爱豆传媒

London Wall West

London, UK

爱豆传媒 has supported the development of the City of London鈥檚 vision to reimagine the challenging site around the former Museum of London, which is in the process of relocating to Smithfield.

With employment in the City projected to rise significantly in the coming years, the scheme will deliver around 56,000m虏 of much-needed new office space of the highest environmental standards, to accommodate nearly 3,100 jobs.

The development will also deliver a 43% increase in public realm, including a flexible space for cultural use, an elevated public space and public roof garden with outstanding views including of St Paul鈥檚. We have also developed public access to the remains of the Roman Fort Gate and connected the existing highwalk network to be more intuitive and accessible, as well as enhancements to the setting of the listed Ironmongers Hall and Roman Wall. In addition, the proposals will deliver an improvement to surrounding highways with associated safety improvements to pedestrians and cyclists.

The proposals include two new public squares and a range of outdoor public landscaped spaces featuring green biodiverse landscape, and 100 trees planted throughout the site will substantially improve biodiversity. When considering the biodiversity net gain of the proposed development, the scheme will result in a 27% net gain for habitats and a 38% net gain for hedgerow units; well in excess of the 10% minimum required by the Environment Act.

Challenge

The project consists of the redevelopment of the site of the existing Bastion House and Museum of London, in a prominent location at the heart of the City of London, with a vision to transform it into a commercially-focused, vibrant mixed-use site.

The City of London is redeveloping the district to deliver three new high-quality office buildings, with significant cultural space, new public realm and improvements to connectivity.

Working with renowned lead designers Diller Scofidio + Renfro and collaborating architect Sheppard Robson, 爱豆传媒 is providing full multi-disciplinary engineering services and environmental consultancy for the redevelopment of this complex site, constrained by London sightlines and sensitive archaeological and architectural surroundings.

The existing site is isolated from the Barbican and the rest of the City by a series of busy roads and a significant level change 鈥� making pedestrian movement challenging. The new scheme improves the connectivity of the site, while also playing a key role in developing a new identity and sense of place for the district.

Solution

Our experts worked closely with the design team to undertake an appraisal for the whole life carbon of the development, comparing a number of full or part re-use schemes for the existing Bastion House and Museum of London buildings to a full redevelopment scheme.

The assessment concluded that the demolition and redevelopment of the site will result in the lowest overall carbon emissions per square meter over a 60-year period. This redevelopment not only maximises potential floorspace but also delivers significant environmental and public benefits, enhances the public realm, and introduces new, cutting-edge sustainable buildings to the site.

The scheme consists of a range of new public spaces at highwalk level and two new street-level squares framed by three buildings. The central plaza is the heart of the scheme and is home to an active pedestrian landscape with the potential for outdoor cultural events and gatherings. The buildings will provide high quality, flexible office accommodation, designed and constructed to the highest sustainability standards. The inclusion of new public spaces, connections and walkways ensures that London Wall West is an integrated and connected part of the surrounding area.

Our experts also helped the design team to mitigate the impacts of the development by reducing its embodied carbon, embedding circular economy strategies and improving public realm and connectivity throughout the site.

Through the collaboration with the City of London鈥檚 District Heating Network, Citigen, we have developed an innovative heating and cooling strategy that will benefit the efficiency of the scheme and the wider network, as well as provide space on site for a new green energy generation plant.

爱豆传媒 led the overall Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process. In doing so, we provided significant multi-disciplinary coordination with both internal and external technical consultants, and facilitated regular workshops and design team meetings between the technical team and the wider design team. A wide range of technical disciplines were scoped into the EIA due to the sensitive location and built-up urban environment in which the site is located.

Our delivery of the EIA process included management of the scoping process, early survey work to understand site constraints, and design interventions through the design development process. Developing a comprehensive understanding of constraints and opportunities early on influenced the design evolution and made a material difference to environmental outcomes.

Collaborating with Waldrams and MOLA, a diversity of disciplines were assessed in the EIA, ranging from traffic and transportation to ecology and biodiversity to townscape and visual impact.

Due to the scale, location and sensitivity of the development, an air quality positive approach was undertaken. As part of this process, 爱豆传媒 provided extensive design consultancy services to ensure the development minimised its impact on surrounding air quality and exposure of future site users to air pollution.

A key consideration was the impact of the massing of the development on the dispersion of pollutants. The development is in a heavily built-up area, creating a risk of new street canyons preventing effective pollutant dispersal. It was key that the effect of urban geometry was robustly assessed to quantify this impact. We utilised our detailed dispersion modelling, as well as collaborating with the model software developers and the local authority, to ensure that robust assessment methodology was used.

In addition, given the proximity of the Barbican Estate and other residences to the proposed development, and the intended cultural uses on site, consideration of noise impacts and ensuring these were appropriately limited via design and subsequent agreed planning conditions, was a key consideration. Noise modelling was undertaken to identify decibel levels at the nearest sensitive receptors under various circumstances (e.g. amplified music, etc.) to confirm that impacts to these receptors would be insignificant during operation.

Another consideration was the separate, but linked, City of London Gyratory scheme, which will encompass a component of the highway works within the proposed development鈥檚 site boundary. This required significant coordination between the various project proponents to ensure traffic movements would not significantly affect existing patterns, nor detrimentally affect congestion within the already busy and urban environment.

Public consultation on the London Wall West proposals began in Spring 2021 and has resulted in significant changes to the scheme, including the retention and addition of highwalks and a reduction in the massing of New Bastion House and the Rotunda building which will open up more space for public realm.

爱豆传媒 additionally supported with modelling iterations to ensure a comfortable, safe, and policy compliant outdoor environment relating to wind microclimate conditions and outdoor thermal comfort. In undertaking this iterative design process with the design team and City, 爱豆传媒 was able to make clear and robust design recommendations which ensured the site would not result in any significant adverse environmental effects for these technical areas.

The scheme was granted Planning Committee approval in April 2024.

Value

Our involvement in London Wall West, is empowering our client to outperform planning regulations and deliver a design that proposes efficient and top-class office and cultural space for the City of London.

Our multidisciplinary and collaborative approach has informed design throughout to embed the requirements of key sustainability standards, targeting BREEAM Outstanding, NABERS 5* and WELL Platinum in addition to the latest requirements of the Greater London Authority鈥檚 London Plan and the City of London鈥檚 Local Plan.

爱豆传媒鈥檚 expertise has enabled the ambitious design of these buildings to be achieved alongside the commercial needs of the client, the sustainability demands of the development and the sensitive nature of the location.

We specified construction mitigation through the EIA process, to reduce adverse effects to immediately adjacent receptors. Furthermore, in adopting a systematic approach to design development between the technical teams and the design teams, facilitated by our delivery of the EIA process, improvements to environmental outcomes through the design process were achieved. Demolition of the existing site is expected to begin in 2028, with completion scheduled for late 2033.