York House

The existing York House building, built around 1981, was one of the earliest office blocks built on Pentonville Road. Although it stands in a prominent location with a triple aspect outlook, the building was not in use. The external fabric was in need of repair and the internal areas were poorly lit and not fit for use.

The existing building has been renovated with new extensions added to the rear and the front- restoring and animating the streetscape while providing additional floor area and flexible working spaces.

The first move was to create the five-storey front extension, comprising a double height entrance with offices above. The new entrance light well invites visitors from street level and lights up the street at night. Using design elements from the existing building, we proposed a structurally self-supporting perforate brick lattice for the front facade, set on a 45-degree angle to give it stiffness.

Behind the self-supporting brick wall, the primary structure is a simple cross laminated timber structure with openable windows. The façade is restrained horizontally at each floor level, except at the first floor, and tied back to the CLT floor slabs at alternating brick overlaps.

The existing building was significantly refurbished across all floors to suit the needs of modern business, providing meeting rooms, open plan areas, reception, café, bike storage and changing facilities. The existing reinforced concrete frame was extended at roof level with a CLT structure clad in a zig zag perforated aluminium screen. The rear extension is constructed from timber joisted floors supported on a steel frame and connected to the existing structure.

External materials were chosen based on a careful analysis of the existing building and the neighbouring context. Materials are overlapped and layered, creating interesting and tactile surfaces.

Energy efficiency was a key design consideration from the outset, with design achieving a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating.