomberg-london/